Intensive community care services for children and young people in psychiatric crisis: an expert opinion.

BACKGROUND: Children and young people's (CYP) mental health is worsening, and an increasing number are seeking psychiatric and mental health care. Whilst many CYPs with low-to-medium levels of psychiatric distress can be treated in outpatient services, CYPs in crisis often require inpatient hospital treatment. Although necessary in many cases, inpatient care can be distressing for CYPs and their families. Amongst other things, inpatient stays often isolate CYPs from their support networks and disrupt their education. In response to such limitations, and in order to effectively support CYPs with complex mental health needs, intensive community-based treatment models, which are known in this paper as intensive community care services (ICCS), have been developed. Although ICCS have been developed in a number of settings, there is, at present, little to no consensus of what ICCS entails. METHODS: A group of child and adolescent mental health clinicians, researchers and academics convened in London in January 2023. They met to discuss and agree upon the minimum requirements of ICCS. The discussion was semi-structured and used the Dartmouth Assertive Community Treatment Fidelity Scale as a framework. Following the meeting, the agreed features of ICCS, as described in this paper, were written up. RESULTS: ICCS was defined as a service which provides treatment primarily outside of hospital in community settings such as the school or home. Alongside this, ICCS should provide at least some out-of-hours support, and a minimum of 90% of CYPs should be supported at least twice per week. The maximum caseload should be approximately 5 clients per full time equivalent (FTE), and the minimum number of staff for an ICCS team should be 4 FTE. The group also confirmed the importance of supporting CYPs engagement with their communities and the need to remain flexible in treatment provision. Finally, the importance of robust evaluation utilising tools including the Children's Global Assessment Scale were agreed. CONCLUSIONS: This paper presents the agreed minimum requirements of intensive community-based psychiatric care. Using the parameters laid out herein, clinicians, academics, and related colleagues working in ICCS should seek to further develop the evidence base for this treatment model.

The experience of Therapeutic Touch in the lives of five postpartum women.

PURPOSE: To examine the experience of therapeutic touch in the lives of postpartum women. METHODS: Qualitative study of five postpartum women who participated in therapeutic touch for 2 months during home visits that focused on postpartum issues and concerns. The visits were audiotaped and transcribed. Data were coded and classified; linkages between categories were sought. RESULTS: Five themes or essences of the experience emerged: Feeling Relaxed, Feeling Open, Feeling Cared For, Feeling Connected, and Feeling Skeptical. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The women and the researcher experienced many positive emotions during the home visits. Although it is unknown whether it was the visit, the interaction, or the therapeutic touch that helped the women feel cared for, the experience of participating in therapeutic touch seemed to add a dimension of mutual caring that added a special and unique quality to the home visit.