Department of Adult Psychiatry, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin, 62/63 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Ireland.
Ir J Med Sci. 2012 Dec;181(4):555-60. doi: 10.1007/s11845-012-0817-6. Epub 2012 Apr 3.
Child and adolescent psychiatry services have historically been neglected in Ireland, in terms of resource provision and research.
To describe referral and admission patterns to an adolescent inpatient unit in Ireland.
We studied reasons for referral and admission decisions relating to all adolescents referred to St. Joseph's Adolescent Inpatient Unit (AIPU), Dublin in the first 6 months following its establishment in 2009.
Forty-one adolescents were referred during the study period; 46 % were admitted. There was no difference between those admitted and not admitted in terms of gender (two-thirds were female), age (mean age 16.2 years), most common reason for referral (depression, in almost one-in-two) and suicidality (present in one-in-two). Amongst those referred, 46 % were resident in the primary catchment area. While a majority of admissions occurred within 5 days of referral (53 %), a significant minority were not admitted until over 20 days after referral (16 %).
The demographic and clinical characteristics of adolescents referred and admitted to St. Joseph's AIPU are consistent with national and international patterns. At national level, the opening of additional beds for adolescents (such as St. Joseph's AIPU) has had positive effects on admission patterns; our findings indicate a need to further educate referrers about referral criteria, to optimise benefits derived from these new resources. Future studies could examine the potential roles of intensive support services in the community to further maximise use of scarce resources for this patient group.
在资源配置和研究方面，爱尔兰的儿童和青少年精神病学服务一直被忽视。
描述爱尔兰一家青少年住院病房的转介和入院模式。
我们研究了与 2009 年成立的都柏林圣约瑟夫青少年住院病房（AIPU）所有转介青少年相关的转介原因和入院决策。
在研究期间，有 41 名青少年被转介；其中 46%被收治入院。在性别（三分之二为女性）、年龄（平均年龄 16.2 岁）、最常见的转介原因（几乎每两人中就有一人患有抑郁症）和自杀意念（每两人中就有一人存在）方面，入院和未入院的患者没有差异。在被转介的患者中，46%居住在主要收治区域。虽然大多数入院发生在转介后 5 天内（53%），但仍有相当一部分患者在转介后 20 多天后才入院（16%）。
被转介至圣约瑟夫 AIPU 的青少年的人口统计学和临床特征与国家和国际模式一致。在国家层面，为青少年增加床位（如圣约瑟夫 AIPU）对入院模式产生了积极影响；我们的研究结果表明，需要进一步向转介者宣传转介标准，以优化从这些新资源中获得的收益。未来的研究可以探讨在社区中提供强化支持服务的潜在作用，以进一步充分利用这一患者群体的稀缺资源。
