Characteristics of young people referred for treatment of depression and anxiety in a school-based mental health service

Robinson, Emilia, Chapman, Chloe, Orchard, Faith, Dixon, Clare and John, Mary (2025) Characteristics of young people referred for treatment of depression and anxiety in a school-based mental health service. British Journal of Clinical Psychology. ISSN 0144-6657

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Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the paper was to describe referrals to a UK school-based mental health service for children and adolescents. Methods: Children and young people (CYP) (N = 485, aged 4–18) were referred to two Mental Health Support Team sites in the South of England in 2021, for CBT-informed interventions for mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression. Child and parent reported outcome measures were completed pre-intervention, including measures of symptom severity and impact. Results: Referrals consisted of 61% female, 57% secondary school age (12–18 years old) and 81% White British. Children of secondary school age self-reported significantly higher levels of anxiety (p = .003) and depression (p < .001) than children of primary age. Females self-reported significantly higher levels of anxiety (p < .001) and depression (p < .001) than males. The majority of CYP self-reported below or borderline threshold anxiety, depression and overall internalizing symptoms. The majority of caregiver-reported CYP difficulties met the clinical threshold for anxiety and overall internalizing symptoms, but not depression. Conclusions: The findings have direct relevance to the transformation and delivery of school-based public mental health services for children and adolescents. There is a need to collect routine data from other services to assess the broader needs of CYP referred for low intensity early interventions across regions.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to this paper containing data which was collected as part of routine clinical practice.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anxiety,children,cognitive behaviour therapy,depression,low-intensity,clinical psychology,sdg 3 - good health and well-being,2* ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3203
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2024 01:14
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 13:08
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98029
DOI:	10.1111/bjc.12526

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