Health Care Transitions Among Youth With Disabilities or Special Health Care Needs: An Ecological Approach

This literature review of 46 articles uses the ecological model as a framework for organizing concepts and themes related to health care transition among youth with disabilities or special health care needs (SHCN). Transition involves interactions in immediate and distal environmental systems. Important interactions in immediate environments include those with family members, health care providers, and peers. Activities in distal systems include policies at the governmental and health system levels. The ecological model can help researchers and practitioners to design experimental interventions in multiple settings that ensure smooth transitions and support the well-being of youth with disabilities or SHCN.