Healthcare Needed for Our Tweens and Teens
This week a study by Social & Scientific Systems Inc., summarized by PR Newswire, has found that between 1996 and 2005 there has been a 6 percent increase in the number of U.S. citizens who have three or more chronic illnesses. And with the lack of affordable healthcare this is no longer just an issue for the millions of uninsured, but for our own children. According the article “Shaping good health as teens outgrow pediatricians” by Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press, recent research performed by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine has found that there are few doctors equipped to provide comprehensive healthcare to tweens and teens. Adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years of age, experience, arguably, the greatest biological transformation and yet the healthcare system is poorly equipped to deal with the needs of a demographic that is known for testing boundaries.
