Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Adolescent Transition Care Statewide Clinical Network

About the network 

The Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work helps young peo­ple move from pae­di­atric to adult health­care in a way that is safe, seam­less, and youth-centred. 

It does this by pro­mot­ing best prac­tice, shar­ing expert knowl­edge, and lis­ten­ing to young people’s voic­es and expe­ri­ences to shape stream­lined tran­si­tion pathways.

Our role

  • Pro­vide clin­i­cal lead­er­ship and expert advice. We guide SA Health on evi­dence-based, best prac­tice approach­es to ado­les­cent tran­si­tion care.
  • Pro­mote best prac­tice and equi­table access. We cham­pi­on the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Frame­work, guid­ing clin­i­cians and ser­vice plan­ners to deliv­er youth-friend­ly, stream­lined tran­si­tion path­ways from pae­di­atric to adult health­care services.
  • Sup­port col­lab­o­ra­tion across ser­vices. We con­nect met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al, and remote health ser­vices, and work with com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions to ensure con­ti­nu­ity of care and reduce gaps in ser­vice delivery. 
  • Dri­ve sys­tem improve­ment through data and inno­va­tion. We use data insights to iden­ti­fy needs, mon­i­tor out­comes, and influ­ence pol­i­cy changes that improve ado­les­cent health transitions.
  • Engage stake­hold­ers and young peo­ple. We make sure young people’s voic­es are cen­tral to deci­sion-mak­ing through ini­tia­tives like the Youth Advi­so­ry Group (YAG), and involve clin­i­cians, GPs, allied health pro­fes­sion­als, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers in shap­ing tran­si­tion care.

Our focus

  • Ensure young peo­ple from all back­grounds have access to care that is flex­i­ble, inclu­sive, and equi­table, while main­tain­ing fam­i­ly and social connections.
  • Strength­en com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion across met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al, and remote ser­vices to achieve seam­less con­ti­nu­ity of care.
  • Place ado­les­cents at the heart of sys­tem design and deci­sion-mak­ing, sup­port­ed by ini­tia­tives like the Youth Advi­so­ry Group (YAG)
  • Improve access to ser­vices and reduce gaps between pae­di­atric and adult systems.
  • Sup­port mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary col­lab­o­ra­tion (GPs, nurs­es, allied health, pharmacists). 
  • Advo­cate for poli­cies that pri­ori­tise equi­table out­comes, not just access.

Our peo­ple

Dr Jenna Paterson

Adolescent Transition Care Statewide Clinical Network Clinical Co-Lead

General and Acute Care Medicine Adult Physician, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network

Dr Jen­na Pater­son is a spe­cial­ist in adult inter­nal med­i­cine and peri­op­er­a­tive med­i­cine. She is cur­rent­ly a staff spe­cial­ist in the Gen­er­al Med­i­cine Unit at the Lyell McEwin Hos­pi­tal and Mod­bury Hos­pi­tal in South Aus­tralia. She has com­plet­ed a Grad­u­ate Diplo­ma in Ado­les­cent Health and Wel­fare to bet­ter enable her to pro­vide holis­tic and ongo­ing med­ical care to younger patients with com­plex med­ical comor­bidi­ties who are tran­si­tion­ing into the adult health­care sys­tem. She is pas­sion­ate about engag­ing and empow­er­ing young peo­ple in their tran­si­tion across health ser­vices, and in bring­ing the whole health­care team togeth­er to help smooth the often dif­fi­cult and chal­leng­ing move­ment between health sectors.

Dr Jemma Anderson

Adolescent Transition Care Statewide Clinical Network Clinical Co-Lead

Staff Specialist and Medical Unit Head, Adolescent Ward, Women's and Children's Hospital

Dr Jem­ma Ander­son is a staff spe­cial­ist and med­ical unit head of the ado­les­cent ward at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal and the first Ado­les­cent Physi­cian in South Aus­tralia. She also holds a spe­cial­ist qual­i­fi­ca­tion in Pae­di­atric Endocrinol­o­gy and is a senior lec­tur­er with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide. She is the cur­rent edi­tor for ado­les­cent med­i­cine with the Jour­nal of Pae­di­atrics and Child Health. Jem­ma has a long­stand­ing pas­sion for sup­port­ing healthy ado­les­cent devel­op­ment and is com­mit­ted to com­mu­ni­ty and youth engage­ment in devel­op­ing mod­els of care and research for young peo­ple. She is the lead for Pae­di­atric Eat­ing Dis­or­ders and Gen­der Med­i­cine at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal and has a spe-cial inter­est in sup­port­ing and empow­er­ing young peo­ple in their tran­si­tion across health services.

