Pediatric Liver Transplant Teen Clinic

Location: 730 Welch Road, 2nd Floor Palo Alto, CA 94304 Mondays and Thursdays

Phone: (650) 736-7642 Fax: (650) 725-1418 Email: livertransplant@lpch.org

Our first-of-its-kind Teen Clinic for liver transplant patients helps prepare adolescents with liver transplants for their adult health care needs. Advances in the long-term survival of pediatric transplant patients make the move from pediatric to adult post-transplant care a routine part of growing up.
 
Our clinic’s goals are to:

• Help your teenager gain a realistic understanding of his/her health
• Help shift primary interest in and management of your child’s health from you to your child
• Help your child meet and enjoy getting to know other teens with transplants

We also set age-specific goals for our patients.

• Younger patients learn how to:
  • Describe their health status 
  • Read a thermometer
• Older patients learn:
  • The names and purposes of medical tests
  • How to call the clinic and make or change their own appointment
• Young adults learn:
  • How to obtain health insurance independent from their parents’

Teen Clinic Visits

The Pediatric Liver Transplant Teen Clinic is held four to six times a year during regular Liver Transplant Clinic hours. Our multidisciplinary team includes hepatologists, child psychiatrists, social workers and transplant coordinators. The team speaks to your adolescent without you in the room to:

• Allow your child to explore his/her thoughts
• Encourage health promotion
• Encourage opportunities for self-advocacy training

Teens then gather in a room with a child psychiatrist to discuss anything that may be on their minds. Topics for discussion are provided by the psychiatrist and may include taking medications as prescribed, body image, sex and sexuality.
 

Support Group for Parents

Our transplant social workers facilitate a support group for parents on the same day as the Teen Clinic. You will: 

• Learn how to support your child’s transition process
• Understand your own transition from your child’s care

 
 

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