Orthotics transition

As you are getting older, you will be thinking more about your future. You may have heard people talking about ‘transition’.

What is transition?

In health care, we use the term ‘transition’ to describe the process of planning, preparing and moving from children’s health care to adult health care.

Transition is a gradual process of change, which gives everyone time to make sure that you and your family are prepared and feel ready to make the move to adult health care.

Whilst you are in school, your physiotherapy and orthotics care will stay under children’s services, however we will gradually be handing responsibility for managing your care over to you and your family. This should help you to feel confident about moving on to adult services when you leave school.

The first step will be to hand over management of your orthotics. This will happen when you turn 16 years old at school. Orthotics are your splints, insoles, boots that are provided by the hospital.

Once you turn 16 years old in school, it will be you or your family’s responsibility to identify when you need your orthotics reviewing. We will work with you and your family before then to make sure that you understand when and why you might need your orthotics reviewing.

Can I still come to the Sheffield Children’s?

You will still be able to access the orthotics clinics here at Seven Hills (alternate Wednesday mornings) however, you will also have the choice to access the orthotics clinics at either Ryegate Children’s Centre on a Thursday afternoon (tel. 0114 271 7636) or at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in clinics Monday to Friday on 0114 271 7271.

You or your family will need to book an appointment for one of these clinics. If you choose to continue to access the Seven Hills clinic you will still need to book an appointment and you will be expected to attend as if it were a hospital appointment. This means that if you need a parent or carer to assist you (either physically or with understanding and decision making) then they will need to come into school for that appointment. The orthotist will not see you without this person with you.

If you or your family need us to help you to make decisions with the orthotist, then you will need to request this before your appointment so that we can book this appointment in to our diary.

By beginning to take responsibility for your orthotics, we hope that we can empower you and your family before you leave children’s services. You will be prepared with the skills to manage your own orthotic needs and the move to adult orthotic care will be easy.