Incorporating children's voices in healthcare: adopt My Abilities First in your practice.

Abstract

Current health data reveal that children's voices often remain invisible in healthcare encounters. Incorporating voices of children and youth with chronic health conditions and/or disabilities in a systematic way will enhance and complement current health data. My Abilities First is an approach that invites children and youth with chronic health conditions and/or disabilities to describe themselves using their preferred way of communication. Importantly, including the preferences, opinions and abilities of children and youth in their clinical care promotes autonomy, dignity and respect in a human rights-based approach. My Abilities First facilitates participatory decision-making processes, ultimately expediting positive change in healthcare, bringing joy, shared purpose, empowerment and proximity in clinical care.