Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine (AYAM) is a is a branch of medicine focused on the health and medical care of adolescents and young people aged 10-24 years, who have complex health needs. AYAM focuses on the unique health needs of adolescents including engaging young people in their healthcare, transition care from paediatrics to adult services, sexual health, drug and addiction medicine, youth justice, gender services and eating disorders. Working in adolescent medicine encompasses managing complex medical and psychosocial issues within a multidisciplinary team.
Inpatient work is a mixture of complex adolescent presentations such as young people with eating disorders and young people requiring a bio psychosocial approach to care. Outpatient work typically involves managing adolescents with issues such as chronic fatigue, functional disorders, chronic pain, or eating disorders. There are rich opportunities for teaching medical colleagues (GPs, registrars and junior doctors) as well as teaching of nursing staff.
Advanced Trainees can work at the Drug and Alcohol Youth Service and Sexual Health Quarters.
As an adolescent and young adult medicine physician you need to have:
- An interest and enthusiasm for working with teenagers
- An interest in working with young people and their families
- A strong interest in psychological medicine
- The ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.
Adolescent and young adult medicine training can be accessed via adult physician training or paediatric basic training. Most current trainees are paediatric trainees. You need to complete dual training in adolescent and young adult medicine with another paediatric subspecialty such as community child health, developmental, emergency or general paediatrics. If you choose to enter via the adult physician training pathway you would complete the dual training with your preferred adult medicine subspecialty.
You need to secure an AYAM accredited position and then you can sign up for the training program. The training program takes four years to complete and encompasses training across all the domains that adolescent and young adult medicine covers. All training can be completed in WA and there is no exit exam to complete, the program is time and competency based.
As part of the training program, you need to complete one year of core A training. This is core adolescent training that needs to be completed at an approved hospital. In WA, Perth Children’s Hospital is the only approved hospital. You also need to complete a year of core B training which is high risk youth, psychiatry, sexual health which can be completed at a variety of locations. For additional information please visit RACP’s website.
You can work as a general practitioner (GP) and have an interest in adolescent care and complete a Masters in Adolescent Health or similar qualification. However, as a GP your scope is more limited.
Adolescent and young adult medicine is a growing and developing field with scope for private work if your interest lies here. Most senior clinicians work part-time.