STADIA Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
STAndardised DIagnostic Assessment for children and adolescents with emotional difficulties (STADIA): a multi-centre randomised controlled trial
IRAS ID
255635
Contact name
Kapil Sayal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
15748675
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
This research focuses on children with emotional difficulties who have been referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Referrals are sometimes turned down by CAMHS, often because of insufficient information. Even if the referral is accepted, assessments are often carried out without reaching a clinical diagnosis. This is important because receiving the correct diagnosis is vital so that appropriate help can be offered.
We want to find out whether the use of a standard information-gathering package helps with the assessment and diagnosis process in CAMHS. Children referred to CAMHS will be randomly selected to go into one of two groups. Either the referral will be looked at as usual, or the package will be tested. This involves information being collected from the parent (and the child, if aged 11+) soon after the referral is received but before any decision has been made about accepting the referral. This information will then be passed on to the CAMHS clinicians and the family.
We will assess how effective and cost-effective this approach is by seeing whether it makes any difference to whether or not a diagnosis is made and whether this better helps children and their families. We will follow the children up for 12 months to assess the impact on their emotional difficulties, day-to-day functioning and quality of life.
For children and their families, receiving the right help at the right time can make a huge difference to their lives. By evaluating different approaches to assessment within CAMHS, and publicising our findings, our research will help improve care and inform clinical guidelines. Our findings will help the NHS decide how best to ensure value for money for how emotional difficulties are diagnosed.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0133
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion