Parental hospitalisation harms parent–child relationships and child outcomes. Thus, supporting parent–child connection is enshrined in the Mental Health Act (1983). However, there is no recent evaluation of provision or understanding of the prevalence of parents in in-patient settings.

We sent a cross-sectional Freedom of Information request to all 50 English National Health Service (NHS) trusts that provide in-patient psychiatric services, aiming to capture the following: parental admissions; information on parental status; parenting-related policies/procedures/materials; and frequency of children’s visits.

Only 5 trusts could report the prevalence of parenthood (M = 13.9% of patients); 11 could report the information they collect on parental status; 28 provided policies; 18 provided materials for parents, carers or children; and 1 held data on child visits.

Most English NHS trusts do not hold basic information about parents in in-patient psychiatric settings. This suggests widespread failure to meet the requirements of the Mental Health Act, and probably failure to support families and ensure the safeguarding of children.

Community forensic mental health services (CFMHS) in England were developed to reduce reliance on hospital care for this population, but provision varies. It is unclear whether standard setting work has increased consistency. Freedom of information requests were therefore sent to 50 National Health Service Trusts in England, to examine the population, staffing, treatment provision and organisation of CFMHS.

Data were provided for 32 CFMHS, of which 59% were part of secure hospital-based services and 41% were standalone services working in parallel with general services. There was variation in aspects including professional composition, functions, the settings from where CFMHS accept referrals and long-term approach to patients subject to special restrictions under the Mental Health Act 1983.

CFMHS continue to vary, especially in their interface with services other than forensic hospitals. This may impede standard setting and empirical evaluation. Different approaches to centralising oversight may be needed for standardisation.

Artificial intelligence ambient voice technology (AI AVT), which uses a large language model to summarise clinical dialogue into electronic notes and GP letters, has emerged. We conducted a mixed-methods, pre–post (manual versus AVT-assisted documentation) service development pilot to evaluate its use in a child and adolescent out-patient clinic.

The median administration time per clinical encounter reduced from 27 min (manual) to 10 min (AVT) (P < 0.001). On average, AVT-assisted documentation required only 45% of the time for manual documentation (P < 0.001). Clinician-rated accuracy, quality and efficiency were significantly higher for AVT-assisted documentation. Patient acceptance was high, with 97% reporting that clinicians were not distracted by note-taking. Thematic analysis from focus groups identified positive effects derived from AVT (improved productivity and clinician well-being), but was balanced by barriers (technological limitations).

Integration of AVT into clinical workflows can significantly alleviate documentation burden, reduce cognitive strain and free up clinical capacity.

Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) is a co-produced group intervention supporting family carers of children (0–5 years) with additional developmental needs. This study compared online (n = 10) and in-person (n = 11) groups to investigate whether mode of delivery was associated with different outcomes. Participants were 98 family carers reporting on their mental well-being, self-efficacy, child symptoms and knowledge pre and post intervention. Generalised estimating equations compared outcomes between groups, controlling for group cluster effects.

Mental well-being improved significantly across both groups (d = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.63), as did an in-session measure concerning mechanisms of change (d = 1.28, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.59) and all other assessed outcomes. There were no significant differences in measured outcomes between online and in-person groups.

Establishing the equivalence of in-person with online groups is an important first step for improving service reach and support access for families of children with additional developmental needs.

We aimed to quantify attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessment requests, and explore correlations with public interest and COVID-19 restrictions. We collected data on referrals to adult ADHD or autism services, Google searches for ‘autism’ or ‘ADHD’, birth gender ratios, ADHD prescriptions in England and COVID-19 restriction measures in four countries.

ADHD assessment demand tripled from July 2020 to January 2023, with Google searches for ADHD rising in parallel. Autism referrals and searches saw smaller, similarly timed rises. Female referrals outstripped males. ADHD prescriptions rose particularly in those aged 30–34 years. Google searches for ADHD unexpectedly rose from July 2020 in four countries, correlating with sustained intensity of national COVID-19 restrictions.

Public interest may have driven demand for ADHD assessments, with COVID-19 restrictions encouraging social media use facilitated by easy electronic information access. The public has decided that ADHD is important, independent of professional views. It is now critical that a consensus is reached to determine who benefits most from an ADHD diagnosis and medication.

The Resilience Hub was established to support people in need of psychological/psychosocial support following the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

To use mental health screening measures over 3 years following the Arena event to examine the variation in symptoms reported by adults registered with the Hub, and whether this was associated with treatment access characteristics.

Adults engaging with Hub services were separated into eight cohorts depending on when they registered post-incident. Participants completed screening measures for symptoms of trauma, depression, generalised anxiety and work/social functioning. Baseline and follow-up scores over 3 years were compared among the eight admission groups. All types of appointment were recorded in terms of the number of minutes of clinical ‘contact time’ involved, to explore associations with time taken to register.

Overall, baseline screening scores increased as time to register post-event increased. Over the 3 years of follow-up, a decrease in scores was observed for all 4 screening measures, indicating improvement in mental well-being. Those taking longer to register had higher follow-up scores. However, they showed a slightly stronger decrease in average change of score per follow-up month. Mean contact time per month was greater (apart from the 18-months admission group) in individuals delaying registration. Increased contact time was associated with decreased follow-up screening scores for depression and anxiety.

People who registered earlier were less symptomatic, suggesting there may be a potential beneficial impact of early engagement with support services following traumatic events. All who registered showed improvement in symptoms, including those delaying registration, with increased contact time being beneficial. This reinforces the benefits of encouraging early and sustained engagement with services as soon as possible post-incident.

The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit of the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health contacts participating consultant paediatricians each month to survey whether particular rare conditions or events have been seen in their services. This national surveillance of rare paediatric events has allowed a large amount of research into multiple paediatric conditions. In 2009, the Royal College of Psychiatrists established a similar system – the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Surveillance System (CAPSS) – to survey consultant psychiatrists in UK and Ireland. Since many conditions involve mental and physical health features, seven studies have been run using reporting to both systems, with simultaneous surveillance across both paediatricians and psychiatrists. Given the desire by policymakers, commissioners and clinicians for well-integrated physical and mental healthcare (‘joined-up working’), and if the surveillance systems were functioning well, the CAPSS Executive expected high rates of parallel reporting of individual patients to the two systems. The current study synthesises the rates of parallel reporting of cases to those two systems. We assimilate rates of parallel reporting across the seven studies using figures that have already been published, and by contacting contributing research groups directly where the relevant figures are not currently published. No new primary data were collected.

Of the 1211 confirmed cases, 47 (3.9%) were reported by both psychiatrists and paediatricians. No parallel reporting occurred in four of the seven studies.

Our findings raise questions about whether joined-up working in mental and physical healthcare is happening in practice. Research into challenges to obtaining comprehensive surveillance will help epidemiologists improve their use of surveillance and control for biases.

To review and explore the eating disorder admissions to an in-patient child and adolescent mental health hospital which had restarted taking such presentations. This was done by conducting three audits using RiO (an electronic patient records system) and including all young people with eating disorders or related difficulties admitted between 1 February 2019 and 30 June 2023. As part of this, relevant practice standards were identified using the baseline assessment tool in UK national guidelines.

The audits identified 46 completed admissions, detailing demographic information, nasogastric and restraint feeding, therapeutic interventions and medication, admission and discharge routes, length of admission and more.

The review highlighted the apparent overall success of a general admission unit in treating eating disorders and related difficulties and identified key areas of importance and development in terms of clinical practice.