For more videos regarding teens and cancer, please visit the Teens Taking Charge Cancer playlist.
What is transition?
Transition means moving from one life stage to another. It involves change and adapting to change, which can be exciting but sometimes scary. The best way to deal with any transition is to plan ahead and be prepared. Preparing for a transition involves learning, in advance, the skills that you will need to succeed in a new life stage.
During your teen years, you will go through a number of transitions. You will transition from high school to higher education, or to the world of work. You will also experience cancer-specific transitions: being on treatment to being off treatment, and being off treatment to attending follow-up care (sometimes called aftercare). You will learn more about follow-up care later in this session.
When will I transition to adult care?
One very important transition will be the move from receiving your health care in a paediatric centre to receiving it in either an adult centre and from your family doctor. This move is known as a health-care transition and usually happens around the time that you turn 18, when you are legally considered an adult in Canada. There is no set age for this transition; so if you are still in active treatment when you turn 18, you may be able to finish your treatment with your paediatric team. Your health-care team can talk to you about the health-care transition and help you get prepared.
You will still get care after you no longer go to your paediatric centre; it will just be in an adult hospital, adult cancer clinic and from a family doctor instead. Your paediatric health-care team will recommend and refer you to where you should be going to continue your care, and they will arrange for the transfer.
The health-care providers you see will be used to working mostly with adults. Adult hospitals are used to treating patients who are already familiar with managing their own care, so it is very helpful by this point if you know the basic information about your health history, such as your diagnosis and any ongoing health problems that you may be experiencing. At first, your adult health-care provider may need to do some tests that were already done at your paediatric clinic. This is necessary so that they can get to know you and become familiar with your specific health-care needs.
Why do I have to transition to adult care?
Your paediatric health-care team is made up of doctors who specialize in children’s and teens’ health. As you become an adult, your health-care needs change and will be better met in a hospital or clinic for adults, and in a family doctor’s office. Continuing your care is really important after you have had cancer because you are going to need special follow-up care as you continue to get older.
Advice from other teens
It can take time to develop confidence in a new health-care team, especially if the environment is different than what you are used to. Try to keep an open mind. Remember that different does not mean worse!