Tuesday Tips (Summer Edition) - Medical Treatment Authorizations for kids

It’s summer in the PNW (even though the view from my window is currently revealing rain.) Kids are out of school and that means they are doing a whole bunch of other activities, spending time with friends, sleeping over & visiting other family members, and attending all kinds of camps. In the summer chaos, its easy to forget important details and this is something that’s been on my mind lately. As a lawyer and a mom I try to be prepared and make sure that my kids are safe no matter where they are. One piece of the puzzle is making sure that someone who is with your child is authorized to seek medical treatment for your child if any medical issue or injury occurs. Personally I hate thinking about this, but if I could not be reached and my child was injured or needing medical attention, I would not want assistance to be slowed down just because there was no one around with authority to consent to treat my child.

In light of that, I’ve created a super simple and straight-forward medical treatment authorization and consent form that I use when my kids are going to be with other adults. I fill this form out with all of our contact information, doctor & dentist, and insurance information and make a stack of copies. Then when I need to give one of these forms out I only need to fill in the name of the adult I am authorizing to seek treatment.

My form is informal and practical and if you would like a copy for yourself, you can download mine here.

As always, if you have questions, call or email and I’ll be happy to help.

Legal Stuff (because I’m a lawyer): Please note that provision of this form does not constitute legal advice and downloading it or reading it for yourself does not create an attorney-client relationship between us. It’s simply a helpful tool that I use that you may find helpful too. Since every situation and circumstance and child is different, it’s important to remember that forms are merely a starting place and need to be customized for each particular situation. While I am happy to share this form, by downloading or reviewing it, you are acknowledging that I am not responsible or liable for your use or misuse of the form.