Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Adolescent Education Day: Supporting young people through transition care

29 May 2025

Ado­les­cent Edu­ca­tion Day was host­ed on 14 Novem­ber 2024 at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal where approx­i­mate­ly 60 pro­fes­sion­als from across SA Health’s pae­di­atric and adult ser­vices came togeth­er to hear from both young peo­ple and experts in the field. 

The pur­pose of the day was to learn about sup­port­ing young peo­ple and their tran­si­tion from pae­di­atric to adult ser­vices in the health sys­tem. Addi­tion­al­ly, it pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to raise aware­ness of youth tran­si­tion ser­vices, fos­ter team col­lab­o­ra­tion and hear the voice of young people. 

Var­i­ous guest speak­ers sup­port­ed the day from the Women’s and Children’s Health Net­work (WCHN), North­ern Ade­laide Local Health Net­work and Cen­tral Ade­laide Local Health Net­work. Young peo­ple from the Youth Advi­so­ry Group and the Clin­i­cal Co-Leads, Dr Jem­ma Ander­son and Dr Jen­na Pater­son (pic­tured above) from the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work at the Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health also pre­sent­ed updates on their cur­rent projects and joined the pan­el dis­cus­sion pro­vid­ing impor­tant lived expe­ri­ence insights. 

Key pre­sen­ta­tions included: 

  • The Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Framework 
  • Health Jour­ney Mapping 
  • Young Adult Com­plex Care Clinic 
  • Abo­rig­i­nal Health and Ado­les­cent Support 
  • Sup­port­ing Gen­der Diverse Youth 
  • Refer­rals to Adult Services 
  • Youth Engage­ment & Communication 
  • My Health­Care Passport 
  • Youth Oncol­o­gy Pathways 
  • Chron­ic Pain – Sup­port­ing Adolescents 
  • 3D Health – WCHN Com­mu­ni­ty Team 
  • Sup­port­ing Young Peo­ple with an eat­ing disorder 
  • SA Health Hos­pi­tal School Sup­port
  • Med­ica­tion Man­age­ment Through Transition 

Key take home mes­sages includ­ed the impor­tance of:

  • trust & respect
  • pri­va­cy
  • indi­vid­ual per­son-cen­tred journey
  • ask­ing what do they want?; who do they want with them?
  • explain­ing confidentiality
  • dig­ni­ty

To fol­low up the suc­cess of the day, dis­cus­sions are in progress to run a sim­i­lar event in 2025. Ini­tial pre­sen­ta­tion requests have includ­ed speak­ers from SA Drug & Alco­hol Ser­vices, Sex­u­al Health Ser­vices and the South Aus­tralian Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tribunal. 

If you would like to pro­vide ideas for the day, sug­gest speak­ers or are inter­est­ed in attend­ing, please con­tact us at ceih.​adolescenttransition@​sa.​gov.​au