The transition from child to adult services is a crucial time in the health of young people who may potentially fall into a poorly managed "care gap." Health service provision, which fails to meet the needs of young people and families at this time of significant change, may result in deterioration in health or disengagement with services, which can have negative long-term consequences. Developing transitional care packages has become a focus of activity in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Indeed, policy documents have been trying to guide practice for many years, with some variable success. There is much work still to be done, particularly around how guidance and the sharing of best practice, when combined can result in a change in practice.
This study aimed to explore the views of professionals involved in transitional care, the process of transition in their services, and the barriers and facilitators to transition.
This was a qualitative study using focus group methodology. Four focus groups were carried out, attended by 36 health professionals across child and adult services. They had expertise in working with young people with various health conditions and disabilities. Transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Eight key factors that impact on transition emerged from the data. These included factors associated with the patient group (such as age, health condition, having complex needs) as well as factors associated with services (such as the availability of equivalent services within adult care and the links between child and adult team).
It is imperative that health professionals consider the population they are working with when planning transitional care and take into account the factors which can lead to delayed transition, so that this can be avoided if possible. Numerous examples of initiatives to facilitate more timely transition were shared: these have been reflected in our "Benchmarks for Transition from Child to Adult Health Services." We offer these benchmarks to inform and guide the practice of others and illustrate their potential for use in the context of the findings shared here.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 February 2017.
All research outputs
#7,225,481
of 25,942,066 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Pediatrics
#1,257
of 7,985 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#117,469
of 418,385 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Pediatrics
#7
of 31 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,942,066 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,985 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.5. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 418,385 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 31 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.
