PATCH for Teens Toolkit
The PATCH for Teens Toolkit aims to empower young people to begin managing their own health care, and equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and advocate for youth-friendly services. The content was developed WITH youth FOR youth and is designed to be an empowering experience for young people.
This Toolkit was created to improve the feasibility and reach of our existing peer-to-peer educational session, the PATCH for Teens: Peer-to-Peer Workshop, which is part of the Core PATCH Package.
Why Use the Toolkit?
Teens are at an exciting, yet often challenging, time in life. They are experiencing new things and are trying to figure out what it means to become a young adult. Many are learning skills and forming habits that will carry with them into adulthood. Learning how to manage their own health and health care is one of the many life skills that will set them up for success as they get older.
PATCH for Teens touches on it all – preventive care, adolescent rights in health care settings, healthy relationships with health care providers, myths about mandated reporting, and the responsibility of managing our own health care.
Main Messages
- Teens need and deserve a good relationship with their health care providers.
- Teens have legal health care rights.
- Teens have a personal responsibility to learn to manage their own health care.
Learning Objectives
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Teens will understand the importance of learning to manage their own health care experiences.
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Teens will learn how to advocate for their own health and well-being in health care settings.
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Teens will explore steps they can take to make sure they get the care they need and deserve.
Toolkit Contents
- 1 Facilitator Guide: Provides detailed information about how to use the PATCH for Teens Toolkit.
- PATCH for Teens Lesson: Gives facilitators step-by-step instructions and sample language to utilize when facilitating a PATCH for Teens lesson.
- 4 Video Clips: Featuring PATCH Teen Educators delivering critical content in an engaging peer-to-peer format. The videos are integrated throughout the lesson and enhanced with supplemental learning activities led by the facilitator.
- Teen Activity Sheet: A worksheet allowing teens to write or draw notes and participate in lesson activities.
- 30 Emoji Booklets: An interactive teaching tool providing a way for teens to choose and share their emotional response to lesson questions, scenarios, and activities in the form of an emoji.
- PowerPoint Template: A supplemental facilitation tool that can be downloaded and customized to your specific needs.
- Additional Activity Materials: Additional facilitation resources are provided as needed to implement the lesson with success.
- Lesson Evaluations: Two different methods are provided to help facilitators measure the lesson's impact and gather teen feedback. You choose which one is best for your setting.
- 50 Teens Brochures - "Getting the Health Care You Need & Deserve": A resource helping teens understand the importance of health care and the steps they can take to start becoming responsible managers of their own care.
- 50 Supportive Adult Brochures - "Your Teen's Right to Privacy in Health Care Settings": A guide helping parents, guardians, and other caregivers understand the health care rights and responsibilities of teens in health care settings.
- Transition Checklist: A take-home resource helping families understand the important skills a teen should have so they can successfully manage their own health care as an adult.
- Dear Provider Letter: A take-home resource to help facilitate healthy conversations between teens, their health care providers, and their parents/guardians/caregivers.
- Access to PATCH Online & PATCH Chat: Facilitators receive a unique User ID and password to access downloadable materials, videos, and resources, as well as access to PATCH Chat, an online forum to communicate with others using this Toolkit.
*Note: Although the Facilitator Guide and Lesson are currently only available in English, many of the supplemental teen resources are available in Spanish.
School Health Education
The PATCH for Teens Toolkit brings together various National Health Education Standards into one lesson (e.g., core concepts, analyzing influences, interpersonal communication, and advocacy). It serves as a foundation and can be built upon other important health literacy concepts like health insurance, basic medical terminology, where to go for certain types of care, and accessing reliable health information.
Teen Impact
The PATCH for Teens lesson was piloted during the 2016-2017 school year in six diverse WI school districts. School health educators and school-based nurses integrated the one-time lesson into existing health education efforts, reaching 430 students in grades nine through twelve. Of the 416 students who completed the post-retrospective evaluation, over two-thirds reported that they plan to be more involved in their health care (69.8%), advocate for themselves in health care settings (68.0%), talk openly and honestly with health care providers (71.9%), and learn more about how to manage their own health care (68.6%). Modifications and improvements were made based on facilitator and participant feedback.
The findings from this pilot project are published in The Journal of School Nursing.
"I love PATCH for Teens because as health educators we often tell our students, 'ask your doctor [or health care provider]'. But, we don’t teach the students HOW to ask. PATCH teaches teens how to ask good questions, and most importantly it teaches teens the importance of being honest with their health care provider.”
– School Health Educator
Purchase the Toolkit to gain full access to PATCH for Teens content!
Purchasing the Toolkit authorizes a single facilitator to implement the PATCH for Teens lesson.