to be a bit cross about this letter from GP surgery

[roisin]

The letter was addressed to ds2, who is only 11 and very young for his age.

It was a "sexual health questionnaire". I realise that many children are becoming sexually active at a very young age and it is important that they are accessing appropriate health information.

But the whole tone of the mailing was written from the assumption that the reader was sexually active. A very early question was:
WHEN did you become sexually active? (with options to tick - no option to tick not yet or never).
What type of contraception do you use? (No option to skip this question).

I don't know what the legal position is, but I think if GP surgeries are sending out this kind of thing to such young children, it should go to the parents with a covering letter. Not sent direct to the child.

And I think 11 is very different from 13 in this case.

That seems a bit odd TBH. Have you checked it was actually for him and they've got his right DOB?

Are you sure there wasn't some kind of mix-up?

Sounds barking to me, to send this to an 11yr old.

Omg I would NOT be happy if my 12 yr old received a letter like that. Its basically assuming an 11 yr old is sexually active! If I were you I would be ringing that surgery to complain very loudly

must be an error on their part
Would imagine you won't be the only angry one

Are you sure it was meant for him?

I cant see many sexually active 11 yr olds filling in a form about it for their GP tbh, maybe anonoymous forms filled in by everyone in PSHE at school would be more apropriate

YANBU. 11 is too young for those questions. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sex education as young as possible but the nature of those questions is not age appropriate.
If I was you I'd be having a serious word with the GP surgery.

It sounds like an admin error to me. Maybe there is someone else registered at your surgery with the same name as your ds?

I work in primary care and I suspect there has been a bit of a muddle here (I sincerely hope so!)
Perhaps you could give the practice manager a quick ring to ascertain what age group they had intended to send this letter out to?

If it was supposed to be e.g. over 16's only, then they should be glad someone has brought this glaring error to their attention.

Btw, if they intended their 11 year old patients to receive a letter like this, I do think it's unreasonably young and you would be well within the bounds of commonsense parenting to take it up at a higher level e.g.PCT

ds2 hasn't even seen the letter. Dh opened it when it arrived during the day, then showed it to me. I haven't got it in front of me, as dh has tucked it in his diary (and gone out to a meeting.) He will contact the surgery in the morning.

I don't know if it was a mistake; but I don't think so.

I think it was probably just a random sample of patients from the surgery. (All 4 of us are registered and no-one else received a letter.)

The survey does say something along the lines of some people are not comfortable answering questions on this topic and if you feel this way, just don't complete the survey.

That definitely sounds like a mistake to me, did you phone the surgery to ask?

Oh and the letter did say it was deliberately being sent to a range of ages of people - young, old, etc.

Sounds very off, phone the practice manager!

It's probably an error but even at 11 your ds has the right to privacy. How long will you be opening his post for?

Cross post!

If it is for a random sample of patients, they've been pretty stupid to send it to an 11 year old, there's random and there's random!

I think it's got to be a very thoughtless and tactless error.

At the age of 25, my DD still had her NHS hospital appointment letters addressed to 'parents of poolet jnr' because she started being seen as a child & continued attending the paediatric outpatient dept.

I can't understand why the letter wasn't addressed to you, his parent. (Well, I can't understand why the letter was sent at all tbh).

Definitely complain about this.

That's a very interesting question Northernlurker.

If we know what the letter is, we wouldn't open it! (eg if it's a birthday card from a relative, or a bank statement, or a letter from the library.) But if we're not expecting something, we would probably open it tbh at this age.

What do you think is the right age for children open their own uncensored mail?

My boys do have email accounts and ds1 (13) has a Facebook account. But there are both under the terms that I check them regularly for anything inappropriate either to or from them.

Thank you everyone for all the feedback by the way. I'm feeling relieved that I'm not being some kind of Victorian Prude in my reaction to the questionnaire!

I would be furious. I think you need to demand a meeting with the PCT as to be honest it's probably an initiative from them, sent out via the GP surgery.

Totally inappropriate and sounds like someone didn't do a risk assessment.

Did anything happen?

It should be a mistake. You can't do research with people under 16 without their parent/guardian's permission.

Are you sure it's from the surgery? I am a GP and I haven't heard anything about this survey. Could be a local initiative I suppose, but most of these surveys are national.

Dh went in to the surgery today and spoke to the practice manager.

It was a complete mistake: it was supposed to be sent out to people aged 17-70! They were very apologetic.

glad you got it sorted!