To visit our general transition homepage click  here.

Transition in the HIV service

As you become a young person and start becoming more independent one of the areas that you will need to think about is managing your HIV. Your medical teams might have already talked to you about this and used the word transition. Transition is a process which aims to support you in taking responsibility for managing your health condition alongside providing information and helping you move to adult services.

You will find information on these pages both for if you have just started transition and haven't yet moved or if you have already transferred to adult services.

To help with the transition of learning to manage a health condition more independently and move to adult services our young people have worked together to create a number of guides, not just for young people but for parents and carers too.   You can find the young persons guide here and the parents and carers guide here.

Communicating more in   your appointments is an important part of becoming more independent in managing your health and you can find a guide written by young people to support you with this here too.

If you are just starting this process you might be wondering what will happen. If you were younger when you were diagnosed you may have parents or carers who have helped with medication and managing your health. As you grow older you take much more responsibility for this. It doesn't mean that they can't be involved in supporting you, just that you have more control over decisions and managing your own health. The transition process will include things like:

• Your knowledge about HIV
• Your treatments and medications
• Taking increased responsibility and control of your health
• Living with HIV
• Lifestyle choices - including diet, work and relationships
• Information about the adult service

These pages will give you more information on your condition, treatments you might have and where you can access support.

To visit our general transition homepage click here.