[Changes in autonomy and attachment to parents and caregivers during transition to adult services]

The transition from pediatric to adult care is a risky period in the care of a child or adolescent with a chronic illness. This pivotal stage is also part of an evolutionary process of individuation and empowerment that is both global and specific. The security felt, both in relationships with parents and caregivers, is fundamental to these processes. It is this security that will enable the young person to develop nuanced, flexible strategies for adjusting to the different kinds of changes he will have to face in his situation as a patient and, more broadly, in his daily life. Enrolled in multiple networks of relationships, yet autonomous, he or she will become an agent of his or her own life, of which medical care is one aspect.