The MILESTONE Study: Improving Transition from CAMHS to AMHS v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The MILESTONE Study: Improving Transition from Child to Adult Mental Health Care
IRAS ID
160653
Contact name
Swaran Singh
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
The MILESTONE study focuses on the period when young people attending a children and adolescents mental health service (CAMHS) need to move on, or “transition”, to an adult mental health service (AMHS), if they still require care or treatment. We know from other research that this transition is not always properly managed and that improving the transition process can have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of young people in this position.
The MILESTONE study will be conducted in eight European countries (UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Italy and Croatia). CAMHS in the study regions will be selected to provide all their service users at the time of transition either usual care or a novel service called “Managed Transition”, which will include the use of a new decision support tool, the Transition Readiness and Appropriateness Measure (TRAM). This should help with decision making and enable better transitions by identifying cases for whom transition from CAMHS to AMHS is advisable and appropriate, or who can be safely discharged or referred to a community based service.
The aim is to recruit 1000 young people (120-150 per country) reaching transition age of whom 200 will receive the intervention of Managed Transition and 800 usual care. We will also recruit one parent/carer per participant and corresponding CAMHS clinician, and the AMHS clinician or other care provider, if transitioning takes place. The health and wellbeing of the young people will be assessed at baseline and then followed-up for 27 months to see whether they transition to AMHS or are discharged or referred to some other service. We can then evaluate what impact the different transition experiences have on young people’s health and wellbeing, and whether the process of Managed Transition has any benefits as compared to usual care.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0052
Date of REC Opinion
24 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion