Transitions Resources   Training on Transitions   Youth and Transitions

Transition Tools

• General
• Assessments/Checklists/Worksheets
• Guidelines | Toolkits
  

Adolescent Health Transition Project
The Adolescent Health Transition Project provides information on transitions from pediatric to adult health care for adolescents with special health care needs. You can link directly to information and materials below.

• Information for Providers & Educators
  
• Transition Timeline
  Available in Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese.
  
• Adolescent Autonomy Checklists | Resources

System Capacity for Adolescent Health Tool
This Public Health Improvement Tool is designed to assist state maternal and child health program in assessing six areas of capacity to support effective state adolescent health programs.

The project is a collaborative effort of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the State Adolescent Health Coordinators Network, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Assessment Tools/Check Lists/Worksheets
The Casey Family Programs
Casey Family Programs offers free online assessment tools to measure a youth's life skills such as the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment (ACLSA). The ACLSA is an evaluation of youth independent living skills. It consists of statements about life skills that the youth and his/her caregivers complete. Available in Spanish.

In 2001 Casey Family Programs—working with young people in foster care, alumni of care, families, and other stakeholders—published It’s My Life, a framework to develop services for young people preparing to make the transition from foster care to successful adulthood. It’s My Life promotes a holistic approach to transition services. Each guide will focus on one of the seven interconnected life domains discussed in It's My Life, (Domains listed below). The first guide available in PDF format is on Employment.

• Cultural and Personal Identity Formation
• Supportive Relationships and Community Connections
• Physical and Mental Health
• Life Skills
• Education
• Employment (Click here to download a copy of the guide)
• Housing

CHOICES Transitions Guidelines
The Shriners Hospitals – State Agency CHOICES project created transition guidelines for age groups: infants, 1-5 years, 6-10 years, and 11-21 years.  Developmental Screening Tools and Care Plans by age groups are available for general orthopedic conditions, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Cerebral Palsy.

The Illinois Division of Specialized Care for Children Transition Information and Resources
This site provides access to information and forms developed by DSCC, as well as other resources, including:

• The Transition Information Sheet for Families
• Teaching Sheets (Kentucky Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs)
• Transition Timeline (Office of Children with Special Health Care Needs, Washington State)
• The Health Care Checklist (adapted from other health care checklists) School to Work Checklist (adapted from Young Adult Services Program, South Bend, Indiana)
• Employment Information Sheet (adapted NICHYC)
• Preparing for the Future: Transition to Adulthood (Illinois Chapter of AAP)
• Questions to Ask Potential Adult Care
• Bridging the Gap Between Pediatric and Adult Services - a guide

Kentucky Commission for CSHCN
Provides useful resources such as one page teaching sheets and a checklist for independence for birth-21. You can use the list to work toward health and independence for youth, families, and people who work with them.

Kentucky TEACH Project
Kentucky’s Healthy & Ready to Work Project has various resources to assist young people and their families through the transition from school to work, pediatric to adult health care, and living at home to independent living.   The Transition Checklist includes items from birth - 21 and can be used to work toward health and independence for children, youth, families, and people who work with them.  Life Maps with coordinating one-page Teaching Sheets are available for age groups from birth – 21.   Other documents include:  Transition Health Care Tips, Finding Adult Health Care, Ten Steps to Job Success, Hiring and Using a Personal Care attendant, College Prep Timeline, and how to be insurance savvy.  Also available are 19 Transition Newsletters that can be adapted for use.  

University of South Florida College of Medicine - Health Care Transition Educational Materials for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities
The materials provide information and strategies to help prepare teens and young adults to take increased responsibility for their health care and to transition smoothly from pediatric to adult-oriented health care. Materials include a comprehensive, 40+-hour school-based curriculum written especially for high school students who receive special education services. Complete with structured reading assignments, activities, vocabulary lists, tests, and a teacher's guide, the 8-unit module can be integrated into core secondary school courses (e.g., Health, Science, Life Management) or other classroom settings. Also available is a health care transition Information and Resource Guide, designed as a companion piece for parents, caregivers, educators, health care professionals, and other providers who serve youth and young adults with disabilities or other special health care needs.

Life Skills Lesson Plans: The MDM (Million Dollar Machine®) Program
MDM gives children the knowledge and motivation they need to achieve their personal best in life. MDM gives children a new perspective of themselves and then teaches a variety of useful skills to help them interact with other people and the world around them. The age specific study materials and optional school assembly presentations cover six key topics:

1. Self awareness
2. Interpersonal skills
3. Decision-making
4. Drug Awareness
5. Refusal skills & Earth Skills.
   To learn more visit: www.lifeskills4kids.com/lessons.html

Transition Question Competencies - Download Here
This document provides questions for transition assessment and planning and a list of daily life skills needed to transition from school to work and to increase independence.

Transition Screening Tool developed by Shriners
Download Here Pre-visit questionnaire for families and youth.

Transition Worksheet - Download Here
This is a one-page sheet that allows you to summarize a youth's living arrangements, transportation, education, employment, medical information, etc.

Transition Planning for Adolescents with Special Health Care Needs and Disabilities: A Guide for Health Care Providers
This resource manual addresses four aspects of adulthood: health, education, employment, and recreation. It is written for providers (pediatricians and nurses), but contains family and teen-specific fact sheets and resources on transition planning that can be used by families and adolescents. Edited by Stephanie Porter, Linda Freeman,&

Guidelines and Toolkits
The Bright Futures Guidelines
Bright Futures, initiated by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) over a decade ago, is a philosophy and approach that is dedicated to the principle that every child deserves to be healthy, and that optimal health involves a trusting relationship between the health professional, the child, the family, and the community. As part of this initiative, Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents was developed to provide comprehensive health supervision guidelines, including recommendations on immunizations, routine health screenings, and anticipatory guidance. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the MCHB are committed to the multidisciplinary and multicultural nature of the Bright Futures initiative.

Building, Developing, and Going to Scale: Grant Funded Programs for Youth in Transition
There are six modules that were developed from a combination of established practices in the human services systems, educational reform, successful business models, and advice from grantees. The modules were originally developed as technical assistance tools for the state agency networks who were participating in an innovative, grant funded project under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy. Each set of technical assistance tools offers guidance in the design and implementation of programs in the field of workforce disability and youth.

Modules Titles Include:

Module 1: Collaboration and Relationship Building
Module 2: The Critical Choice—Pilot vs. Prototype
Module 3: Leadership, Communications, and Outreach
Module 4: The Fundamentals of System Building, Developing, and Going to Scale
Module 5: The Practical Tools for System Building, Developing, and Going to Scale
Module 6: Sustaining and Expanding Effective Practices

Incorporating Youth Development Principles into Adolescent Health Programs: A Guide for State-Level Practitioners and Policy Makers
Incorporating Youth Development Principles into Adolescent Health Programs: A Guide for State-Level Practitioners and Policy Makers focuses on how youth development concepts may be applied within the context of specific public health functions and program responsibilities to achieve improved health and well-being among adolescents. The paper, produced by the Forum for Youth Investment, presents an overview of the youth-development approach, which calls for a focus on adolescents? capacities, strengths, and developmental needs and not solely on their problems, risks, or health-compromising behaviors.

Coding and Billing for Transition-related Activities
The Pennsylvania Family Practice Foundation has published an article, resources, and coding information around issues for transitioning youth from pediatric to adult-oriented care and discusses ways of coding and billing for health care transition-related activities.

Crossings: A Manual For Transition Of Chronically Ill Youth To Adult Health Care Manual
This manual is intended as a guide for health professionals to establish a new health care delivery system for transitioning adolescents with chronic illness to adult health care. The manual is based on the experience of a cystic fibrosis team in a hospital for children and a department of internal medicine, section on pulmonary disease (in collaboration with other appropriate hospital departments) in developing a model of care that fostered the successful transfer of patients from one program to the other. While the experience was with patients with cystic fibrosis, the process for developing the model and the model itself has broad application to a variety of chronic diseases.

