TY - JOUR
AU - S. Shahid
AU - T. De Simone
AU - R. Appleton
AU - S. Bisp
A1 - 
AB - BackgroundThe pressures on community Children and Young People's Mental Health Service (CYPMHS) clinicians to manage and maintain caseloads can be immense, therefore discharging young people from CYPMHS in a safe and timely way is often discussed as a priority. However, there is limited research into how discharge can be done well, especially for discharge occurring prior to children and young people (CYP) reaching the upper age limit of CYPMHS. Thus, this study aimed to gain a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators discharging CYP from community CYPMHS, by exploring clinicians experiences of discharging CYP from their service.MethodSemi-structured interviews of 30-40 minutes were conducted with 12 clinicians working at different CYPMHS in England and analysed using codebook thematic analysis.ResultsSix themes were identified. These included, "perfectionistic approach towards treatment outcomes", "reducing dependence on CYPMHS through empowerment", "a lack of flexibility in the wider system", "lack of collaborative care", "an increasing pressure on the service" and "keeping the focus on discharge".ConclusionClinicians face multiple barriers when discharging CYP which should be addressed, alongside enhancing the use of reported facilitators to ensure timely, safe and well-managed discharges.; Little research has been conducted on the discharge pathway at child and adolescent mental health services (CYMPHS) despite it being the way in which many young people will leave the service. Additionally, the few studies which are present, indicate that discharge is poorly managed and can be delayed. They have also mainly focused on young people who were around 16–18 years old. Thus, this study aimed to gain a better understanding of the discharge pathway, specifically the barriers and facilitators of discharging children and young people across all ages from CYMPHS. The researchers interviewed twelve clinicians from CYMPHS across the UK. We found that multiple barriers affected the ability of clinicians to carry out a timely, and well-planned discharge such as families becoming too attached, a disjointed and inflexible mental health care system, lengthy waiting times, high staff turnover and a lack of focus on discharge planning from the outset. However, there were also some facilitators, which included helping families become self-confident, regular communication with all relevant parties, and using supervision to keep the focus on discharge. The findings of this study can be used to improve the current discharge pathway at CYMPHS, and to hopefully bring attention to this topic which has been so far fairly neglected.; eng
AD - Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK. RINGGOLD: 4919; NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK. RINGGOLD: 4919; Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. RINGGOLD: 5995
AN - 40378300
BT - Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry
C5 - Healthcare Disparities
CP - 3
DA - Jul
DO - 10.1177/13591045251340490
DP - NLM
ET - 20250516
IS - 3
JF - Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry
LA - eng
N2 - BackgroundThe pressures on community Children and Young People's Mental Health Service (CYPMHS) clinicians to manage and maintain caseloads can be immense, therefore discharging young people from CYPMHS in a safe and timely way is often discussed as a priority. However, there is limited research into how discharge can be done well, especially for discharge occurring prior to children and young people (CYP) reaching the upper age limit of CYPMHS. Thus, this study aimed to gain a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators discharging CYP from community CYPMHS, by exploring clinicians experiences of discharging CYP from their service.MethodSemi-structured interviews of 30-40 minutes were conducted with 12 clinicians working at different CYPMHS in England and analysed using codebook thematic analysis.ResultsSix themes were identified. These included, "perfectionistic approach towards treatment outcomes", "reducing dependence on CYPMHS through empowerment", "a lack of flexibility in the wider system", "lack of collaborative care", "an increasing pressure on the service" and "keeping the focus on discharge".ConclusionClinicians face multiple barriers when discharging CYP which should be addressed, alongside enhancing the use of reported facilitators to ensure timely, safe and well-managed discharges.; Little research has been conducted on the discharge pathway at child and adolescent mental health services (CYMPHS) despite it being the way in which many young people will leave the service. Additionally, the few studies which are present, indicate that discharge is poorly managed and can be delayed. They have also mainly focused on young people who were around 16–18 years old. Thus, this study aimed to gain a better understanding of the discharge pathway, specifically the barriers and facilitators of discharging children and young people across all ages from CYMPHS. The researchers interviewed twelve clinicians from CYMPHS across the UK. We found that multiple barriers affected the ability of clinicians to carry out a timely, and well-planned discharge such as families becoming too attached, a disjointed and inflexible mental health care system, lengthy waiting times, high staff turnover and a lack of focus on discharge planning from the outset. However, there were also some facilitators, which included helping families become self-confident, regular communication with all relevant parties, and using supervision to keep the focus on discharge. The findings of this study can be used to improve the current discharge pathway at CYMPHS, and to hopefully bring attention to this topic which has been so far fairly neglected.; eng
PY - 2025
SN - 1359-1045 (Print); 1359-1045
SP - 653
EP - 669+
ST - Exploring the barriers and facilitators of discharging children and young people from child and adolescent mental health services
T1 - Exploring the barriers and facilitators of discharging children and young people from child and adolescent mental health services
T2 - Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry
TI - Exploring the barriers and facilitators of discharging children and young people from child and adolescent mental health services
U1 - Healthcare Disparities
U3 - 10.1177/13591045251340490
VL - 30
VO - 1359-1045 (Print); 1359-1045
Y1 - 2025
ER -