Adolescent Transition Care Statewide Clinical Network members
Dr Jem­ma Ander­sonCo-Chair, Staff Spe­cial­ist and Med­ical Unit Head, Ado­les­cent Ward, WCH
Dr Jen­na PatersonCo-Chair, Gen­er­al and Acute Care Med­i­cine Adult Physi­cian, NALHN
Ms Abby EdwardsClin­i­cal Care Coor­di­na­tor, South Aus­tralian Intel­lec­tu­al Dis­abil­i­ty Service
Ms Allyson RappensbergNurse Con­sul­tant MACS Clin­ic, CALHN
Annie Catan­zari­tiNurse Prac­ti­tion­er, MYH | HaRTSS | WCHN
Dr Bet­ty-Jean Dee-PriceResearch (UNSW) ses­sion­al work (Flinders), Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty, Uni­ver­si­ty of New South Wales
Prof Cather­ine HillCon­sul­tant Rheuma­tol­o­gist, CALHN
Dr Chad CollinsGP Liai­son, Ade­laide Pri­ma­ry Health Network
Ms Chari LaneENT Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er, WCHN

Angel Thangaraj

Clin­i­cal Nurse, MACS Clin­ic, RAH, CALHN

Ms Dianne EdwardsNurse Prac­ti­tion­er, SALHN
Dr Emi­ly Rox­burghGP Liai­son and Inte­gra­tion Con­sul­tant, Ade­laide Pri­ma­ry Health Network

Mrs Emma McCloud

Dis­abil­i­ty Access and Inclu­sion Plan Coor­di­na­tor, CALHN
Mrs Georgina Pater­sonNurse Unit Man­ag­er, Tho­raci­cs OPD, CALHN
Dr Hol­ly SandfordOncol­o­gy Sur­vivor­ship Advanced Trainee, CALHN
Ms Jil­lian Lyon-GreenNurse Con­sul­tant- Dia­betes, NALHN
Prof Josephine ThomasClin­i­cal Dean, Ade­laide Med­ical School, NALHN
Dr Karthik VenkataramanCon­sul­tant Nephrol­o­gist, CNARTS
Dr Mark FriswellCon­sul­tant Rheuma­tol­o­gist, Head of Depart­ment, WCHN
Ms Mary But­lerPro­fes­sor of occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py, Ade­laide University
Ms Kate TurpinNurse prac­ti­tion­er — Long term fol­low up/​transition, WCHN
Dr Michael Brif­fa

Pal­lia­tive Care Ser­vices Con­sul­tant, SAL­HN & WCHN 

Ms Nicole KyrkouBasic Physi­cian Trainee, NALHN
Ms Pauline SpenceClin­i­cal Project Man­ag­er — New WCHN Project
Ms Rebec­ca Cook­seyPae­di­atric Rheuma­tol­o­gist, WCHN

Ms Suja­ta Mylvaganam

Coor­di­na­tor Youth Men­tal Health Con­sul­ta­tion Liai­son Ser­vice, BHFLHN
Ms Usha RitchieAsso­ciate Direc­tor of Phar­ma­cy, CALHN

includ­ing rotat­ing mem­bers from the CEIH Youth Advi­so­ry Group.

Sub groups

Youth Advi­so­ry Group

The Youth Advi­so­ry Group is a group of young peo­ple between the ages of 12 – 25 years who reg­u­lar­ly engage with health­care ser­vices. The group pro­vides rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care SCN as well as col­lab­o­rat­ing with the oth­er Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works. The group help us under­stand the voice and health­care expe­ri­ences of young South Aus­tralians, to dri­ve change and improve their health­care out­comes. The Youth Advi­so­ry Group (YAG) is a joint ini­tia­tive of the CEIH and the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN).

Our work

  • Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Frame­work and Action Plan Work­ing togeth­er to build a bet­ter coor­di­nat­ed, inte­grat­ed, equi­table, and evi­dence-based health­care sys­tem for young peo­ple tran­si­tion­ing from child-cen­tred to adult-ori­ent­ed health­care sys­tems. Learn more.
  • Health Jour­ney Map­ping of young adults with com­plex care needs This research project iden­ti­fied many of the chal­lenges faced by young peo­ple with com­plex med­ical con­di­tions in tran­si­tion from child to adult health ser­vices in South Aus­tralia. Learn more.
  • Research­ing how young peo­ple with a chron­ic ill­ness tran­si­tion from pae­di­atric to adult ser­vices The Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion research project is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the CEIH Statewide Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Clin­i­cal Net­work and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide. Learn more.
  • Ado­les­cent Edu­ca­tion Day Host­ed at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal, this forum aimed to inform health pro­fes­sion­als about sup­port­ing young peo­ple and their tran­si­tion from pae­di­atric to adult ser­vices in the health sys­tem. Read the full sto­ry.
Key documents and resources

Related News

Researching how young people with a chronic illness transition from paediatric to adult services

The ado­les­cent tran­si­tion research project is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the CEIH Statewide Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Clin­i­cal Net­work and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Adelaide.

Read the full story

Adolescent Education Day: Supporting young people through transition care

Host­ed at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal, this forum aimed to inform health pro­fes­sion­als about sup­port­ing young peo­ple and their tran­si­tion from pae­di­atric to adult ser­vices in the health system.

Read the full story

Get involved

To learn more or get involved in the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work email CEIH.​AdolescentTransition@​sa.​gov.​au