Adolescent Provider Toolkit – Understanding Confidentiality and Minor Consent in California

Our resources for providers are free to download.

While this resource is helpful for providers, it is in need of an update and revisions. Please consider supporting the Adolescent Health Working Group with a donation to ensure we can continue updating resources for providers, parents, and young people.

Note that our resources for providers are not meant for direct youth consumption. However, these do contain resources for Providers to facilitate conversations with youth and their parents/caregivers.

During adolescence, youth confront new issues that affect their physical, reproductive, and mental health. At the same time, establishing autonomy is one of their most vital developmental tasks. As they face these changes, many teens crave increased privacy and opportunities to make health-related decisions. Youth list concerns about confidentiality as the number one reason they might forgo medical care. For this reason, youth need assurances of privacy and confidentiality with their healthcare providers.

This toolkit includes:

• Charts on minor consent and confidentiality
• Practice tools
• Screening, assessment and referral tools
• Resource sheets
• Health education handouts for teens and their parents/guardians
• Online resources and research

AHWG works in collaboration with many nonprofit organizations, municipal agencies, and educational institutions. We thank the following organizations for their partnership and contributions to content in this toolkit:

• Alameda Alliance for Health
• Alameda High School
• Balboa High School (San Francisco)
• California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC)
• Children’s Hospital and Research Center
• Chinatown Child Development Center
• Corcoran Family Resource Center
• El Cerrito High School
• La Clínica de la Raza School Based Health Centers
• Manual Arts High School (Los Angeles)
• National Center for Youth Law
• Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
• Riverside Community Health Foundation
• San Luis Obispo Community School
• The Permanente Medical Group, Inc
• University of California San Francisco, Division of Adolescent Medicine