Paper short abstract:

Youth with mental illnesses must be compliant within the system of health. Regardless of their subjectivities, the requirement to exist in the paradigm of self-directed care is apparent. When they 'age-out' of the paediatric model, they are transitioned to adult care.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses (a case study of) Ahlia, an 18year old girl who took her own life, while in a mental health facility. She admitted herself for fear of ending her own life, yet she got lost in the liminal space between paediatric and adult health. If children and adolescents with a mental illness, seek or require healthcare they are bound by bureaucratic formations to exist within the biomedical model of care delivery in the paediatric setting. As they move toward adulthood, they are required to be transitioned to healthcare specifically designed for adults. The liminal space between child and adult is widely researched and reduced to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The policies developed by health bureaucracies have consistently made recommendations toward a slow transition from 14 years of age, yet when steady transition is not practiced using high levels of interdisciplinary communication and regard for individual subjective realities, lives are damaged, forgotten and in some cases lost altogether, as was the case with Ahlia.