Mental Health Support for Young People with Chronic Conditions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mental Health Support for Children and Young People with Long-Term Health Conditions
IRAS ID
327978
Contact name
Sophie Bennett
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Children and young people (CYP) with long-term physical health conditions (LTCs) are at increased risk of developing mental health difficulties. Co-morbid mental and physical health symptoms can lead to a range of negative outcomes, such as poorer management of the physical condition and a lower overall quality of life. Paediatric care teams offer a first port of call to identifying and supporting mental health needs for many families.
Paediatric services vary in their approach to addressing mental health concerns and three ‘models’ of collaboration with mental health services have been identified in the literature: Communication (mental and physical health services are separate and a CYP requires a referral between services); Co-location (services operate in the same facility and collaborate on certain cases); and Integrated (mental and physical health clinicians are entirely integrated into one team). There are growing calls for services to adopt the integrated model, however the qualitative evidence around which model is best for families remains scarce. Available studies mostly focus on accessing care (rather than receiving it) and the majority have been conducted outside of the UK. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore the views and experiences of families of CYP with LTCs on accessing and receiving mental health support in the UK.
We aim to conduct semi-structured interviews with 16-20 children and young people with a long-term health condition, who have accessed mental health services. These young people will be recruited through paediatric services caring for CYP with a long-term health condition at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), as well as through online adverts. The study will last around 6 months.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
24/ES/0008
Date of REC Opinion
6 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion