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Emergency mental health admissions for children: a naturalistic study
Marinos Kyriakopoulos1, Dennis Ougrin2, Carmel Fraser3
1National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK marinos.kyriakopoulos@kcl.ac.uk.
Insights
Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 are safe and effective. This study found EA comparable to planned admissions (PA), with higher parental satisfaction, indicating appropriateness for pediatric mental healthcare.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Mental Health Services Research
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 are not routinely available in the UK.
- Concerns exist regarding the safety, appropriateness, and acceptability of EA for this age group.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of routinely offered emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13.
- To compare EA with planned admissions (PA) in a national unit over a three-year period.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective, naturalistic study design was employed.
- Compared EA (N=47) with PA (N=35) children.
- Evaluated functioning, clinical characteristics, risk incidents, and satisfaction.
Main Results:
- EA children showed similar outcomes to PA children regarding age, admission length, medication, risk incidents, discharge functioning, education access, and satisfaction.
- EA children presented with lower functioning and less prior education access on admission.
- Parental satisfaction was higher in the EA group compared to PA.
Conclusions:
- Emergency mental health admissions (EA) are an appropriate, clinically indicated, and safe alternative to planned admissions (PA) for children.
- EA for pediatric mental health is associated with increased parental satisfaction.
- Findings support the routine offering of EA for children under 13 in the UK.
Objective:
Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 years are not routinely offered in the UK, which may be related to preconceptions about their safety, appropriateness and acceptability. Our aim was to evaluate routinely offered EA of children in a national unit over a three-year period.
Method:
A retrospective, naturalistic study was conducted, comparing EA with planned admissions (PA) in terms of children's functioning on admission and discharge, clinical characteristics, significant risk-related incidents and parental and children satisfaction.
Results:
EA children (N=47) did not differ from PA children (N=35) in age, length of admission, medication treatment, significant risk-related incidents, functioning at discharge, access to education at discharge and satisfaction. EA children had lower functioning and were less likely to have been out of education on admission. Parental satisfaction in EA was higher compared to PA.
Conclusions:
EA for children are an appropriate, clinically indicated and safe alternative to PA, associated with higher parental satisfaction.
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