Validation of Risk Assessment tools in CF-CAMHS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of the use of risk and protective factors in the assessment of violence in Children and Young People, who access Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the community.
IRAS ID
153810
Contact name
Jodie Hart
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Mental Health and Criminal Justice Practitioners are frequently required to predict and make decisions about how to manage different levels of risk posed by individuals, both to themselves and to others; recently this expectation has been extended to those working with children and young people.
Subsequently risk assessment tools have been developed that assess both risk and protective factors, and research is required to see how well these new tools support clinicians in making decisions about risk. In particular, when used with children and young people who have mental health issues, and use services in the community, which is a group that has the potential to be high risk because of lack of formal supervision, and has been neglected by previous research.
This research will use four risk assessment tools, that include protective factors which look specifically at those areas which make it less likely that a person will engage in risky behaviour, developed for use with children and young people. These assessment tools will be used with the current caseload of the 10 NHS funded Community Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams in England. They will then be followed up over 6 and 12 months to measure their ability to predict violence, in addition to other high risk behaviours such as self harm, suicide and substance misuse.
It is anticipated that this research will make an important contribution to the knowledge about risk assessment in children and young people in contact with forensic community mental health services. It will also promote the development of a standard risk assessment schedule to improve the communication of information about risk, and to provide cohesion and consistency among disjointed services with a potentially high risk population.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0196
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion