TY - JOUR
T1 - Emergency mental health admissions for children
T2 - A naturalistic study
AU - Kyriakopoulos, Marinos
AU - Ougrin, Dennis
AU - Fraser, Carmel
AU - Thomas, Gillene
AU - McMahon, Rachel
PY - 2015/1/20
Y1 - 2015/1/20
N2 - Objective: Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 years are not routinely offered in the UK, which may be related to preconceptions about their safety, appropriateness and acceptability. Our aim was to evaluate routinely offered EA of children in a national unit over a three-year period.Method: A retrospective, naturalistic study was conducted, comparing EA with planned admissions (PA) in terms of childrens functioning on admission and discharge, clinical characteristics, significant risk-related incidents and parental and children satisfaction.Results: EA children (N=47) did not differ from PA children (N=35) in age, length of admission, medication treatment, significant risk-related incidents, functioning at discharge, access to education at discharge and satisfaction. EA children had lower functioning and were less likely to have been out of education on admission. Parental satisfaction in EA was higher compared to PA.Conclusions: EA for children are an appropriate, clinically indicated and safe alternative to PA, associated with higher parental satisfaction.
AB - Objective: Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 years are not routinely offered in the UK, which may be related to preconceptions about their safety, appropriateness and acceptability. Our aim was to evaluate routinely offered EA of children in a national unit over a three-year period.Method: A retrospective, naturalistic study was conducted, comparing EA with planned admissions (PA) in terms of childrens functioning on admission and discharge, clinical characteristics, significant risk-related incidents and parental and children satisfaction.Results: EA children (N=47) did not differ from PA children (N=35) in age, length of admission, medication treatment, significant risk-related incidents, functioning at discharge, access to education at discharge and satisfaction. EA children had lower functioning and were less likely to have been out of education on admission. Parental satisfaction in EA was higher compared to PA.Conclusions: EA for children are an appropriate, clinically indicated and safe alternative to PA, associated with higher parental satisfaction.
KW - Children's inpatient units
KW - children's mental health
KW - clinical effectiveness
KW - emergency admissions
KW - service user experience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919335958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1359104513493430
DO - 10.1177/1359104513493430
M3 - Article
C2 - 23827937
AN - SCOPUS:84919335958
SN - 1359-1045
VL - 20
SP - 8
EP - 19
JO - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
JF - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
IS - 1
ER -