Parents' experiences of their child's admission to a CAMHS unit
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring parents' experiences following their child's admission to a Child and Adolescent Mental Health inpatient unit.
IRAS ID
239288
Contact name
Jacqui Truter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Coventry University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 2 months, 27 days
Research summary
This study aims to explore parents’ or primary caregivers’ experiences following their child’s admission to a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient unit. CAMHS inpatient units provide specialist care for children with complex mental health difficulties who present with a high risk to themselves or others (NHS England, 2014).
Participants will be recruited from acute CAMHS inpatient units in England using a purposive sampling design. In order to be eligible for the study, participants must be the parent or primary caregiver of a child that has been admitted to an acute CAMHS inpatient unit. The proposed project will gather qualitative data using semi-structured interviews, which will be transcribed and analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to gain a detailed understanding of participants experiences.
Exploring parents’ experiences is important as previous research has identified that child mental health is linked to caregiver’s stress and strain (Vaughan, Feinn, Bernard, Brereton & Kaufman, 2012). Giving parents the opportunity to share their views is beneficial to their well-being as it facilitates support and can lead to empowerment in bringing about changes (Young Minds, 2017). Exploring parents’ experiences may highlight areas for improvement in services where changes are needed to support parents caring for children who have been admitted to acute CAMHS inpatient units. This fits with national requirements in the UK for the National Health Service (NHS) to routinely collect feedback from patients and their families regarding their experiences of utilising NHS services (NHS England, 2014).
This study will offer an in-depth qualitative understanding of parents and primary caregivers experiences following their child’s admission to a CAMHS unit in England.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0130
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jun 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion