Center for Adolescent Health and the Law

The Center for Adolescent Health & the Law has produced: Policy Compendium on Confidential Health Services for Adolescents, Second Edition, 2005, edited by Madlyn C. Morreale, Amy J. Stinnett, and Emily C. Dowling and published by the Center for Adolescent Health & the Law in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The Compendium contains excerpts from the official policies of 20 professional medical and health care organizations whose members are involved in the care of adolescents. The Compendium includes material drawn from organizational position statements; resolutions; position or policy papers; comments submitted in response to proposed regulations; testimony or letters submitted to Congress or the Administration; codes or principles of ethics; and other formal organizational practice guidelines.

The material drawn from these formal policy documents is organized and analyzed according to such themes as the rationale for supporting confidential health care for the general population and for adolescents in particular; policies and procedures to protect confidentiality; the role of parents and guardians in adolescent health care; the importance of informing adolescents and parents about confidentiality protections and limits to those protections; policies about informed consent and confidentiality for specific services; confidentiality concerns for particular populations of adolescents; and statements about confidentiality in particular health care settings. The Compendium includes both verbatim quotes from the policy documents themselves and extensive tables analyzing the material.

This second edition of Policy Compendium on Confidential Health Services for Adolescents, resulted from a collaboration between the Center for Adolescent Health & the Law, the American Medical Association (AMA), and members of the AMA National Coalition on Adolescent Health and the AMA Educational Forum on Adolescent Health.

Electronic copies of the Compendium are available free of charge. Print copies are available for $20.00 each. To download an order form, click here.

To download the entire compendium (pdf), click here.

Table of Contents

Preface & Introduction (pdf)

Key Findings & Tables (pdf)

General Statements about the Importance of Confidentiality (pdf)

General Policy Statements that Address Adolescents’ Access to Confidential Health Care, Including the Roles of Parents and Guardians in Adolescent Health Care and Procedures to Safeguard Adolescents’ Confidentiality (pdf)

Policy Statements about Confidentiality Concerns for Particular Populations of Adolescents (pdf)

Adolescents who have run away, are homeless, or are living on the street
Adolescents in state custody
Adolescents who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender
Pregnant and parenting adolescents

Policy Statements about Adolescents’ Informed Consent and Confidential Access to Specific Health Care Services (pdf)

Preventive health services
Dental Services
Contraception, pregnancy-related services, abortion, and other reproductive health services
Testing and treatment for HIV and sexually transmitted infections
Mental health and substance abuse services

Policy Statements about Confidentiality in Particular Health Care Settings (pdf)

Schools and school health centers
College health services
Emergency departments
Managed care settings

References (pdf)

Appendices

Appendix A: Contact Information for Organizations Represented in this Compendium (pdf)
Appendix B: Index by Organization (pdf)
Appendix C: Significance of the HIPAA Privacy Rule for Health Care of Adolescents (pdf)

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