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Background: Almost a quarter of children and young people (CYP) in England have a long-term health condition (LTC), which increases the risk of developing mental health difficulties. There is a lack of understanding regarding the routine provision and efficacy of mental health interventions for CYP with LTCs within Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS). Methods: This study analysed national service-reported data in England from two secondary datasets. Data were submitted by services between 2011 and 2019. We evaluated data on the presence or absence of a serious physical health or neurological issue, and which interventions were offered. Results: A total of 789 CYP had serious physical health issues and 635 had neurological issues. The most common interventions delivered to CYP in either group have some evidence in the literature. Most CYP showed improvements across a range of outcomes. Conclusions: This study found that prevalence rates and psychological intervention and outcome data were widely under-reported across both datasets, posing questions about their utility for this population. Such data would benefit from triangulation with data from other sources to understand pathways of care for these young people and the extent to which clinical datasets underreport the number of CYP with LTCs. Plain language summary: Almost a quarter of children and young people (CYP) in England have a long-term health condition (LTC), such as asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy. We know that these young people are at increased risk of developing mental health difficulties. It is important these young people are able to access safe and effective treatments for their mental health. Therefore, they are sometimes referred to Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) for appropriate treatment. However, at the moment, not much is known about the types of mental health support these services offer to children with co-existing physical health needs, or if this support is effective. The aim of this study was to try and find this out. We used data that had already been collected from mental health services across England. We looked at specific parts of this data that gave us information about the type of mental health treatments delivered to children with a long-term health condition. We separated long-term health conditions into two categories: physical health, such as diabetes or asthma; and neurological, such as epilepsy. In the sample we looked at, a range of mental health treatments were delivered to young people in both groups. Encouragingly, many of the young people's mental health improved. However, a lot of information we would hope to find was not available in the datasets. Also, the number of children with a long-term health condition was much lower than we expected. This might have been for a number of reasons, which we recommend other future research tries to find out. Going forward, it is important to think about how to make sure that accurate information about these children is collected from mental health services. This will help ensure that the right decisions are made for the care of young people with long-term health conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Existing literature implies there may be gaps in post-treatment support for young people with cancer. This service evaluation explored the needs and experiences of young people when ending cancer treatment in a UK children's hospital to inform service provisions. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine young people, aged 13–18 years, who had finished active cancer treatment and were receiving follow-up care. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Four main themes were developed: being in the dark (i.e. limited awareness of what happens when treatment ends); separation from the hospital (i.e. the loss of valued support from staff); consequences of cancer (i.e. managing ongoing psychological and physical effects); and getting back to normal life (i.e. shifting from hospital to everyday life). Conclusions: Recommendations for improving clinical practice were made. Greater preparedness for ending treatment could be achieved by clearly setting out ongoing care arrangements, providing resource packs, having opportunities to mark the end of treatment, and offering peer support. To identify specific post-treatment needs, there should be an end of treatment multidisciplinary review and space for young people to share how they are feeling in follow-up medical appointments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between affective disturbances and aberrant salience in the context of childhood trauma, attachment, and mentalization in an analogue study. Methods: Using a cross‐sectional design, an online community sample completed self‐report measures of key variables. Structural equation modelling was used to test childhood trauma's influence on aberrant salience via a set of intermediate risk factors (depression, negative schizotypy, and insecure attachment). These intermediate risk factors were assumed to lead to the proximal risk factors of aberrant salience (i.e., disorganized schizotypy and disorganized attachment) depending on the vulnerability of mentalizing capacity to elevated stress. Results: The sample (N = 1263) was 78% female and aged between 18 and 35 years. The tested models closely fitted the observed data, revealing significant pathways from childhood trauma to aberrant salience via the hypothesized pathways. The direct effect of childhood trauma on aberrant salience was significant. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the pathway to aberrant salience may be characterized by disorganization of self‐state and intersubjectivity as a function of diminishment in mentalizing ability. This may relate to changes in attachment organization and socio‐cognitive capacity, which could constitute possible risk factors signalling development of aberrant salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]