Children, Adolescents & Youth

Children, Adolescents and Teens are an often overlooked and ignored patient population.  For the past seven years at IHC, children have been cared for by Dr. Karen Parmar who is well known for her pediatric patient profile.  As a mother, Dr. Parmar has experienced the heartbreak of dealing with a young child who is unable to explain their source of trouble.  She is skilled at determining sources of illness, and natural treatments of dealing with sickness so parents can relax and so everyone can sleep!  For the past year, another mother Dr. Corinne Dawson has also been servicing our pediatric population.

Adolescents and teens however still have huge unmet medical and wellness needs.  At Integrated Health Clinic ^TM, we view adolescents and teens as a primary component to our growing patient base.  We make teens feel like they are a priority.  In return, we get patients who are willing, comfortable and able to speak frankly about the details of their lives.  Teens instinctively want to be healthy, but also  want to achieve health without negative labels or the use of drugs, so we provide them with preventive programs and tools to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Our Wednesday evening "Youth Clinic" offers teens a specialized opportunity to attend a preventive health clinic specifically set up to answer their questions and concerns.  The most unique advantage to our Youth Clinic is the collaboration of our ND's and counsellors. We are the only clinic in BC who specializes in uniting medical disciplines to create the best possible individual education and wellness plan for teens without using prescriptive drugs whereever possible.

Teens go through many changes as the body is on it's way to becoming an adult.  We teach teens how to talk to their physician to make good choices about their personal health.  We encourage teens to eat nutritiously and become physically active help them look and feel good.  Good health habits prevent teens from contacting many seasonal colds and flus, but also play an important role in preventing future diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease and strokes and many leading cancers.                        

T hese are some of the things that make our Youth Clinic different:

1)     Expanded Office Hours - many parents and teens are reluctant to miss school in order to see a doctor.  Our clinic is open on Wednesday night until 8:00 pm so teens can book an appointment to see their physician without it interfering with school or after-school activities.

2)     Expanded Appointment Slots - Teens regularly see a physician for approximately 10 minutes and it's hard for even adults to communicate their concerns within such a short period of time.  Our experience shows that teens will often speak about their intimate concerns when given enough time to build a trusting relationship.  We show teens we care about them and spend a full hour on the initial visit to determine an accurate Health Assessment.

3)     Youth-Friendly Environment & Staff - Our clinic provides teen reading material, teen music and most importantly, teen friendly doctors and staff.  Our physicians take pride in their ability to communicate effectively with teens and their sensitivity to teen issues shows.  Our doctors take a friendly approach to counselling and mentoring teens for healthy living, and include our counsellor in their treatment options when a teen needs additional support with emotional issues, family or school conflicts.

4)     Confidentiality - Parents and teens should know that we keep all information provided to us by adolescents and teens as confidential.  Without a confidential, frank exchange on a range of issues, it would be impossible for us to build healthy, trusting relationships with our teen patients.  However, our physicians encourage teens engaged in risky behaviours to discuss them with their parents.

For further information, please contact our Communications Director Marilyn Lawrie at 604.888.8325.