Current practice in a child and family psychiatric service; analysis of 200 consecutive new referrals

A preschool child psychiatric service: predictors of post-assessment default

A study of post-assessment default from a preschool child psychiatric service found that about two-thirds of the sample defaulted (two-thirds of these immediately after assessment) and, as in other services, most referrals were seen three times or less. Default, as predicted, was not related to sociodemographic factors. In addition, in contrast to previous studies, there was no overall relationship to type or severity of child symptoms nor to maternal mood disorder. However, default was unexpectedly associated with staff inexperience, shorter initial interview duration and type of treatment offered. Possible explanations for these results and further avenues of research are discussed.

A preschool child psychiatric service: referral patterns and service uptake

A study of referrals to a preschool child psychiatric service found that, although the commonest problem behaviours were similar to those found in community surveys of under-five-year-olds, the levels of child disturbance, maternal mood disorder and atypical family structure were much higher than in the community. It therefore seemed that the service was being used appropriately to seek help for families with multiple, severe and/or persistent problems. A quarter of the sample failed to attend the initial appointment, of whom over a third refused home assessment. There were no clear differences between those attending or failing to attend for assessment, but some suggestion of lower symptom levels in the latter.