3. Conclusions

Lessons Learned

The team felt that a number of lessons were learned during the last two years of implementation. They are listed in the following:

• Although the primary focus of the clinic was medical, it has been important to have a broader scope and to holistically address all of the youth’s needs.
  
• The navigator role is helpful in providing follow-up with families regarding the youth’s plan that was generated based on the clinic recommendations.
  
• It was important to add a debriefing with the youth and family at the end of the clinic to review the recommendations after the team met. This provided the families with the recommendations so they could immediately begin to address the recommendations.
  
• Ongoing contact with Services Coordinators to increase their awareness of the transition clinic was determined necessary as a strategy to increase the number of referrals to clinic. Initially referrals were limited. Following the development of informational materials, i.e., a fact sheet and brochure, referrals increased. If the clinic is replicated, it would be recommended that informational materials be developed immediately to facilitate referrals to the clinic.
  
• Partnering with Services Coordinators is essential as they help youth and families solve difficult problems they face.
  
• The Young Adult Advisory Council was an important advisory group to the project. For example, Young Adult Advisory Council provided input that they felt the clinic should be called something different in order for youth to be more receptive to coming to the clinic. The term “Transition Clinic” was changed to “Transition Consultation”. Convening the group on the onset of the project would have been beneficial.
• The involvement of UNMC Faculty in this project was extremely positive and the ways in which they were involved seemed to be very effective based on their feedback, both verbally and on the Satisfaction Surveys. Various faculty members mentioned to us different ways they plan to utilize the Physicians Notebook materials in their roles of training medical students and interns, e.g., one physician mentioned he planned to write a case scenario that included a person with a disability to be used in training; another mentioned that she is going to be in charge of the curriculum for medical students the next year and she will include materials from the notebook in the curriculum.