Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-6mz5d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-24T00:37:50.225Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Quantifying the experiences of Black and Dual Heritage young people in a forensic child and adolescent mental health service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2024

Michelle A. Sandiford*
Affiliation:
North West London Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, West London NHS Trust, London, UK
David Moran
Affiliation:
North West London Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, West London NHS Trust, London, UK
Jared G. Smith
Affiliation:
Population Health Research Institute, St George's, University of London, UK
Heidi Hales
Affiliation:
West London Community Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, West London NHS Trust, London, UK Conwy Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board North Wales, Bangor, UK School of Medicine, Cardiff University, UK
*
Correspondence to Michelle A. Sandiford (msandiford@nhs.net)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Young people from racialised backgrounds are overrepresented in justice services. This study explored differences in community support offered to young people from racialised groups referred to a forensic child and adolescent mental health service.

Method

We compared support offered to 427 young people, according to five ethnic groups.

Results

Over 20% of young people referred were Black (compared with 14% of the local population) and 15.8% were Dual White and Black Heritage (compared with 4% of the local population). Odds ratios showed that Black and Dual Heritage groups were more frequently involved with youth offending services (Black: 2.59, Dual Heritage: 2.88), gangs services (Black: 4.31, Dual Heritage: 7.13) and have a national referral mechanism (Black: 3.61, Dual Heritage: 4.01) than their White peers, but were less often in mainstream education compared with their Asian peers (Black: 0.26, Dual Heritage: 0.29). Black (odds ratio 0.35) and Dual Heritage (odds ratio 0.40) young people were less frequently diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder than their White peers.

Conclusions

Those from Black and Dual Heritage backgrounds were disproportionately disadvantaged.

Information

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), which permits re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists
Figure 0

Table 1 Ethnic background of patients referred to North-West London Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, with reference to population-based data (for those aged 5–17 years) in relevant catchment area

Figure 1

Fig. 1 (Percentage of young people linked to youth offending services at the time of North-West London F-CAMHS entry (a) and during North-West London F-CAMHS input (b), according to ethnic background. Value labels are percentages. Asterisks indicate significant different between ethnic classifications after correction for multiple tests of association. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. F-CAMHS, forensic child and adolescent mental health services; YOS, youth offending services.

Figure 2

Fig. 2 Percentage of young people with gang service involvement at the time of North-West London F-CAMHS entry (a) and during North-West London F-CAMHS input (b), according to ethnic background. Value labels are percentages. Asterisks indicate significant different between ethnic classifications after correction for multiple tests of association. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. F-CAMHS, forensic child and adolescent mental health services.

Figure 3

Table 2 Social service involvement, educational status, child and adolescent mental health service/community mental health team involvement, and diagnostic and assessment status, according to ethnic background

Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.