Young people and immunisation: exploring issues when parental consent is absent or contested

Existing law, policies and programs underpin Australia’s high level of childhood immunisation. However, access to vaccination for young people (<18 years of age) can be challenging when support from parents or guardians is lacking, or difficult to obtain. The community response to mandatory COVID vaccination for children has highlighted that a lack of access can impact on young people’s health, but also their well-being and capacity to engage in education, sport and cultural activities.

In this forum we will explore the issues faced by young people; experience of health care providers; adequacy of current regulations and possible regulatory and clinical solutions to enable access to what some parents and guardians see as controversial vaccinations such as COVID and human papilloma virus vaccinations.