Every school year, community health nurses offer students vaccines to prevent some serious diseases.
As your child gets older, the protection from childhood vaccines may wear off. To maintain protection against these diseases, boosters are required. Also, they may be at risk for new diseases, like HPV. These vaccines provide best protection against disease when given during adolescence.
The Yukon Immunization Schedule recommends that;
- Grade 6 students receive the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) immunization and,
- Grade 9 students receive: Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Tdap) booster and Meningococcal Quadrivalent immunization.
Children at high risk may be eligible for additional vaccines. Talk to your healthcare provider to determine individuals risk level.
If your child is sick or not in school on the day of the immunization clinic, you can bring your child into the local health center to receive vaccines.
If you’re child has not previously been immunized in the Yukon, send in your child’s immunization record to your local healthcare provider. Get more tips on locating immunization records.
Resources for parents
Prior to school based clinics, the Community Health Centre will send home consent forms and immunization information on the vaccines your child needs. It’s important to read all the information in the booklet and sign and return the consent form to your child’s school, even if you do not want your child to receive any of the vaccines.
The school program consent forms and vaccine specific information for the grade 6 and 9 programs are also available below:
Mature minor consent
It is the professional and legal responsibility of the provider to obtain informed consent prior to immunization. Consent to health care under the Care Consent Act, applies to a person of any age. There is no legal age of consent for health care in Yukon. That means that a child can consent or revoke to the vaccine on their own behalf if the nurse has determined that the child is capable of making this decision based on professional guidelines in place.