Like many adolescents, Amelia had difficulty transitioning from paediatric to adult IBD health services and advocates for research and better clinical support.
Amelia:
“When I was 17 I had to transition from having my IBD care at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) to the adult services the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).
“I went from a place dedicated to supporting children, to somewhere designed to support adults with their health and wellbeing needs.
“I think being sick forced me to be more mature anyway, but the transition was still really daunting, and I didn’t feel prepared to be treated as an adult and thrown a whole lot of new information without the same level of support I was used to.
“I understand why many adolescents in my position would find it hard to keep up their appointments and treatment.
“Dr Kate Lynch is aiming to make life easier for adolescent patients transitioning to adult services.
“I think understanding how this disruption affects the health and well-being of patients will make a big difference, and I think a dedicated adolescent IBD clinic is an amazing idea.
“If I could have met my new treating clinicians in advance and then, when arriving, had a dedicated team who understand the big change, it would have made things much less daunting for me.
“I’m really excited to see what comes of Dr Kate Lynch’s research because I think there’s a lot of other young adolescents who would really benefit from it, and it will make things a lot easier for them.”