Evaluation of Intensive Community Care Services, an RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Comparison of Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Intensive Community Care Services versus Usual Inpatient Care for Young People with Psychiatric Emergencies (IVY): An Internal Pilot followed by a Randomised Controlled Trial Comprising All Intensive Community Service Care Teams in Great Britain
IRAS ID
271156
Contact name
Dennis Ougrin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN42999542
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Approximately 10% of adolescents experience severe mental health disorders and over 4000 are admitted to hospital every year. We do not know what the best way to care for these adolescents is. The main aim of this study is to establish which of the two ways of providing care to youths aged 12 to 18 is better. One way, treatment as usual (TAU), involves usual admission to a psychiatric hospital. The other, Intensive Community Care Service (ICCS), provides treatment at home instead of hospital. ICCS teams quickly assess all young people being considered for admission, start home treatment with frequent visits and then connect youths and their families with other services if needed.
252 adolescents from England, Scotland and Wales will be randomised to one of the two ways of providing care. This means that they will have an equal chance of receiving TAU or ICCS. Six months after participants enter the study, the time it takes for young people to return or to start education, employment or training (EET) will be compared between the two groups. We will also compare the two groups in terms of their mental health, well-being and service satisfaction. We will also collect information on all the health and social care services that these young people will have received so that we can compare how much their care cost. We will do a smaller study, to begin with. If we can recruit enough participants in the smaller study, we will then proceed to complete the full study with 252 participants. The full study should tell us what the best way to provide care to young people with severe mental health disorders is. We also will interview young people to understand their experience of receiving care and interview healthcare workers to understand their experience of delivering care.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0069
Date of REC Opinion
16 Apr 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion