Body autonomy with health professionals

A template for asking your GP, allied health professionals and others to respect your child and their body autonomy.

Dear Doctor/ Therapist/ Health Practitioner,

Thank you for providing health care to (Child Name), we value the way you (insert what is great/ why your chose them). As a family we have been learning about child safety and body autonomy. I wanted to share with you the conservations we have with (Child name) and the expectations they can have when attending your sessions.

We use the correct names for our body parts including penis, vulva, anus.

Body autonomy - I make decisions about my body, who touches it, when and how. I am the boss of my body. Health practitioner name will ask for my ok before touching my body and listen when I say no.

We don't have secrets, everything that happens in our sessions can be talked about with safe adults.

We listen to our intuition and bodies. If I feel unsafe or uncertain I can ask to call my parents/ carers anytime.

Private parts are private - NO ONE should touch my private parts but me. If I need help with the health of my private parts, my parents would be with me.

We don't go anywhere or accept gifts from someone until we have checked with our parents/caregivers.

Tricky people or behaviour is anyone who tries to break, or asks me to break, our family safety rules.

Parent/carer will stay with me at my sessions/ can stay with me or drop in on my sessions at any time.

Thank you for supporting us in educating (Child Name) in child safety and body autonomy. We appreciate you being part of their safe community.

With thanks,

Categories: : Child protection