Authors' objectives: This research plans to explore the current options for young people with ADHD when they are too old to stay with children s services. We do not know how many young people need or want to carry on attending health services; how they, their families and the professionals working with them experience the transition from children s to adult services; or about how many areas have services for adults with ADHD. Until the end of the last century, ADHD was a controversial condition. Now generally accepted, it has been seen as a developmental disorder of children, and so mental health services for adults are not set up to manage young people who have ADHD and continue to want support to cope with their lives. Meanwhile an increasing number of young people with ADHD find themselves too old for children s services. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides guidelines about the management for ADHD in adulthood. This often involves taking medicines that General Practitioners feel inexperienced to prescribe without support from specialists, as would happen with children who have ADHD. Existing work suggests that young people with developmental disorders like ADHD are particularly likely not to transfer to adult mental health services but there has yet to be an in-depth study of this issue in the UK. This will be the first national study to examine how many young people are in need of services for ADHD as adults. We will also explore how current service users and service providers experience this transition and what services are available for young adults with ADHD across the country. This project has three main themes: 1) A six months surveillance study of young people with ADHD on medication who are within six months of the age-boundary for discharge from their children s service with a nine month-follow-up to find out where, if anywhere these young people were transferred. 2) In depth interviews with key stakeholders to explore their views and experiences of the quality of the move from children s services for young people with ADHD. Stake holders will include: young people with ADHD attending children s and adult services, their parents and practitioners working in children s and adult health services. 3) A mapping study that will combine information about the location of services for young adults with ADHD from the surveillance and interviews with email / postal surveys of service commissioners, service providers and key service user groups for young adults with ADHD. All will be asked whether their area has a service for adults with ADHD, if so, does it have staff with dedicated time to work with these young people and what does it offer them? Our aim is to provide recommendations to improve service delivery and provision for young people with ADHD and thus improve their health at a key life stage and beyond.

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hsdr/142152

Year Published: 2020

URL for published report: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hsdr/142152

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: England, United Kingdom

Organisation Name: NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme

Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK

Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

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