This is the second article in our four-part series on the life skills every college-bound teen needs. Part 1 covered the everyday basics of independent living: managing money, cooking, and keeping a space clean. Once those fundamentals are in place, the next priority is making sure your teen can take care of their health, recognize when they need support, and stay safe, whether that means a minor illness, a stressful week, or a real emergency.
Why Health and Safety Skills Deserve Just as Much Attention
It’s easy to assume health and safety will just take care of themselves once a teen is capable and independent. These are skills like any other, and they’re often the ones parents forget to walk through before move-in day simply because they’ve always handled them. Here’s what to cover.
1. Managing Their Own Health and Medical Care
The healthcare system isn’t the most intuitive, so a little confusion is normal. Start with the basics: does your teen’s plan allow them to see any doctor, or only providers within a certain network? Answering that question helps identify a primary care provider who becomes the anchor for the rest of their healthcare, including referrals to specialists when needed.
Many colleges and universities also offer medical services on or near campus, so it’s worth checking what’s available before your teen arrives.
How to Make a Doctor’s Appointment and Get Prescriptions Filled
First things first: a medical emergency means calling 911, not scheduling an appointment. An urgent need that isn’t quite an emergency might call for urgent care or an ER visit, though both usually cost more and don’t require an appointment. For everything else, a regular appointment is the right call.
Once your teen knows who their doctor is, booking an appointment is usually as simple as a phone call, and many offices also allow scheduling online, sometimes along with intake paperwork and copay payment ahead of time.
An illness that lingers for more than a few days without improving, or that doesn’t respond to over-the-counter medication, is worth a doctor’s visit, as are routine checkups twice a year.
If a doctor prescribes medication, they’ll ask where to send it. There may be a pharmacy on campus, or your teen can use a local supermarket pharmacy or a chain like Walgreens or CVS. Most of the time, the prescribing provider will send the prescription electronically to the pharmacy requested and it just needs to be picked up once it’s ready. However, a written prescription needs to be dropped off at the pharmacy to be filled. Pharmacists are also a good resource for questions about medications.
Knowing Their Medications, Insurance Card, and Health History
A doctor is only as effective as the information they’re working with. Help your teen put together a list of any medications they’re currently taking (prior medications are generally less relevant) along with a record of relevant family medical history, including any physical or mental health conditions that run in the family. Having this on hand saves time and gives any new doctor a solid starting point. Also ensure your teen has a copy of their health insurance card and understands how co-pays work and why providing the insurance information ahead of time is important for billing and costs.
2. Handling Stress and Protecting Their Mental Health
Stress is a normal part of life, and even a helpful motivator in small doses, but it can also build to the point of becoming overwhelming. The same way lifting too much weight too often leads to injury, pushing too hard mentally for too long takes a toll. Knowing personal limits, and when extra support is needed, matters just as much as knowing how to study or budget. Eating enough, moving enough, and sleeping enough are the baseline for protecting mental health, right alongside physical health.
Recognizing When They Need Support
Part of college is learning to push boundaries and work through problems independently, but that doesn’t mean doing everything alone. If your teen has attempted to solve something, used the resources already available to them, and is still stuck, that’s a reasonable point to ask for help. Figuring out when to call in reinforcements is itself a skill worth practicing.
Campus Resources They Should Know About Before Day One
Most college and university campuses offer mental health resources to students, and access is often tied to enrollment status rather than whether a student lives on campus. Available resources vary by school, but commonly include addiction support, mental health assessments, crisis care, inpatient and outpatient programs, and individual or group therapy. It’s worth checking with your teen’s specific campus ahead of time, so they know how to access support before they actually need it.
3. Basic Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Start by figuring out what kinds of emergencies are likely in the area. That might mean earthquakes and wildfires in some regions, or tornadoes, volcanic activity, or tsunamis in others.
What to Do If Something Goes Wrong
A personal emergency means calling 911 or another appropriate resource, whether that’s a parent or mental health services. For larger emergencies, like a natural disaster, your teen should have an emergency bag ready ahead of time.
That bag should include a flashlight, batteries, an emergency blanket, a radio, a first aid kit, charged battery packs, and nonperishable food, ideally enough food and water for a few days, along with copies of important documents. Exactly what else goes in depends on location and local risks.
Your teen should also know how to get out of their building, whether there are designated fire exits or stairways, and where to go once they’re out. Many universities have designated meeting points and ways to get updates during an emergency, so make sure your teen knows how to size up a new space and map out an exit plan, especially if they change dorms or move somewhere new.
Who to Call and When (Especially If They’re Away From Home)
It’s hard to think clearly in the middle of an emergency, which is exactly why it helps to have key information ready ahead of time. Talk through the kinds of emergencies your teen might run into, both personal and public, and who to contact for each. They almost certainly know they can call you, but make sure they also have contact information on hand for:
- Local health department
- Poison control
- Local hospital
- Their primary care provider
- Animal control
- Fire department
- Power and gas companies
- Tow truck or roadside service (like AAA)
- Insurance agent
- Locksmith
Health, safety, and mental wellness give your teen a solid floor to stand on. From here, the next challenge is making sure they can manage their time and get where they need to go, which is exactly what the third article in this series covers.
More From This Series: Is Your Teen Ready for College? A Life Skills Checklist for Parents
- Part 1: College Prep 101: Money, Meal Prep, and Home Care Skills for Teens
- Part 3: Time Management and Transportation Skills Every College-Bound Teen Needs (Coming Soon)
- Part 4: Teaching Teens to Communicate Like Adults: A College Prep Guide for Parents (Coming Soon)
Sources
University of Utah, Mental Health on Campus: A Guide for New and Returning College Students
University of Utah, Mental Health Programs and Services
Utah State University, Counseling and Prevention Services
Utah Valley University, Mental Health Services
University of Utah, Why Asking for Help is a Lifeskill Every Teen Should Learn
