Far Away from Home: A Surveillance Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Admissions far away from home or to adult wards - understanding the impact of current practices for accessing inpatient care for adolescents with mental health difficulties: a surveillance study
IRAS ID
288589
Contact name
Kapil Sayal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
This research focuses on young people, aged 13-17 years, who require admission to hospital for psychiatric care. Many types of serious mental ill-health start during the teenage years. In the long term, young people with severe mental health problems are at risk of having poor mental and physical health as well as difficulties with holding down a job, social involvement and activities, and making and maintaining friendships and relationships. These poor outcomes may be more likely if their early experience of support from services is poor and disjointed. This research aims to understand and improve the experience of care for young people with such severe mental health problems that they need to be admitted to inpatient mental health services.
This study will aim to find out how many young people in the UK are admitted far away from home (that is to an adolescent unit further than 50 miles from their home or to a different NHS region) or to adult wards. Over a 12 month period, we will ask doctors (psychiatrists working with young people aged under 18) to complete questionnaires about how many young people are admitted to different types of inpatient care, how long they spent there, and how they got on.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0265
Date of REC Opinion
26 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion