Embedding interagency working between schools and mental health specialists: A service evaluation of the Mental Health Services and Schools and Colleges Link Programme workshops.

There is increasing focus on the need for schools to work more effectively with specialist mental health providers, but there have been historic challenges in embedding closer interagency working. This article reports the results of a service evaluation of a 2-day workshop designed to facilitate improved working between schools and children and young people's mental health services (CYPMHS). Mental health leads from 255 schools, mental health professionals and other key stakeholders all took part in one of 26 two-day workshops across the United Kingdom. The impact on interagency working was examined using changes in pre- and post-survey results, changes in self-reported aspects of interagency working and 10 local reviews of practice. The pre-post questionnaires showed improvements in interagency working (e.g. 55% of school leads reported being in 'monthly' or 'continuous' contact with the National Health Service (NHS) CYPMHS1 at follow-up, compared with 24% at baseline). The group-completed CASCADE framework showed an overall increase in collaborative working, although some areas continued to report significant challenges such as in relation to common outcome measures. The local reviews found positive changes in interagency working, in terms of building relationships, improved communication and sharing good practice. This service evaluation of the workshops found some evidence of improved interagency working between schools and CYPMHS, but more controlled research is needed to consider generalisability and scalability.

Correction: An App to Help Young People Self-Manage When Feeling Overwhelmed (ReZone): Protocol of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/resprot.7019.].

An App to Help Young People Self-Manage When Feeling Overwhelmed (ReZone): Protocol of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: The association between behavioral difficulties and academic attainment is well established. Recent policy advising schools on managing behavior has promoted the early identification of behavioral difficulties. There is also increasing research into mHealth interventions to provide support for emotional and behavioral difficulties for young people. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the proposed research is to examine the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention, ReZone, in reducing emotional and behavioral difficulties in young people. METHODS: The protocol is a cluster trial of 12 classes with N=120 students with classes randomized to ReZone or management as usual. Multilevel modeling will be used to compare ReZone versus management as usual accounting for classroom-level variation. RESULTS: Baseline data collection started in February 2017 and ended in April 2017. Follow-up data collection started in April 2017 and ended in June 2017. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed research will provide evidence as to whether ReZone is effective at helping young people to self-manage when feeling overwhelmed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 13425994; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13425994 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6tePwwiHk).

Facilitators and Barriers to Person-centred Care in Child and Young People Mental Health Services: A Systematic Review.

Implementation of person-centred care has been widely advocated across various health settings and patient populations, including recent policy for child and family services. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that service users are rarely involved in decision-making, whilst their preferences and goals may be often unheard. The aim of the present research was to systematically review factors influencing person-centred care in mental health services for children, young people and families examining perspectives from professionals, service users and carers. This was conducted according to best practice guidelines, and seven academic databases were searched. Overall, 23 qualitative studies were included. Findings from the narrative synthesis of the facilitators and barriers are discussed in light of a recently published systematic review examining person-centred care in mental health services for adults. Facilitators and barriers were broadly similar across both settings. Training professionals in person-centred care, supporting them to use it flexibly to meet the unique needs of service users whilst also being responsive to times when it may be less appropriate and improving both the quantity and quality of information for service users and carers are key recommendations to facilitate person-centred care in mental health services with children, young people and families. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONERS MESSAGES: As research shows, children and young people are rarely actively involved in their treatment within mental health services. This is despite a strong recent emphasis on providing care within child and young people mental health services according to person-centred principles. Still, there is little known about factors affecting provision of person-centred care with this population. As found by the current study, the most commonly reported factors affecting provision of person-centred care were information sharing (in an appropriate amount and at a right time), listening, respecting and validating, quality of relationship and support, capacity of children and young people to be involved in their care, parental involvement and shortage of resources. These factors were cited as both facilitators and barriers and were found to be universally important by service users, their carers and professional working at the services. The key factors were broadly similar to those reported among adults, particularly regarding information sharing/communication, capacity of service users to be involved and available resources. The main difference was related to a more complex role of a carer in children/young people services. The key recommendations of the review to improve provision of person-centred care are providing professionals with more training in using the approach, supporting them to use it flexibly to meet the unique needs of service users whilst also being responsive to times when it may be less appropriate and improving both the quantity and quality of information for service users.