Mental Health rehabilitation for children and adolescents A literature overview on indications, outcomes and evaluation instruments

Research area: Psychological & psychiatric interventions

Duration: April 2013 - September 2013
Publication: HTA-Project report No. 67: https://eprints.aihta.at/1012/

Working Language: German

Background:
The Austrian rehabilitation plan 2012 focuses, among others, on children and adolescents with mental health problems. In addition to acute care, rehabilitation programmes shall enable patients to develop skills and / or to regain the ability to shape their educational, professional and private life-situations as independently as possible. In this context medical as well as psychosocial interventions play a key role. Furthermore, the gradual development of mental health rehabilitation (MHR) programmes for children and adolescents shall contribute to the overall improvement of child and adolescent health in Austria.

Project objective:
This project will provide an overview of methodological evaluation approaches targeting MHR-programmes for children and adolescents. This will particularly involve the analysis of outcomes that are measured in national and international evaluation projects as well as the applied standardised instruments. Moreover, the proposed project attempts to provide a decision support for policy makers regarding evaluation designs for future MHR-programmes for children and adolescents in Austria. It does not focus on the effectiveness and sustainability of MHR-programmes for children and adolescents.

Research questions:

• Which mental health indications are dealt with in MHR-programmes for children and adolescents?
• Which outcomes are analysed in literature overviews, evaluation reports etc. in the context of MHR for children and adolescents?
• Which standardised evaluation instruments are applied?
• Which MHR-settings are analysed (inpatient or outpatient care; at home care)?
• Which conclusions can be drawn regarding other rehabilitation conditions of MHR-programmes (such as the duration of a programme) for children and adolescents?

Methods:

• Systematic literature overview and hand search covering overviews and evaluation reports (and if required single studies)
• Contact to project leaders of MHR-programmes for children and adolescents in German-speaking countries

Time frame / milestones:
April 2013: Preparation of the project protocol
May 2013: Literature search, hand search, literature selection
June – August 2013: Data extraction, preparation of the project report
September 2013: internal and external review, publication of the report

References:
1 Rehabilitationsplan 2012, available via
2 Österreichischer Rehabilitationskompass, available via http://rehakompass.oebig.at/RundUmReha/Grundsaetze