Service Users’ Experiences of a Brief Intervention Service for Children and Adolescents: A Service Evaluation

Abstract

Ten per cent of young people experience mental health difficulties at any one time. Prevention and early intervention leads to better prognosis for young people's mental well-being in the short and long term. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) must be able to provide swift and effective interventions for a range of difficulties to meet this need. This paper presents a service evaluation of the Brief Intervention Service in North Lincolnshire CAMHS. Nine young people and/or their families took part in semi-structured interviews that aimed to explore their experiences of receiving an intervention from the service. Template analysis was carried out to draw out themes from the interview transcripts. The three a priori themes were treatment outcomes, areas for potential improvement, and things that are working well; and an additional two emergent themes were emotional experience and managing practical barriers. In addition, all participants were asked about their satisfaction with the service and whether they would recommend the service to others. One hundred per cent reported feeling respected by their clinician when asked directly, and all felt that the service would be helpful for other young people and families. Overall, families were satisfied with the service and reported outcomes including improvements in symptomatology and family functioning. Specific recommendations as to how the service could be improved were made, which related to difficulties accessing the service, the content of the sessions, and communication within the service and with other services.

User satisfaction in child and adolescent mental health service: Comparison of background, clinical and service predictors for adolescent and parent satisfaction

“…While the literature reveals inconsistencies regarding evidence for background and clinical variables, predictors relating to the organization of services have reoccurred. Having quick access to services 5,14,24 and the opportunity to stay in services longer 14,25 with frequent, 13 structured and goal‐oriented contact 9,26 benefits satisfaction. Services providing user‐friendly, easy‐access information to minimize families' queries about what to expect when visiting CAMHS demonstrably lead to more satisfied families 27–29 .…”

A novel application of the Lego® Serious Play® methodology in mental health research: Understanding service users' experiences of the 0‐19 mental health model in the United Kingdom

“…There is little published evidence of how accessible and acceptable these retransformed mental health service models are in the United Kingdom. However, a breadth of research evidence highlights that the involvement of service users in mental health service planning and evaluation can contribute to new knowledge (Gallagher & Schlösser, 2015; Thornicroft & Tansella, 2005).…”

“Friendly, local and welcoming” – evaluation of a community mental health early intervention service

“…Brief evidence-based low-intensity interventions for anxiety and depression have been found to be effective for young populations. For example, brief CBT (Gallagher and Schlo ¨sser, 2015) was determined to have favourable outcomes for children and a brief behavioural activation therapy delivered in children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has also shown good results (Shenton et al, 2021). In addition, brief guided CBT is as effective as traditional CBT for children with anxiety and is cost-effective.…”

“…Using brief interventions within multi-disciplinary teams can reduce waiting times for patients and quickly improve a person's coping strategies. In addition, Gallagher and Schlo ¨sser (2015) found brief interventions could lead to increases in positive emotions within the family unit and a reduction in distress for young people.…”