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Waiting-list interventions for children and young people using child and adolescent mental health services: A systematic review
Valentine, Althea Z. Hall, Sophie S. Hall, Charlotte L.
Valentine, Althea Z.
Hall, Sophie S.
Hall, Charlotte L.
Abstract
Question Children and young people experience delays in assessment and/or treatment within mental health services. The objective of this systematic review, funded by the Emerging Minds Network, was to explore the current evidence base for mental health waiting list interventions to support children and young people.Study selection and analysis A literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science and the Cochrane databases from 2000 to 2023 (last searched October 2023). Included studies described interventions to support children and young people and/or their family while on a waiting list for child and adolescent mental health services. Titles and abstracts were screened independently by two reviewers, data were extracted by one reviewer, confirmed by a second and a narrative synthesis was provided.Findings Eighteen studies including 1253 children and young people were identified. Studies described waiting list interventions for autism spectrum disorders, eating disorders, generic conditions, transgender health, anxiety/depression, self-harm and suicide and behavioural issues. Many interventions were multicomponent; 94% involved psychoeducation, other components included parental support, bibliotherapy and coaching. Duration of the interventions ranged from a single session to over a year; 66% involved face-to-face contact. All studies demonstrated benefits in terms of improved clinical outcomes and/or feasibility/acceptability. Evidence for service outcomes/efficiency was largely unexplored. Limitations of the underpinning research, such as sample size and low-quality papers, limit the findings.Conclusions There is limited research exploring waiting list interventions, however, the findings from small-scale studies are promising. Further research using robust study designs and real-world implementation studies are warranted.Data created during this research are openly available from the University of Nottingham data repository at https://doi.org/10.17639/nott.7375.
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Date
2024
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Article
Subject
Mental health, Child health services, Waiting lists
Citation
Althea, Z. V., Sophie, S. H., Kapil, S. & Charlotte, L. H. (2024). Waiting-list interventions for children and young people using child and adolescent mental health services: A systematic review. BMJ Mental Health, 27 (1), pp.e300844.
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© Author(s) (or their
employer(s)) 2024. Re-use
permitted under CC BY.
Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits
others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any
purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given,
and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/.
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