1511 – Interface Between Child And Adult Mental Health Services. What Can We Do To Improve The Gap?

Abstract

Background

Transition from adolescent to adult mental health services is extremely important since most mental illnesses start in late adolescence. Although often discussed, this issue is rarely studied.

Aim

The aim of this study is to gather information of how transition from adolescent to adult mental health services is yielded across Europe.

Methodology

The study was conducted during the EPA and the IACAPAP conferences in 2012 as a joint project of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees and the Early Career Psychiatrists Committee. The survey contained 14 questions related to general data, situation of transition in participant’s country and participant’s opinion on the concept of transition process. It was given to the randomly chosen participants (N=397).

Results

The questionnaire was completed by 166 European participants from 28 European Countries. They were mostly men (N= 88, 53 %) and specialists (N=107, 64.5%). Nearly half (N=76, 45.8%) have contact with transition issues at least once per month. Data analysis is in progress, but preliminary results show that more than half of participants think the transition process could be significantly improved (N=94, 56,6%), and they are manly from Italy, Portugal, Germany, Ireland and Spain. Only one fourth is quite satisfied with the current situation (N= 45, 27,1%). The latter group in mainly from the UK.

Conclusions

We plan to use these results to broaden the study and gather more details regarding this issue in every European country