The Teen Health Check-up
Is this confidential? Teens ask this during their health check-up. It’s not about answering the “sensitive” questions, it’s about teens not wanting their parents to know their answers.
Hopefully you are expecting the doctor to see your teen alone at their health check-up. Not to exclude you from what’s going on, but because it’s easier to encourage your teen to talk if they don’t have you there ready to answer the questions or providing feedback on their answers. Teens simply don’t talk when their parents are around. They sit back and watch you do their physical. You should be able to speak to the doctor at the end of the vist. You andswering their questions isn’t going to help them when they go to the doctor as an adult so start practicing now.
1. What should your teen know for a doctor’s visit?
- Family history
- Their medical history (asthma, seizures, surgeries, emergency room visits, etc)
- Any medication they are on whether prescribed by a doctor or not
- Drug or food allergies with their reactions
- A list of questions they have for the doctor about their health (write them down if you need to)
2. What should they bring with them to the check-up?
- A list of their immunizations
- Any forms they need completed
- Medicine container for any medicine they would like refilled that was not originally prescribed by the current doctor.
- Previous medical records that would help the doctor manage your teen’s health
3. What’s confidential?
- Anything that is said between the doctor and your teen is confidential unless they are going to hurt themselves or someone else, or someone is hurting them. We have this in place so teens will talk freely if they need to. In the event they are not acting safely, the clinician can discuss with your teen the importance of getting help especially from parents. Teen health rights has a great list on teen confidentiality guidelines and resources. The rules change depending on where you live so be sure to check the specific laws in your area.
This is the first in a series of teen health issues. It will be posted the first of the month. If there is anything you are concerned about regarding your teen in general or specific to health care, let me know and you can see it as a post. This information is not meant to replace your doctor so it is still very important that you seek medical attention for anything you are really concerned about.
Teens are a healthy group, so parents think they don’t need to come to the doctor, but the yearly check-up at this age is about more than their physical health, a good doctor is going to check their overall health.
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