Top tips and toolkit
In this section:
Top Tips
Learning about your health
Knowing your rights in healthcare
Remembering Information, asking questions and explaining how you feel
Making appointments
Medical history
All About Me!
Mobile Phone Apps
Top Tips
- Ask your current healthcare team if you will transition to an adult health team, and if you will ask how and when your care will be handed over.
- Write down a list of questions and concerns you have before seeing your new nurse, therapist, or doctor.
- If you have any therapy plans or care plans from your current healthcare team, share them with your new therapist, Nurse or healthcare team.
- Keep a list of your medicines, how much you take, and any allergies to medicines. You can take a picture of your medicines label in case you need to tell new health professionals.
- Save your doctor’s and other health professional’s phone numbers in your phone or somewhere you can easily find it.
- Keep a record of your medical history, allergies, and vaccines in case you need to tell someone this in the future.
- Ask any health professionals you see to explain information you do not understand around your health and care.
- Ask health professionals if there is an online portal or an app you can use to look up your health information, contact them for prescriptions, or to make an appointment.
Learning about your health
There is a website with lots of information on that can help you learn about growing up and your health: Health For Teens | Everything you wanted to know about health
You might want to know more about a health condition you have. If you ask the health professional you see about the condition, they may be able to tell you good websites to look at.
To learn more about Transition, please go and look at the 11-25 Hub. This website has a lot of information about what to expect as you get older: Homepage - The 11to25hub
Knowing your rights in healthcare
Confidentiality
'Confidentiality' in healthcare is about keeping things private between you and a healthcare professional. This way you can be confident in talking openly and honestly to staff so that they can provide you with the best care.
Your rights
Details of anything you say, anything written about you or any treatment you receive will be kept private from your family, teachers, employers and any other organisations.
You have the right to see your records and have them explained to you at any time. To do this, ask to see the 'Practice Manager' at your GP Surgery or 'Records Manager' at Hospital.
Exceptions
Healthcare professionals have a duty to keep you and everyone else safe. This means sometimes they have to share information about you on a need-to-know basis. If they think that you are putting yourself in danger it is their job to share information with family, school, or the relevant authorities. It is your right to be told if this is going to happen.
Consent to treatment
'Consent' in healthcare is all about giving permission for things to happen to you. For example at time you may have to make choices on the treatment you recieve.
Your rights
Everybody regardless of age is entitled to make their own decisions about things that happen to their own bodies. It's often important to use our families to help make good decisions but ultimately it's your body and you have the choice. You can even refuse treatment that you don't want.
Exceptions
If a healthcare professional thinks you are unable to make informed decisions they have to find someone else to consent for you. This could be parents, doctors, courts, local authorities or an appointed proxy - a person who is appointed, by you, to represent you. This will only happen on occasions where you do not have the capacity to make the decisions yourself. Things like mental health conditions or substance misuse may contribute towards decreased capactity to make the right choices.
Feedback
Your feedback on services whether good or bad is essential for GP's surgeries, dental surgeries, hospitals and clinics to know what's working and what's not. Without it they won't be able to improve.
Your rights
Any person, no matter how young they are, has the right to give feedback without it affecting their services. You can complain about services you've recieved in the past or are still recieving now. There are no exceptions!
Complaints
If you are comfortable trying to reslove a problem directly with a GP, Dental Surgery or clinic ask for the 'Practice Manager' and tell them your complaint. If you don't feel like you can speak to them directly tell the Commissioner at NHS England » Contact NHS England or call 0300 311 22 33
If it's a hospital you want to resolve a problem with directly ask for the 'Sister in charge' (if on a ward) or the 'complaints manager'. Alternatively you could contact the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) if you want to reslove a problem without speaking to the hospital directly.
Click here to download the Youth Rights in Healthcare poster (PDF Form) (opens in new window)
Remembering Information, asking questions and explaining how you feel
Sometimes it can be difficult to remember what was talked about in your appointments or think about questions you might want to ask your health professional. Here are some tools that you can look at and use if they will help:
- Explain Your Issues Form (PDF Form) (opens in new window)
You may find it difficult to get across how you are feeling for many different reasons. Here is a picture book you can use and point to different pictures which can help explain how you are feeling.
- How I am feeling (PDF Form) (opens in new window)
Making appointments
From 16 years old, you should be the one to make or change the date and time of any appointments, unless you have given permission for someone else to do this. Knowing how to manage your appointments is an important skill to learn as you get older.
It might be a good idea to have a little notebook, diary or use your mobile phone to write down the names of the people you see, and any health information you are given.
It might also be useful to make notes of phone numbers. It can be useful to have all the information you need in one place. This will help if you need to cancel or rearrange appointments.
If a young person lacks the capacity to do this, the person supporting them will be able to continue to do this.
Medical history
You might not know operations or immunisations you have had when you were a child. It is a good idea to keep a record or Health Passport of what immunisations you have had and when you had them, and if you have had any illness, operations, or accidents when you were younger. If you are not sure your family doctor (GP) or family should be able to help fill in any gaps. You might need this information if you apply for a job or go to further education. You may also be able to see this information if you use the NHS app.
All About Me!
Nottingham City and County Services are using a standard “All About Me” plan for patients and carers to take to health appointments.
This tells professionals lots of Information about a person, so you don’t need to keep telling different professionals the same Information.
It also can help make your care more personalised for you. The “All about Me” plans can be printed out and filled in, or downloaded onto a phone or device.
For more information please see About me - NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB
Mobile Phone Apps
The NHS App - You can use the NHS App to get advice, order repeat prescriptions, book appointments, check your symptoms, view your medical record, access health services on behalf of someone you care for. For more Information and to download the app, follow the link: NHS App and your NHS account - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
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