Minor’s rights

Minor’s rights

Children have the right to participate in decision-making concerning the management of their affairs in accordance with their level of development. The procedures are different in social welfare and health care.

Minors can use MyKanta themselves if they have electronic identification tools, such as online banking IDs or a mobile certificate.

Below, we will tell you about the rights of minors

In health care services 

Rights regarding prescriptions

A health care professional assesses whether a minor is able to make decisions about their treatment. The assessment of decision-making capacity is recorded on each prescription. If a health care professional considers a minor to be able to make decisions about their treatment, the minor has the same rights as adults.

They can:

  • ​​​​​request a prescription renewal and provide their phone number for notifications by text message
  • obtain a summary of their prescriptions
  • set up and cancel a denial of consent on a prescription
  • set and cancel denials of consent to sharing their data to their guardian or other legal representative.

Rights regarding patient data

The decision on whether a minor's medical records are visible to their guardian is made separately at the health care unit at each visit. The professional assesses the minor's decision-making capacity based on factors such as the child's age, maturity level and reason for the visit, among other things.

A minor with decision-making capacity can also decide whether or not their data will be visible to their guardian.
During a visit to a health care unit, a minor who is assessed as having decision-making capacity can also decide on the use of their data by consenting to the sharing of their data or setting up a denial of consent.

In social welfare services

When using social services, a minor may request that their client data is not shown to their guardian in MyKanta. Based on the minor’s level of development and the nature of the case, the professional will assess whether there are grounds for the prohibition requested by the minor. If the prohibition is contrary to the best interests of the minor, the professional may refuse it. The professional records the reasons for the denial of consent or the refusal to comply with the request in the customer’s information.
 
A minor assessed as having decision-making capacity may set up consent or denial of consent to the sharing of their client data stored in the Kanta services when a visiting social welfare service provider's premises. If a minor does not have the capacity to decide on matters related to the use of their own data, their guardian may make decisions on their behalf.

At a pharmacy

Minors can

  • collect prescription drugs from a pharmacy
  • obtain a summary of their prescriptions
  • request an overview of their medication
  • request a prescription renewal and provide their phone number for notifications by text message
  • collect medicines on someone else’s behalf
  • collect medicines from a foreign pharmacy

In MyKanta

A minor can use MyKanta to

  • view their prescriptions and health information
  • view social services client data, which will be added to MyKanta in stages in the future
  • view and download a COVID-19 certificate
  • store and view their wellbeing data
  • print out a summary of their prescriptions
  • renew prescriptions.

A minor cannot use MyKanta to

​​​​​​When a minor reaches the age of 18, they gain access to all the information about them stored in Kanta.

Minor guardians

If a person under the age of 18 has custody of a child, they have the same rights to manage the affairs of the minor child as an adult guardian.

Last updated 23.2.2024