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Risk Screening

Why it matters

Screening for Risk-Taking Behaviors

Spending confidential time with adolescent patients provides an opportunity to discuss sensitive issues. Discussions may be streamlined with the use of a standardized risk behavior screening tool. Screening all adolescent patients for risk-taking behaviors is recommended by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American College of Preventive Medicine. However, research indicates that this recommendation is not universally followed, with the rates of screening and counseling adolescents on risk-taking behaviors ranging from 15-50%.

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Starter Guides

Check out AHI’s Starter Guide on creating confidential workflows and implementing standardized risk screenings for adolescents in your practice. The Risk Screening Starter Guide contains strategies, resources, and sample workflows to strengthen conversations between adolescents and their providers around risk-taking behaviors.

Adolescent Risk Screening
Adolescent Risk Screening

Youth-Friendly Materials

Communicating with youth and their caregivers about the value of confidential services helps to normalize the risk screening process and encourage adolescent autonomy. AHI has resources to help your health center communicate your confidentiality practices to adolescent patients and their parents/caregivers.

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Infographic highlighting the importance of adolescent risk screening and suggest work flows for implementation.

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Sample health rights for teens poster to display in exam and waiting rooms. Contact us for a poster specific to your state!

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An online database of validated, high-quality, adolescent-friendly screening tools that can be utilized across an array of settings.

We Can Help

Interested in getting your practice up to speed on providing confidential risk behavior screening for adolescent patients? We help health centers across the country implement customized workflows to best fit their needs and carry out best practices in adolescent health care.