CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH ADHD IN TRANSITION BETWEEN CHILDREN'S SERVICES AND ADULT SERVICES (CATCh-uS)

This project focuses on what happens to young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when they are too old to stay with children’s services. We know little about how many areas have specialist services for adults with ADHD and how many young people need to move to them when they are too old for children’s services. Until the late 20th century, ADHD was a controversial diagnosis. Once generally accepted, it is seen as a developmental disorder of children, and so mental health services for adults are not set up to manage young adults who have ADHD and continue to want support to cope with their lives. There are National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines about the management for ADHD in adulthood, and this often involves taking medication that General Practitioners feel inexperienced to prescribe without support from specialists, as happens with children. Existing work suggests that young people with developmental disorders like ADHD are particularly likely not to transfer to adult mental health services, there has yet to be an in depth study of this issue in the UK. This will be the first national study to examine how many young people are in need of services for ADHD as adults. We will also explore how current service users and service providers experience this