[Youth F-ACT: mapping the problems of a special population].

Background: Youth f-act teams have been set up for the purpose of providing the care needed by young people suspected of having complex psychiatric problems.
Aim: To obtain insight into the problems of this population at the beginning and at the end of treatment provided by the youth f-act team in South Limburg.
Method: We based our study on a cohort of 68 patients who met the criteria for f-act during the period from January 2013 up to and including October 2014. We evaluated the effect of f-act treatment of 41 patients who had completed their treatment during the above-mentioned period. We examined the records for patients' daily functioning and quality of life and we noted patient characteristics at beginning and end of treatment in order to collect more information about the problems of this population.
Results: Besides having psychiatric problems, our study population also appeared to have malfunctioned at several other areas. At the end of treatment patients' daily functioning was found to have improved, but there was little or no improvement in patients' quality of life.
Conclusion: Treatment by the youth f-act team seems able to deal successfully with the problems of the young people under study. However, factors that influence patients' quality of life need to be studied more thoroughly so that in the future the quality of treatment will be of a higher standard.