Premium
Monitoring Change in Families Receiving Primary Mental Health Specialist Services: A Pragmatic Evaluation Within an Existing Service for the Under‐Fives
Author(s) -
Pollock Jon,
Horrocks Sue
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2009.00545.x
Subject(s) - mental health , intervention (counseling) , attribution , medicine , service (business) , mental health service , primary care , psychiatry , psychology , family medicine , social psychology , economy , economics
Background: Specialist CAMHS‐based services for pre‐school age children are being introduced in the UK using different models of care. The clinical value of these new services requires assessment. Method: Over 20 months a Primary Mental Health Specialist (Under 5s) service operating in South West UK was evaluated on a variety of themes including effectiveness. Recruited clients completed questionnaires on their own well‐being (on two occasions) and their child’s behaviour (on three occasions) over the intervention period. Results: Of the 67 carers assessed at or shortly after recruitment using the General Health Questionnaire, 55.2% were at high risk of having a clinically significant affective mental condition. Despite a trend towards improvement, neither the GHQ‐12 total score nor the proportion meeting the clinical criterion was statistically significantly reduced. The main index of child behaviour and emotional state demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the number of disturbance‐indicating behaviours over the service intervention period. The largest changes occurred between recruitment and the 4 th visit. Selection bias cannot be excluded. Conclusions: Significant changes determined over a relatively short period of intervention is consistent with an effect of service, but direct attribution demands care as no control groups were included.