Body Basics: An Adolescent Provider Toolkit
This toolkit includes information and resources for providers to use in their practice, as well as separate handouts for adolescent patients and parents and/or guardians. It is a result of a collaborative effort between providers, San Francisco Health Plan, and the California Department of Health Services.

Make A Difference – A Guidebook for Person-Centered Direct Support
This guidebook was developed in collaboration with people with developmental disabilities and families, direct support workers and managers and offers the following: Guides a Learning Journey that supports action-learning about relationship building, planning with people in a person-centered way, supporting choice, & building community inclusion; and; Honors the accomplishments of people with developmental disabilities and their direct support workers by presenting their stories & reflections.

Calling People with Disabilities to Public Service Brochure
Produced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in the Federal Government¹s Human Resource Agency, this brochure contains information about Federal employment and can be used by agencies as a recruitment tool. Information includes definitions of disability, available jobs, additional guidance, and various job opportunities from the Federal government.

In Their Own Words - Employer Perspectives on Youth with Disabilities in the Workplace Guidebook
It is essential for educators, transition specialists, workforce development professionals, family members, and youth to understand employers’ needs, circumstances, and perspectives as they establish work-based learning experiences. This publication, the latest in our “Essential Tools” series, features the experiences of employers in their own words. Eleven employers from various fields write about how they became involved in providing work experiences for youth with disabilities, what made it work, and what they recommend to individuals and organizations representing youth.

The Guidelines for Adolescent Prevention (GAPS)
GAPS is "a comprehensive set of recommendations that provides a framework for the organization and content of preventive health services. The GAPS recommendations were designed to be delivered ideally as a preventive services package during a a series of annual health visits between the ages of 11-21."

Tools for Training Personnel Supporting Youth in the Process of Transition
The mission of the National Center on Youth Transition is to improve practices, systems, and outcomes for transition-age youth and young adults (14-25 years of age) with emotional and/or behavioral difficulties (EBD). Their web site offers publications, resources, and practical tools to empower youth and educate the adults who support youth transitioning to independence and adult-oriented services. One example of the tools available is a set of modules designed specifically to train personnel working with youth. The three modules focus on identifying strengths, developing and using rationales, and the problem-solving/decision-making process. In addition, there are practical forms available to support day-to-day work available.

The Wizdom TransPlanner!
When the school bus stops coming, too often students with disabilities are not prepared to enter employment, training, education, living, and communities as well-prepared young adults. To counter this common reality, IDEA 2004 highly emphasizes transition planning, post-high school goals, and transition services as the bridge to successfully cross over from high school to post high school life. The Wizdom TransPlanner! helps students with disabilities, their families and their teachers set the stage for a successful and satisfying transition to post high school life. The Wizdom TransPlanner! fosters those conversations that result in meaningful, student-directed individualized transition plans, and identifies community agencies who can shoulder some of the burden in providing transition services.

Help Your Patients By Sharing Medical Records Electronically With Social Security
Technology is helping Social Security transform the disability decision-making process which will mean better service for applicants across the country. You can help ensure more accurate and timely decisions for your patients by sharing your medical records electronically with Social Security and its partner agencies.

If you are not already doing so, Social Security urges providers to submit medical records electronically. Here’s how you can:

• Use your office fax to send medical records toll-free day or night;
• Use your Internet connection and Social Security’s secure web site to send individual patient records quickly and easily;
• Use a scanner and your Internet connection to send batched patient files to Social Security’s secure web site

In addition to helping your patients, this option can benefit you as well. It can reduce costs of medical providers for the photocopying, paper, toner, postage and staff time required for paper submissions.

It is also important to note that Social Security’s form to authorize disclosure of information is fully HIPAA compliant. Providers can -- and should -- accept a photocopy or facsimile of the authorization form in order to maximize efficiency and reduce patient wait time for benefits.

If you would like to register to begin using Social Security’s secure Web site to send medical records or would like more information about the options available for submitting medical records to Social Security electronically, send an e-mail to electronicrecordsexpress@ssa.gov or call 1-866-691-3061.

Last Updated July 7, 2008