P24 United Kingdom survey of access to psychology services for adolescents and young adults with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease

Abstract

Background: Developmentally appropriate healthcare for 10-25 year olds should address psychological, as well as medical, social, educational and vocational needs. Anecdotal evidence suggests access to psychological services varies between paediatric rheumatology (PRh) and adult rheumatology (ARh) centres nationally. Describing and understanding this variation is a necessary precursor to implementing strategies aimed at improved targeting of psychology services. Method(s): A survey was developed and piloted with aim of gaining an understanding of the current provision of psychology services in PRh and ARh centres. Twenty-one PRh consultants (1 representative from each NHS-England PRh provider) and 21 ARh consultants (1 representative from each paired adult rheumatology provider) representing centres from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were invited to (Table presented) complete the survey via SurveyMonkey between March 2018 and May 2018. Respondents were asked to provide data regarding 10-16 year olds (PRh) and 16-25 year olds (ARh). Result(s): Thirteen (62%) PRh and 11 (52%) ARh consultants completed all or most of the survey. Table 1 summarises the core survey questions. PRh and ARh respondents reported referring fewer 10-25 year olds to psychology support services (dedicated, general and community psychology services) than they would have done if there were unlimited psychology support resource available. The types of support offered (urgent triage/assessment; one to one therapy; group therapy; advice, support and training of MDT) and the numbers of therapy sessions typically provided by psychology services varied widely between centres represented by respondents. Conclusion(s): Access to psychology services for young people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease varies significantly between paediatric and adult rheumatology centres as well as between paediatric centres and between adult centres. Current psychology service provision for 10-25 year olds was reported as inadequate. We plan to study psychosocial factors around the time of transfer from paediatric to adult rheumatology services to enable scarce NHS psychological support services to be better targeted.