Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 10 of 14
Factors that influence decision making by 8-12 year olds in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS): a systematic review
- Authors:
- COX Annette, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 31(3), 2016, pp.195-209.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
There is significant legal guidance and case law available to support clinicians in assessing whether young people aged over 13 years are able to make informed decisions about their own healthcare; however when working with children aged 8-12 years, the guidance is unclear. In order to assess whether 8-12 year olds are able to make decisions in their own healthcare, we first need to understand the factors that influence this process. A systematic literature review of five electronic databases (PsycINFO, EBSCO, Science Direct, Science Full Text, Web of Science All Databases) was conducted. The search identified 12 studies and one piece of government guidance. The studies were identified from a variety of health and social research journals. The six factors that were identified were: 1) consent, competence and capacity, 2) best interests, 3) communication, 4) risks and conflicts, 5) legal frameworks, and, 6) parental role. The review concludes that it is possible for some children 8-12 years of age to make decisions regarding their own healthcare. The necessary conditions are that age specific language is used through a variety of mediums which will include risks, benefits and options for the proposed interventions. Clinicians need to be skilled in the assessment of the child’s ability to make decisions and be effective communicators with a commitment to children’s involvement. Further research in both these areas is needed. (Edited publisher abstract)
Transition from child to adult mental health services: a French retrospective survey
- Authors:
- SCHANDRIN Aurelie, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice, 11(5), 2016, pp.286-293.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: Adolescents and young adults’ mental health problems are an important health issue. However, the current organisation of the care pathway is not robust enough and transition between child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS) has been identified as a period of risk. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: A retrospective survey was conducted in Montpellier University Hospital concerning transitions organised between CAMHS and AMHS between 2008 and 2009. The aim was to assess if transitions met four criteria identified in literature as warranting an optimal transition. Findings: In total, 31 transitions were included. Transition was accepted by AMHS in 90 per cent of cases but its organisation was rarely optimal. Relational continuity and transition planning were absent in 80 per cent of cases. The age boundary of 16 often justified the triggering of the transition regardless of patient’s needs. Discontinuity was observed in 48 per cent of transition cases, with an average gap of three months without care. Psychiatrists reported difficulties in working together. Finally, at the moment of the survey (one to three years later), 55 per cent of patients were lost to follow-up. Research limitations/implications: This is a retrospective study on a small sample but it reveals important data about transition in France. Practical implications: Transition process should include collaborative working between CAMHS and AMHS, with cross-agency working and periods of parallel care. (Edited publisher abstract)
Lightning review: access to child and adolescent mental health services, May 2016
- Author:
- CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER FOR ENGLAND
- Publisher:
- Children's Commissioner for England
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 23
- Place of publication:
- London
Examines the potential issues that exist in the mental health services vulnerable young people need. Drawing on data from 48 trusts and findings from interviews with children and young people about their experiences of accessing CAMHS, the report shows that large numbers of children and young people are being turned away from CAMHS upon referral and/or are having to wait long periods of time for treatment. Many children are waiting a long time to be seen by mental health services or are falling out of the system because they miss appointments and then have to be re-referred. There are large variations in practice across the country, suggesting that access to CAMHS is a postcode lottery. The paper sets out the policy asks from young people who have recently used CAMHS services, which include: shorter waiting times; for someone to be available to talk to between the referral to CAMHS and the first appointment; not relying on letters to get people to the first appointment, especially when the family is not reliable, but rather using phone and text messages; reducing the stigma around being in care or having a mental health need; and providing a drop-in service for young people where they could chat about things that worried them and get to know the people running the service. (Edited publisher abstract)
A qualitative exploration of how adopted children and their parents conceptualise mental health difficulties
- Authors:
- O'REILLY Michelle, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Adoption and Fostering, 40(1), 2016, pp.60-76.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Adopted children tend to have high levels of emotional, behavioural and developmental need and are more likely to present to a range of services, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Although research exploring adopted children's perspectives is growing, it remains limited. Furthermore, there has been little work to engage adopted children in research. The authors' project aimed to examine adopted children's viewpoints of mental health and services alongside those of their adoptive carers. Results indicated that although there were some similarities between carer and child perspectives, they also frequently differed. They provided different constructions of the problem but agreed that family relationships were strained. Some acknowledgement of the role of the school was offered and other external sources of support cited. Coping was considered to be complex and while some issues were analogous to ‘normal’ family life, much was inherent to the adoption status. (Publisher abstract)
A scoping review of care received by young people aged 16-25 when admitted to adult mental health hospital wards
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Public Mental Health, 15(4), 2016, pp.216-228.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent, range and nature of literature concerning the mental health inpatient care of the young adult population (16-25 years) who have been admitted to adult mental health wards. This paper reports the findings and positions these in the context of the broader nature to adult inpatient care, evaluates the quality of the evidence and identify gaps in the literature. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses an adapted scoping review methodology, allowing for a broad search but utilised established steps that allowed for a structured, rigorous approach to be used. CINAHL, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, plus a secondary hand search were conducted resulting in eight papers, of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods papers. Findings: Findings show admissions follow similar paths as to adults; admission reasons are largely unknown beyond simple descriptors; admission lengths are unknown whilst on adult wards; staff feel confident yet lack resources; young people feel the transition from CAMHS ward to adult ward can be beneficial if done sensitively; young people have positive experiences of adult wards, including factors that may not be present on CAMHS wards, e.g. role modelling by older patients; young people feel scared and vulnerable, including when excluded from decision making; however, involving young people can cause stress and be confusing if not done sensitively. Research limitations/implications: The scoping review identified a limited amount of research evidence for the care of young people admitted to adult wards. The research methods used in these papers were varied and none was of a high-quality standard. All studies contained methodological gaps which detract significantly from their findings and conclusions. The studies go some way to fill the gaps in knowledge and evidence base for this group, although in doing this scoping review was to unearth more gaps in knowledge. Originality/value: This scoping review collates findings from the literature regarding young people’s admissions to adult mental health wards. This sensitive and controversial area of mental health care is shown to be lacking in high-quality research. Young people are being admitted to adult wards in increasing numbers year on year in the UK, yet little research has been conducted to identify when and where treatment has been appropriate. This review provides a start to understanding what is known about admission and treatment for this group and what is not known so that these gaps may be investigated in future research. (Publisher abstract)
