The Center for Adolescent Health & the Law and Healthy Teen Network have produced a set of resources entitled Helping Teens Stay Healthy and Safe: Health Care, Birth Control and Confidential Services.

The Helping Teens Stay Healthy and Safe series is the result of a year long investigation of how teen access to confidential services is affected when a state’s laws are unclear or not well understood. Offering confidential services is often necessary for teens to access essential preventive care. Even so, not all states explicitly authorize minors to consent for contraceptive services and even in those that do confusion about how and when teens may access confidential services often prevails – among administrators, clinical care providers, clinic support staff, teens, and parents.

This comprehensive series of brochures offers guidance to health care providers, teens, and parents of teens about ways they can deliver, receive, and support adolescents’ access to confidential contraceptive services.

Healthy Teen Network is a national membership network founded on the belief that youth can make responsible decisions about their sexuality and reproductive health when they have complete, accurate and culturally relevant information, skills, resources and support. For more information, visit HealthyTeenNetwork.org.

Download Report PDFs: Intro | Full Report
Download Brochures: Guide for Teens | Guide for Parents | Guide for Providers

The Center for Adolescent Health & the Law, in collaboration with the Public Policy Analysis Center for Middle Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adults Health at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF Policy Center) has produced Health Care for Adolescents and Young Adults Leaving Foster Care: Policy Options for Improving Access.

The issue brief describes the young people who are aging out of foster care, their health status, and the barriers to securing health care they face when leaving foster care. It explains how health care access can be improved for this population, by describing how Medicaid and SCHIP currently reach adolescents and young adults, and how these two programs can be used to help former foster youth. The brief emphasizes the important opportunity presented by the Medicaid Expansion Option contained in the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, and summarizes the policy options that can best improve access to health care for former foster youth.

Download PDF.