The number of children and young people receiving LTV continues to climb, due to increasing survival from critical illness, improvements in equipment, and changing attitudes towards providing home respiratory support. These children are also now largely at home rather than in hospital. They attend school and participate in activities with other children.
As ventilator dependent children approach the age of 18 years, major things change with regards to their health care :
1. the health care of these children is transferred from the pediatric to adult systems, and
2. these young people reach the developmental milestones of wanting more independence, and want to have more control over their living situations, health care choices, and decision making.
In particular, transition to adult services can be traumatic for young people and their families who have established strong relationships with children’s services over a long time. As well, the access to and amount of community supported resources diminish (e.g.., school based nurses, CCAC support in the home, etc).
Our adult LTV team will collaborate with our pediatric colleagues, and try to make the transition smoother, and proactively identify resources gaps We help co-ordinate this process and ensure that transitions to adult services are phased with the gradual introduction of young people and their families to new professionals and agencies. Similar to our pediatric colleagues, our goal is to partner with patients and families to ensure an effective and safe care plan to support the pateint's complex respiratory needs in the adult health care environment.