Beyond adversity: addressing the mental health needs of young people who face complexity and adversity in their lives
- Author:
- YOUNG MINDS
- Publisher:
- Young Minds
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 44
- Place of publication:
- London
This report shows how children and young people can be at greater risk of poor mental health as a consequence of adverse, complex or traumatic experiences experienced in childhood. This may be due to maltreatment, bereavement, bullying or victimisation, or due to taking on adult responsibilities, such as caring. Many of these children do not have their mental health needs identified, often because services are too focused on what they see as challenging or risky behaviour. This can stigmatise or criminalise normal responses to childhood adversity and trauma and result in the unnecessary escalation of problems. The report highlights different approaches used by local authorities and the NHS to identify and recognise the social, emotional and health needs of children who face adversity and additional complexity. It then draws on recommendations from the Future in Mind report to identify principles for future services and interventions that can help to transform services for children who have experienced adversity, trauma and complexity. The report concludes that children who have had traumatic experiences should be fast-tracked for mental health support when they need it, even if they do not meet the usual thresholds for those services and that doctors, teachers, social workers, police officers and charities need to improve their understanding of how traumatic childhood experiences can affect behaviour. (Edited publisher abstract)
Trials and tribulations - an RCT comparing manualized family therapy with treatment as usual and reflections on key issues that arose in the implementation
- Authors:
- COTTRELL David, BOSTON Paula
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Family Therapy, 38(2), 2016, pp.172-188.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
SHIFT has been one of the largest RCTs in the field of systemic family therapy in the UK. The study took place over five years, including three major centres with fifteen Trusts and twenty-five family therapists who worked with a manualised treatment in CAMHS with adolescents who self-harmed. While the results are not available at the time of this publication, this paper will briefly describe the pre- existing factors which were helpful in developing a successful bid, clinical and managerial elements of ‘real world research’ of complex psychological processes and the construction of the manualized systemic family therapy. It also offers examples of some of the unanticipated events in the life of such a large trial. (Publisher abstract)
Development and implementation of a child welfare workforce strategy to build a trauma-informed system of support for foster care
- Authors:
- KERNS Suzanne E.U., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child Maltreatment, 21(2), 2016, pp.135-146.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Effective strategies that increase the extent to which child welfare professionals engage in trauma-informed case planning are needed. This study evaluated two approaches to increase trauma symptom identification and use of screening results to inform case planning. The first study evaluated the impact of training on trauma-informed screening tools for 44 child welfare professionals who screen all children upon placement into foster care. The second study evaluated a two-stage approach to training child welfare workers on case planning for children’s mental health. Participants included (a) 71 newly hired child welfare professionals who received a 3-hr training and (b) 55 child welfare professionals who participated in a full-day training. Results from the first study indicate that training effectively increased knowledge and skills in administering screening tools, though there was variability in comfort with screening. In the second study, participants self-reported significant gains in their competency in identifying mental health needs (including traumatic stress) and linking children with evidence-based services. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the viability of this approach to increase the extent to which child welfare professionals are trauma informed, aware of symptoms, and able to link children and youth with effective services designed to meet their specific needs. (Publisher abstract)
Adolescent mental health case management: consumer perspectives
- Authors:
- GRUBE Whitney, MENDENHALL Amy N.
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 97(2), 2016, pp.86-94.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
This qualitative study describes case management practices and suggestions for mental health service delivery improvement from the perspective of parents and guardians of adolescent service recipients, as well as youth service recipients over the age of 18. Data were collected during a series of 10 personal semistructured interviews. Parent/guardian interview participants discussed case management and what they perceived as barriers to effective case management services, as well as those aspects found within quality services. Interview participants also discussed their ideas on how to improve mental health case management service at both the micro and macro level. Interview results indicate mental health case management is not meeting its full capacity as a service that can positively impact adolescent outcomes (Publisher abstract)
CentreForum Commission on Children and Young People's Mental Health: state of the nation
- Author:
- FRITH Emily
- Publisher:
- CentreForum
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 32
- Place of publication:
- London
This report explores the issue of child and adolescent mental health in England. It sets out the latest available data on prevalence and trends over the last five years, and in the process highlights the fractured and inconsistent nature of the data available on this issue. This research identifies a significant ‘treatment gap’, where children and young people are unable to get the help they need; have to wait months for treatment; or are treated in the wrong place. The study reveals that child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) are, on average, turning away nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of children referred to them for treatment by concerned parents, GPs, teachers and others. This is often because their condition was not considered serious enough, or not considered suitable for specialist mental health treatment. The median waiting time for all providers was one month for a first appointment and two months until start of treatment. There was wide variation in average waiting times for different providers, from two weeks in Cheshire to 19 weeks in North Staffordshire. The average of the maximum waiting times for all providers has more than doubled since 2011/12. Only 0.7 per cent of NHS funding is spent on young people’s mental health, and only 16 per cent of this funding is on early intervention. This report demonstrates a stark inequality within the NHS where, unlike those who are physically ill, children and young people with mental health problems are still not always getting the right treatment, at the right time, in the right place. (Edited publisher abstract)