ADOLESCENT VISIT

Adolescent Visit

Your parent has brought you to the doctor for a "check-up." The only reason your parents gave you for the visit was that your grades in school have been deteriorating for the past year. They have also had other concerns expressed only to you regarding your friends, the way you dress, the kind of music you like, and your "attitude" at home. They are worried and have asked you if you are "doing drugs."

There is something bothering you but your parents don't know exactly what it is. You are free to invent in your mind what that something is. Some possible reasons are:

You are doing drugs
You're very self-conscious about your acne
You are confused about your sexual identity
Your father is an alcoholic and beats up your mother
Your grandfather is very ill
Your younger sibling won't allow you any privacy
You are anxious about your body
You are worried you might be pregnant or your girlfriend might be pregnant
You are worried that you might have contracted AIDS or another venereal disease
You are worried that some vague symptoms you are experiencing might be cancer
You are bored with school and want to drop out
etc, etc, etc

Feel free to invent the persona you want to portray. Also, feel free to present different personas with different problems with different students. Act a role.

Family constellation, family medical history, and personal health history are whatever you want to make them. Choose from your own background and experience or make it up. Conversely, mix and match.

Adolescent Visit

Interviewer Summary and Tasks

This teenager was brought to you for a "checkup." You have done a standard history with the parent in the room. The parent's concern is that the teenager's school grades have deteriorated in the past year. Physical examination was normal. You have asked the parent to leave the room now in order that you might talk to the teenager alone.

Your task is to interview this teenager keeping the parent's concern in mind.