CAMHS patients' experiences of preparing to move on to adult services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
“Getting ready to move on: Considering attachment within young peoples’ experiences of preparing to transition out of CAMHS.”
IRAS ID
199369
Contact name
Emma Frances Rich
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leicester Partnership NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
As young people in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) approach the age of 18, they face leaving the service. Evidence suggests that this transition can be difficult. This research seeks to explore how young people experience the approach of this transition by interviewing them and gaining in-depth information about how they have experienced CAMHS and what are the challenges of transition as they see it.
The method used to investigate the experiences of the young people is called Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). It involves interviewing a small group of young people as they approach transition, and the researcher seeks to understand or interpret how the young people make sense of their experience. This approach is interested in how individual experiences may be quite different from each other as well as how they may be broadly similar. The in-depth data is analysed case by case, and therefore this method uses a relatively small sample.
The study will also look at the attachment style of participants. This refers to how they generally approach relationships, e.g. how secure they expect relationships to be, and how easy they find it to trust others. People with mental health problems often have an insecure attachment style, and this may make transition particularly difficult for them as they potentially have to deal with ending and beginning relationships. The results of two short attachment styles questionnaires will be examined to see if they help to make sense of some aspects of the experiences. If attachment style is found to be relevant, this may help us to understand more about the challenges of transition.
Once the data is analysed, the report will be shared with service providers, service users and sent for publication where it can inform services how to improve support for this group.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0131
Date of REC Opinion
19 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion