MILESTONE version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
THE MILESTONE PROJECT: Managing the Link and Strengthening Transition from Child to Adult Mental Health Care. Work Package 2.
IRAS ID
155742
Contact name
Paramala Santosh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Research summary
The transition from childhood to adulthood is a time when many serious mental health issues first appear. Whilst individuals are making this developmental transition, if they are working with mental health services, they are also making the transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health (AMHS), or alternative, services. The way services are currently organised means that there are increasing concerns about how this transition is managed. Variable age and referral thresholds, poor communication between services and lack of resources, all contribute to a weak link where the care pathway should be strongest.
Poorly managed transitions can negatively impact upon service engagement, which can result in individuals presenting to adult services with more severe difficulties later in life. The adverse consequences of inadequate transition management pose socioeconomic and societal challenges across the EU.The MILESTONE project is an EU-wide study looking at transition from child and adolescent services. This study will involve the development, translation and validation of two new questionnaires. The first questionnaire, the Transition Readiness Measure (TRaM), will aim to identify individuals that are most in need of moving to adult services. The second, the Transition Outcome Measure (TrOMS), will evaluate the transition success.
The questionnaires will initially be developed through evaluating current literature and existing measures, together with focus groups and interviews with young people that have experience of working with CAMHS, their family members and clinicians and professionals that work with adolescents experiencing mental health issues. Recruitment for this study will occur in mental health services, community organisations and advisory groups.Versions of the questionnaires will be pilot tested ensure items are relevant and easily to complete. The internal reliability, convergent validity, test retest reliability and sensitivity to change of the questionnaires’ will be examined.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1049
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion