title: Emergency mental health admissions for children: a naturalistic study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Emergency mental health admissions (EA) for children under 13 years are not routinely offered in the UK, which may be related to preconceptions about their safety, appropriateness and acceptability. Our aim was to evaluate routinely offered EA of children in a national unit over a three-year period.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective, naturalistic study was conducted, comparing EA with planned admissions (PA) in terms of children's functioning on admission and discharge, clinical characteristics, significant risk-related incidents and parental and children satisfaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  EA children (N=47) did not differ from PA children (N=35) in age, length of admission, medication treatment, significant risk-related incidents, functioning at discharge, access to education at discharge and satisfaction. EA children had lower functioning and were less likely to have been out of education on admission. Parental satisfaction in EA was higher compared to PA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EA for children are an appropriate, clinically indicated and safe alternative to PA, associated with higher parental satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK marinos.kyriakopoulos@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Marinos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kyriakopoulos
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK National and Specialist Supported Discharge Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ougrin
authors.affiliation: National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.affiliation: National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Gillene
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Pediatric BRAIN Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McMahon
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004630:Emergencies; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D001523:Mental Disorders; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Children’s inpatient units; children’s mental health; clinical effectiveness; emergency admissions; service user experience