MAPS: Mental Health Admissions to Paediatric Wards Study - WP2 and WP3
Research type
Research Study
Full title
MAPS: Mental Health Admissions to Paediatric Wards Study
IRAS ID
322271
Contact name
Lee Hudson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL Institue of CHild Health
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2023/03/36, UCL’s Data Protection Policy
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 29 days
Research summary
The Mental Health Admissions to Paediatric Wards (MAPS) project seeks to understand and improve the quality of care for children and young people (CYP) presenting with mental health (MH) crises and who are admitted to acute inpatient services.
CYP presenting with a MH crisis are frequently admitted to general acute inpatient wards as a place of safety. There have been longstanding concerns about the quality of care to support these patients in this setting, but also significant cost implications for these admissions. There is limited published data on CYP with MH crisis admissions to general paediatric wards including total numbers, factors associated with admissions such as availability and quality of community mental health provision, outcomes for CYP admitted, and the impact of admissions on CYP, parents and professionals caring for them.
The MAPS project will use mixed methods across 4 work packages (WP) to investigate these trends and generate a Theory of Change (ToC) model to positively impact the care for CYP presenting in MH crises. The 4 WP will:
1)Describe current burdens/trends in mental healthcare activity in England.
2)Investigate factors influencing decisions to admit CYP to paediatric wards for primary MH problems (WP2).
3)Explore views and experiences of CYP, families and professionals during admissions (WP3).
4)Synthesise data with a stakeholder group to create a ToC model for agreed impacts to inform service provision (WP4).This IRAS application relates to WP2 and WP3. WP2 (consisting of WP2a and 2b) is limited to working with stakeholders to develop a data collection instrument (WP2A) and then use this in a prospective study of mental health admissions over 6 months in 15 purposively recruited acute paediatric wards (WP2B). WP3 will use qualitative research to investigate the views and experiences of CYP, their families, and healthcare professionals about admission, care, and treatment.
REC name
London - West London & GTAC Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0349
Date of REC Opinion
26 Apr 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion