Child and young people advisory group communiques

Resources for young people accessing health services

This document outlines CYPAG members’ ideas on what resources the Department of Health should consider creating to support young people when they access Health services. 

CYPAG members were consulted about this topic at their meeting on 5 December 2023. 

The Department acknowledges and thanks CYPAG members for their suggestions. 

Background

The Department has received feedback from staff and past patients [1] that:

• Young Tasmanians would like more information provided to them when accessing Health services across the State. 
• The information that is currently provided to children and young people differs across services – some areas provide a lot of information, whereas others provide limited or no information.

The Child Safety and Wellbeing (CSW) Service asked CYPAG members their ideas on how to action this feedback – including what kind of information and resources the Department should consider creating from 2024. 

This section outlines CYPAG members’ ideas for new/updated resources. The ideas have been organised into four main themes.

Types of resources

In general, CYPAG members believed that a mixture of hardcopy and web-based content should be provided to young Tasmanians. While they thought hardcopy resources were important, they felt web-based content [2] should be prioritised because:

• Young Tasmanians are more likely to seek online resources, rather than looking for hardcopy resources or talking to a health professional (at least in the first instance).
• Online content can include lots of information, without the need to overwhelm young people with lots of paper resources.

They also felt that new resources should be written specifically for young people, feature plain English language, and include pictures and infographics to be attractive and engaging. CYPAG members also suggested that key resources should be available in multiple languages.

Practical information

CYPAG members suggested that the Department should create resources – across all services – with practical information, such as:

• Maps of where to go – particularly for big, complex buildings like hospitals. They suggested that maps should be child-friendly and highlight key services like: 
  • Helpdesks (with workers that children/caregivers can approach to ask questions)
  • Parking/bus stops
  • Food services 
  • Toilets
  • Key medical services areas often accessed by children/young people/their caregivers (like Emergency Departments).
• Resources to support children prepare for admission and discharge from hospital, such as:
  • video walk throughs of commonly used services (like children’s wards/Emergency Departments);
  • information about transport options; 
  • information about quiet rooms/ideas to manage sensory needs (like being affected by noise, lots of people, clinical lighting);
  • expectations about their/caregivers’ behaviour (visiting hours; appropriate behaviour, including use of electronic devices);
  • how to change appointment times; 
  • (if relevant) how to access community-based services and brief information about the kind of services they provide;
  • how to give feedback; and
  • what personal things to bring (clothing etc).

Health-related information

CYPAG members suggested that there should be more resources, particularly online and video content, about common medical conditions affecting children and young people. They thought this kind of content could be accessed via a central Health website and should be created specifically for children/young people. 

They felt this kind of information would help children and young people to:

• learn about/increase their understanding (and their caregivers’ understanding) of the medical condition(s) they were experiencing; and 
• provide a starting point to support children/their caregivers’ participation in decision making. For example, helping them develop questions for relevant doctors/nurses/other health professionals.

CYPAG members also thought that there could be more information for children/young people about healthy behaviours that would support their experience of their medical condition/be generally helpful to children and young people.

Support information

CYPAG members suggested that more information was needed for children and young people about the support options available to them. They felt more information about the emotional support options available, including children/young people-specific mental services, would be helpful to support young Tasmanians with treatment/recovery of their medical conditions.

Activity resources

Alongside health-service and medical condition information, CYPAG members were also supportive of children and young people receiving information about what activities were available to them while accessing Department of Health services. They felt this would be particularly relevant for children and young people accessing in-patient services/staying in hospital for days/weeks/longer.

For example, this could include informing patients where they could access activities like books, games, other entertainment activities (televisions, wifi passwords etc) – if available onsite – and/or creating new activity resources for children and young people.

What’s next?

This Communique will be sent to Health leaders in January 2024 to support decision making on how CYPAG’s ideas will be considered and actioned.

The CSW Service will inform CYPAG members about advice from Health leaders about how their ideas are being progressed at upcoming meetings.

CYPAG members will also be invited to have input into any resources that are developed as a result of their ideas.