The big news a few months ago was the split between two partner pediatricians in Park Slope  (Drs. Glaser and Gordon). Here Dr. Glaser describes her new Only Adolescents practice from my article in Park Slope Patch. While still a pediatrician,  she’s now offering special care for adolescents ages 13-22 two afternoons a week.

Dr. Glaser will be writing a weekly column on adolescent health care issues on OTBKB starting in the coming weeks.

Park Slope may be known for its stroller gridlock, but what happens when those babies become teenagers and have special health care needs?

One of Park Slope’s most popular pediatricians, Dr. Amy Glaser, is attaching a new shingle to her Eighth Avenue office.

“Only Adolescents” is the name of her recently opened, part-time practice for, well, only adolescents age 13-22.  “I believe that this will reinforce the needs of young adults for privacy and confidentiality, creating a new, closer and more productive patient-doctor relationship.” Dr. Glaser told me over coffee at Cousin John’s.

With a fellowship in adolescent medicine, many years experience as a local pediatrician and master diagnostician, and two adolescents of her own, Dr. Glaser, who recently split with her longtime business partner, Dr. Philippa Gorden, is uniquely suited for the job.

Over the years, Dr. Glaser has worked with adolescents at The Door, the Elmhurst Adolescent Clinic, Barnard Health Service, Soho Adolescents and El Puente and has long worried that adolescents fall through the cracks between pediatric care and adult medicine.

“With teenagers, there’s often a hidden agenda,” she said. “A teenager complaining of a stomach ache may really want to be measured to see if his growth spurt has finally come. A teenager who needs help for his or her pregnant ‘friend’ may seek the wrong pathways without easy access to the right ones.”

Indeed, discovering the hidden agenda is one of the primary goals of the new practice, which is one of the first of its kind in Brooklyn. The office is open to adolescents exclusively two afternoons a week. On these afternoons, the office is closed to younger children, so that the teenagers are focus of the health care and understand that their health needs deserve special attention.

During appointments, Dr. Glaser works hard to stay attuned to what the adolescent is saying and, often, what they’re not saying. Her approach involves close listening so that the teenager can freely tell his or her own story. She has learned to ask questions in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way so that her young patients understand that she is on their side. “I might ask, what’s the community like at your school? Do you ever do things that make you feel uncomfortable? What are your peers doing?” she told me.

Clearly she believes that adolescents are entitled to confidential care. But if there’s a serious problem she tries to convince the teenager to talk to his or her parents.

When it comes to adolescent sexuality, drugs, eating disorders and other serious topics, it helps that she is willing to be open and informative on the subject. “I never assume someone is in a heterosexual relationship, for instance,” she said. “It’s not a given and teenagers appreciate that I get that.”

Dr. Glaser has known some of her patients since birth.

“I’ve been in the neighborhood for a long time. I have teens that I took care of their whole lives. Their parents know me. They trust me to meet with their kids alone,” she said.   With new patients, Glaser will take a long social history in an effort to suss out what is really going on.

It is also Dr. Glaser’s mission to teach adolescents to take charge of their health care so that they understand what they need to do to stay healthy as they grow older.

Clearly, Dr. Glaser is passionate about adolescent healthcare and excited about the new direction of her practice.

“Teenagers are unique and interesting. It keeps me young knowing what’s going on with them,” she said.