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The Potocsnak Family Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine offers specialized primary care and programs, ensuring that patients are provided with comprehensive and exemplary care. Below is a list of our innovative and expert-lead programs.
The Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine’s behavioral health team provides ongoing therapeutic services, psychological assessment, psychotherapy and select sub-specialty services and programs. Learn more.
Lurie Children’s Adolescent Primary Care Program provides holistic and comprehensive primary care to patients starting at 12 years old. Established patients are followed by our specialists until their 25th birthday. Learn more.
Lurie Children's Gender & Sex Development Program specialists provide compassionate and affirming care for children, adolescents (up to age 25) and their families seeking support related to gender identity development. Learn more.
Lurie Children's certified Sexual Health Educators provide affirming on-site HIV & STI screening and health education. Access or referrals to treatment available for sexual heath needs. Learn more.
The Substance Use and Prevention Program (SUPP) offers evaluation and treatment for substance use concerns by a multidisciplinary team of pediatricians and behavioral health providers in an outpatient setting. Learn more.
The Potocsnak Family Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine provides comprehensive care to promote positive health outcomes for youth in and around Chicago. Our services are structured to support all youth, specializing in reaching young people who often experience barriers to accessing services. We believe in a holistic model of care, recognizing that supporting the health of youth must extend beyond our clinical spaces and into the community. Community Programs and Initiatives collaborates closely with community members and organizations to promote healthy and inclusive spaces for youth across the Chicago region.
Interested in the impact of our work and what the community is saying about it? Check out our annual Community Report!
Our staff facilitate interactive and engaging education and outreach sessions that are designed to improve awareness and understanding of issues facing adolescents and young adults today. If you are interested in learning more, please visit the Trainings & Education page.
Our Sexuality Education Program supports students, parent/guardians, and school staff by facilitating thoughtful, culturally responsive, and LGBTQ+ inclusive conversations related to sexual health. Our specially trained staff support conversations and educational sessions related to relationships, social emotional development, and their bodies.
For more information on programming please visit the Sexuality Education Program page.
Our team provides a variety of hands-on supports for LGBTQ+ inclusion and creating welcoming and affirming gender inclusive environments, inclucing assistance with the implementation of best practices for LGBTQ+ and gender inclusion, support administrative policies and procedures, support with developing/implementing Gender Support Plans, and individualized advocacy and support for LGBTQ+ students and staff. Click here for more information
The division provides free & confidential HIV/STI screening and safer sex counseling for anyone age 12-24. Our certified counselors offer these testing and counseling sessions in our offices and at community spaces/events. If you’re interested in making an appointment for testing or having us provide free HIV/STI screening at an event at your school, business, or community space, please visit the HIV/STI Screening page.
Connect for Youth (C4Y) is a citywide, trauma-informed, integrated substance use and HIV prevention strategy. C4Y provides free, confidential health screening and rapid HIV testing for youth of color ages 16-25, as well as onsite linkage support for follow-up services and care. C4Y is a collaboration between Lurie Children’s Potocsnak Family Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and Haymarket Center. For more information, click here.
The Youth Leaders in HIV program convenes a cohort of 10 youth leaders ages 14-19 who will help conduct targeted sexual health education and outreach testing and linkage services to help prevent HIV. Our cohort of youth leaders will focus on HIV prevention resources in Chicago and mental wellness. 2 youth leaders will also be trained to co-facilitate targeted HIV prevention and sexual health education workshops to Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) in Chicago.
For more information reach out to Adam Davies, adavies@luriechildrens.org.
If you are interested in bringing Substance Use Prevention Education to your organization, please visit the Trainings & Education page.
If you're looking for clinical services, see Lurie Children's Substance Use and Prevention Program.
Naloxone/Narcan is a prescription medicine that can temporarily stop the effect of an opioid overdose and help a person start breathing again. We provide free Naloxone/Narcan (including training on how to use it). These trainings are offered in partnership with community organizations and other nonprofit organizations and can be facilitated via our Mobile Health Unit or onsite at the community agency.
If you are interested in bringing Naloxone/Narcan training/distribution to your community, please contact narcan@luriechildrens.org.
Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition (formerly Preventing Alcohol Abuse in Chicago Teens (PAACT) is a multi-agency coalition of community-based organizations, government agencies and stakeholders from across the city. Convened by Lurie Children’s, SUPC works to prevent youth substance use in Chicago. SUPC has implemented city-wide tactics including a communications and community engagement campaign that is targeted to youth and parents/caregivers (IGotThis) with the goals of increase awareness of the potential harmful effects and consequences of alcohol consumption for underage drinkers and provide support in decreasing young people's perception of permissive family norms with regard to underage alcohol use. SUPC supports city-wide collaboration to prevent youth substance use in Chicago. The builds capacity among members and community partners, engages in school policy development, and facilitates connection/collaboration across member to support a city-wide youth substance use prevention.
If you or your organization is interested in becoming involved in SUPC, please contact Jennifer Leininger at JLeininger@luriechildrens.org.
CHAI is a collaborative project with Texas A & M and other partners from across the country. The CHAI project convened a network of partner healthcare organizations, subject matter experts, and a teen advisory group to create two innovative programs designed to increase youth access to and experiences with healthcare: Total Teen and Confident Teen. These two projects will be piloted in Lurie's Division of Adolescent Medicine clinic and other partner sites.
