In recent years we have seen a fresh focus on the health of adolescents and young adults in response to new understandings that the 12-24-year old age group has experienced less improvement in their health than have younger and older age groups and that the burden of illness in adolescents differs greatly from that in younger children and older adults, and from greater confidence in clinical responses.
But the principles of effective adolescent-health care are taught in few clinical-training programs, and clinicians from a range of disciplines report lacking confidence in engaging and communicating with young people, lacking training and support in managing complex mental-health issues and consequences of risk-taking behaviour, and uncertainty about medico-legal guidelines for managing younger adolescents.
This comprehensive and authoritative textbook on youth health and adolescent medicine is predominantly for clinicians and clinicians-in-training in a range of health-care disciplines and will provide a valuable framework for addressing these issues.
The book comprises four parts. In the first part, a conceptual understanding of adolescence and of the developmental, social, and cultural factors that impact on adolescent health and wellbeing is provided. A broad overview of young people’s health is included, and theoretical understandings of resilience and risk and protective factors are outlined. In part 2, a broad approach to youth-friendly health care is summarised; techniques and micro-skills for engaging young people in consultations are detailed; one chapter covers medico-legal issues. Part 3 covers common and important health issues, and part 4 complex, challenging, and ill-defined disorders in adolescence, and how adolescence impacts on and is impacted by them. In most chapters, case histories are used to illustrate key points about assessment and management.
Melissa Kang, S Rachel Skinner, Lena A Sanci, and Susan M Sawyer, and the specialist contributors they have brought to this first Australian textbook on youth health and adolescent medicine, have national and international reputations for their work in this field. |
