Abstract
Why did you do this work?Some children and young people (CYP) become so unwell because of their mental health that they need an admission to hospital. Often this is firstly to a general children’s ward at their local hospital. Children’s wards and the health professionals working on them have always had this role, but recently (especially since the pandemic) the numbers of CYP needing to be admitted has increased. There is a paucity of research looking: 1) trends in such admissions and details such as duration, reason for admission; 2)experiences of young people and their families when admitted to general children’s wards because of their mental health; 3)experiences of staff.What did you do?MAPS was composed of work packages(WP). WP1) Using health episode statistics (HES data) to describe trends in admission numbers 2012–2022 in England; WP2) A prospective reporting system of 15 children’s wards across England on mental health admissions; WP3) Qualitative interviews of CYP, parents who were admitted because of their mental health from the 15 hospitals, as well as families and health professionals who looked after them. We worked with stakeholders including CYP and parents with lived experience throughout and are working with them to develop a theory of change to provide to policy makers to improve care for these patients in these settings.What did you find?We will summarise data from across WPs. WP1 demonstrated increases in admissions, in particular eating disorders across 10 years. For WP2 we collected information on 1100 admissions. WP3 provided important insights into young people’s experience.What does it mean?MAPS provides important information in a number of key areas concerning mental health admissions to general wards. Increasing numbers demonstrates the impact and burden on services and need for resource. Individual hospital admissions provides granular data on admissions on social care needs, interventions with implications for education and training. Experiences of patients, families and staff provides important information on areas to improve services from multiple perspectives.