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Young adults' (16-25 years) suggestions for providing developmentally appropriate diabetes services: a qualitative study

Young adults' (16-25 years) suggestions for providing developmentally appropriate diabetes services: a qualitative study
Young adults' (16-25 years) suggestions for providing developmentally appropriate diabetes services: a qualitative study
Managing the multiple demands of a chronic condition whilst negotiating the developmental tasks of adolescence and young adulthood is a process that is neither well described nor understood, particularly in relation to providing developmentally appropriate health care for young people. The importance of this issue is starting to be reflected within the literature, and although research into models of service delivery is emerging, a lack of user involvement in service development is apparent.
This qualitative, user involvement study aimed to describe and understand the considered opinions of 19 young adults with diabetes who were receiving secondary care services about the provision of diabetes services for young people.

The findings, gathered using semistructured interview and focus group methods, have potentially wide-reaching implications across primary and secondary health care, and across agencies providing services to children and young people, in terms of facilitating a person's transition through adolescence and into young adult life. Participants suggested key issues to address when developing services for young people, including staff consistency, civility, clinic structures which help a person navigate the health care system, provision of age-specific information, and support in relation to a range of health, emotional, social and developmental needs.

Health care professionals can help young people to meet the expectations upon them as autonomous service users by modelling appropriate relationships, helping them to acquire skills and knowledge, and overcome barriers to them becoming active participants in their health care and achieving social participation in a fuller sense. It is somewhat arbitrary to delineate between adolescence and young adulthood in terms of age alone, but in this paper, ‘adolescence’ refers to the period between 11 and 15 years of age, and ‘young adulthood’ between 16 and 25 years of age. The phrase ‘young people’ will also be used to refer to people between 11 and 25 years.
adolescence, diabetes, service provision, transition, user involvement, young adult
0966-0410
409-419
Dovey-Pearce, Gail
275474f8-05c1-40ec-a474-35223eff43fd
Hurrell, Ruth
4377bdc6-2750-42ca-8673-768d9bf904c6
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Walker, Caron
914c988a-8c1a-4ac2-afe3-0b2307a72b21
Doherty, Yvonne
98727b12-4632-4d10-bf5a-7987baa1bb23
Dovey-Pearce, Gail
275474f8-05c1-40ec-a474-35223eff43fd
Hurrell, Ruth
4377bdc6-2750-42ca-8673-768d9bf904c6
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Walker, Caron
914c988a-8c1a-4ac2-afe3-0b2307a72b21
Doherty, Yvonne
98727b12-4632-4d10-bf5a-7987baa1bb23

Dovey-Pearce, Gail, Hurrell, Ruth, May, Carl, Walker, Caron and Doherty, Yvonne (2005) Young adults' (16-25 years) suggestions for providing developmentally appropriate diabetes services: a qualitative study. Health & Social Care in the Community, 13 (5), 409-419. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2524.2005.00577.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Managing the multiple demands of a chronic condition whilst negotiating the developmental tasks of adolescence and young adulthood is a process that is neither well described nor understood, particularly in relation to providing developmentally appropriate health care for young people. The importance of this issue is starting to be reflected within the literature, and although research into models of service delivery is emerging, a lack of user involvement in service development is apparent.
This qualitative, user involvement study aimed to describe and understand the considered opinions of 19 young adults with diabetes who were receiving secondary care services about the provision of diabetes services for young people.

The findings, gathered using semistructured interview and focus group methods, have potentially wide-reaching implications across primary and secondary health care, and across agencies providing services to children and young people, in terms of facilitating a person's transition through adolescence and into young adult life. Participants suggested key issues to address when developing services for young people, including staff consistency, civility, clinic structures which help a person navigate the health care system, provision of age-specific information, and support in relation to a range of health, emotional, social and developmental needs.

Health care professionals can help young people to meet the expectations upon them as autonomous service users by modelling appropriate relationships, helping them to acquire skills and knowledge, and overcome barriers to them becoming active participants in their health care and achieving social participation in a fuller sense. It is somewhat arbitrary to delineate between adolescence and young adulthood in terms of age alone, but in this paper, ‘adolescence’ refers to the period between 11 and 15 years of age, and ‘young adulthood’ between 16 and 25 years of age. The phrase ‘young people’ will also be used to refer to people between 11 and 25 years.

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More information

Published date: September 2005
Keywords: adolescence, diabetes, service provision, transition, user involvement, young adult

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 163531
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/163531
ISSN: 0966-0410
PURE UUID: 7d725708-69fa-4b64-8451-8b72c8748dd2
ORCID for Carl May: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-2690

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Date deposited: 09 Sep 2010 10:51
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:05

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Contributors

Author: Gail Dovey-Pearce
Author: Ruth Hurrell
Author: Carl May ORCID iD
Author: Caron Walker
Author: Yvonne Doherty

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