title: "Too Young to be Worried!" Psychiatric Assessment and Follow-up of Young People After Severe Physical Assault in an Inner City Hospital of South London.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Interpersonal violence amongst youth is on the rise world-wide and London is no exception. The resulting injuries can be very serious and even result in death. This is a difficult to engage subgroup of patients and there is likely to be significant unmet social and mental health needs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The current paper discusses the results of immediate psychiatric and social assessment of young people following a serious physical assault as assessed by a pediatric liaison Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). CAMHS in Kings College Hospital, London in one calendar year and also the help seeking behavior of the young people following the assault.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Department of Pediatric Liaison Psychiatry is based within the Kings College Hospital and has a multidisciplinary team comprising of nurses, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists and social workers who reviewed all patients who were referred to them following an episode of assault. All young people who were referred to the department of pediatric liaison psychiatry based within Kings College Hospital over one calendar year were included in the analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  83% (29/35) of the victims were male and 83% (29/35) were from minority ethnic backgrounds. Although 70% (25/35) of the young people included in this study had significant safe guarding concerns, only 17% (6/35) turned up for their follow-up appointments with child mental health teams.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Innovative models of service delivery are required to cater to the unique needs of this group of extremely vulnerable young people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Viswanathan
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK ; Belgrave Department of Paediatric Liaison, Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK.
authors.forename: Ss
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK ; Belgrave Department of Paediatric Liaison, Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK.
authors.forename: Pb
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheridan
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK ; Belgrave Department of Paediatric Liaison, Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lax-Pericall
keywords: Adolescent; Africa; Assault; Psychiatric illness