ABC Family Pediatricians: Adolescent Medicine


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Caring for Your Teens

In addition to our pediatricians, who are all well trained to care for teens, we have a fellowship-trained adolescent medicine specialist in our group - Dr. Barbara Katz. Patients may stay in our practice through the age of 22, which we hope will make the transition through college and into an adult medicine primary care practice easier for you.

During adolescence, teenagers experience rapid changes in physical, emotional, and intellectual growth as they mature into independent adults. We will try to provide you with the information and support necessary to help with these changes. Teenagers face many pressures and have to make many choices regarding friends, goals, driving, activities, sexuality, smoking, alcohol, etc. A strong connection with their parents can help teens make healthy choices and good decisions.

As children mature into teenagers, we like to spend some time alone with them to give them the opportunity to discuss sensitive issues that they may need or want our help with. We encourage teens to communicate with their parents and to seek parental guidance and support. We require parental consent for most evaluations and treatment; however, we recognize that teens have a legal right to seek confidential care for issues involving contraception, pregnancy testing, sexually-transmitted disease testing and treatment, and inpatient treatment for mental health and substance abuse. If there is ever a time when your son's or daughter's life is in danger, or they are a danger to others, we will always inform a parent or guardian.

We follow the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that all adolescents be seen for a yearly "well visit". During this visit, many of the older adolescents will be asked to fill out a confidential questionnaire that asks about their behaviors or concerns that might impact their health. There are questions concerning moods and depression, abuse, sexual behaviors, alcohol and drug use, and problems with home or school. We assure teens that their answers will be confidential unless there is a danger to themselves or others. We also need information from parents or guardians about family history which could impact the teen's health. We encourage you to discuss any concerns you might have about your teen - either physically or emotionally.

Our desire is that adolescents become active participants in making decisions about their health care so that when they leave home, or enter college, they will be well-equipped to take charge of their health and to make good decisions regarding themselves.