Keeping Your Adolescents Healthy and Safe This Summer
Staying up-to-date on routine vaccinations and well visits have proven to be a great challenge during the pandemic. This is especially true for parents who are primary caregivers of adolescents.
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This post was sponsored by Unity™ Consortium as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.
I can attest to this. Having a fourteen-year-old son, I myself have certainly struggled with keeping up with the many changes between virtual and hybrid learning and the latest updates and information from my son’s school district regarding safety guidelines – all while working to prepare him for a successful transition from middle school to high school this fall.
It’s a lot! And with so much happening in our world right now in addition to balancing our own schedules as parents, it can be easy to lose track of when routine vaccinations and well visits for adolescents are needed. Add to that a high level of uncertainty and even nervousness about going to the healthcare provider’s office, and you get a small glimpse into a rapidly growing concern.
Adolescents and young adults well-visit and vaccination rates have dropped dramatically during the past year. Discouraging news, since the CDC recommends vaccines to protect against serious illnesses including meningitis (2 vaccines), cancers caused by HPV, whooping cough, and flu among this age demographic.
We know that well visits keep adolescents healthy; and safety is always the number one priority. We also know that in addition to schools, sports, summer camps, amusement parks, swimming pools, concerts, and many other various forms of recreation are opening up to full or near-full capacity in times for summer vacation.
As we slowly return to in-person activities, as parents, it is our job to talk to our adolescents about things they can do to stay healthy and safe, while also ensuring they have received the well-visits and immunizations from their healthcare provider in order to remain at optimal health. These routine immunizations are important to keep adolescents healthy as they expand their exploration of ‘the new normal.’
Unity™ Consortium is a trusted source for information about adolescent well visits and vaccination. Unity is a non-profit organization that unites diverse groups around a common passion – the imperative to protect adolescents and young adults against all vaccine-preventable diseases to support lifelong health.
Just like us parents, Unity understands the importance of vaccinations in adolescent health. The sooner we close the gap in preventive health by resuming the routine well-visits and immunizations for adolescents and young adults, the healthier and safer all of us will be.
Now is the perfect time to schedule your adolescent’s well-visit and missed vaccinations. With summer just around the corner, it is imperative that we as parents do all we can to keep our adolescents as healthy and happy as possible so they can safely have the best summer ever!
Don’t Wait. Vaccinate. You can find more information and resources available at unity4teenvax.org to stay up-to-date on adolescent immunizations. Also, connect with Unity™ on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
