Prioritizing Your Child’s Well-Being: What to Expect When Meeting with a Sport Health Professional

For kids and teens across the country, summer often brings more time spent outdoors.

From practicing with a summer sports league to attending a camp, it is estimated that as many as 30 million youth are engaged in some type of summer opportunity.

However, with kids spending more time out of school and outside during the warmer months, there’s the added risk of injury, which also increases the potential for misconduct or abuse to occur. Medical settings can be a high-risk environment for abuse due to several factors: these settings often involve physical touch between practitioners and youth athletes, parents are sometimes not present during treatment, and doctors may prioritize getting athletes back on the field over fully healing an injury.

Parents and guardians, take a moment to learn how you can prioritize your child’s well-being. Explore five best practices health professionals should always follow and access a checklist to help you ensure your child’s health care provider is fostering treatment encounters centered on safety.

Health Professional Best Practices 

Health professionals have a responsibility to create training and treatment spaces that keep athletes safe and minimize the possibility of abuse or misconduct. 

As a parent or guardian, understanding key characteristics of appropriate behavior for a health care provider is essential to helping ensure your child receives the care they need in a safe setting.

Read the full article at U.S. Center for SafeSport >