Medical advances mean than adult health services are coming into contact with more young people who in the past would not have survived childhood.
There are now at least 49,000 people under 19 years old living with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition in the UK. The number of 16 to 19 year old living with these conditions has nearly doubled in the last decade.
Together for Short Lives has established a Transition Taskforce to lead the development of a coordinated strategic approach to providing care and support to young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.
The taskforce is keen to capture good practice in transition and interested to learn more about activity underway across the UK – there is a brief survey though which you can provide details of any work you are involved in.
The findings will be posted on the Transition Taskforce pages on the Together for Short Lives website from early April 2013 and will help inform the future work of the tastforce, and other organisations working to support young people through transition.
The Transition Taskforce is chaired by David Strudley, chief executive at Acorns Children’s Hospice, and led by a strategy group which includes representatives from key partner organisations such as Help the Hospices, National Council for Palliative Care, Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Preparing for Adulthood Programme.
The Transition Taskforce aim to:
- Build a forum to drive the development and implementation of a strategy to improve transition for young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.
- Raise awareness and influence the policy and commissioning agenda in relation to transition and develop a strong and united lobbying voice on transition for young people with life-limiting conditions.
- Stimulate new service development and partnerships between adult and children’s service providers at national, regional and local levels as appropriate, through supporting local/regional transition champions and networks.
- Develop a hub of information, training, research and good practice in relation to transition.
If you would like to become a member of the Transition Taskforce, please email transition@togetherforshortlives.org.uk
Leave a Reply