A profile of adolescents admitted to a private inpatient unit and mental health outcomes

Objective: To characterise adolescents admitted to a voluntary adolescent inpatient unit and investigate treatment outcomes. Method: A retrospective cohort design was employed. Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) pre- and post-admission scores were collected, measuring global functioning. Demographic variables such as age, gender, primary diagnosis, comorbidity and length of stay (LOS) were analysed. Data were collected from May 2017 to April 2018. All adolescents admitted to the inpatient unit were included. Results: The majority of adolescents (n = 72; HoNOSCA data available on n = 57) were 16 years of age (26%), female (82%) and with a primary diagnosis of a mood disorder (57%). Most adolescents improved at the time of discharge. Self-injury and emotional symptoms had greater reductions according to clinician and adolescent-self-ratings (p < 0.01). Mean change (improvement) in HoNOSCA total score was 7.3 (SD 7.5) based on clinician ratings and 7.2 (SD 9.5) for adolescent-self-ratings. The mean LOS was 28 days (SD 15.8). Conclusions: The inpatient unit proved effective at meeting the needs of young people in terms of symptom stabilisation. Further research is needed to describe adolescent inpatient models of care, the operations and philosophies to better examine how these relate to treatment outcomes.