Life after an Intensive Support Team

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Life after an Intensive Support Team – A mixed methods study investigating post discharge outcomes of children and young people from an Autism and Learning Disability Service

  • IRAS ID

    289514

  • Contact name

    Claire Forsyth

  • Contact email

    claire.forsyth@covwarkpt.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    The Children’s Intensive Support Team (IST) is a small, specialist, multi-disciplinary team currently consisting of Occupational Therapy, Clinical Psychology, Counselling, Nursing and Support Workers working across Coventry and Warwickshire. We were one of the first teams set up to offer this kind of support to children and young people aged 0-25 years who have a mental health need and Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or a Learning Disability and their families.

    Our team aim to provide complimentary input to the RISE services and Community Learning Disabilities Team working with the young person, over a short and focused period of time, primarily to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital. RISE is a family of NHS-led services providing emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Coventry and Warwickshire.

    Originally a pilot project, the Children's Intensive Support team is now 2 years old and has been able to demonstrate a significant success in achieving this.
    Some of the young people that have received input from Children’s IST over the past 2 years have completed outcome measures to monitor change however no young person has been followed up post discharge. The aim of our study is to repeat the outcome measures for young people who have been discharged from the service for at least 3 months, and to analyse this data to evaluate sustained change or improvement or decline. In addition to this we hope to provide more detailed qualitative information about the young person’s journey post discharge looking at factors such as social care input, educational input, adult mental health services, and any additional input.

  • REC name

    West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/WM/0131

  • Date of REC Opinion

    25 May 2021

  • REC opinion

    Unfavourable Opinion