ABSTRACT

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition. As such most schools, Further Education colleges, vocational training and Higher Education settings will need to support affected children and young people. When young people who require ongoing treatment for ADHD are around 18 years of age, they must transition from child to adult mental health services. However, only a small proportion successfully transition. As significant educational transitions are often happening at the same time, there is a need to consider how education and health service transitions may impact on one another. This paper presents findings from a large UK qualitative study involving 144 semi-structured interviews with young people who had ADHD, parents and health professionals.

Two themes were identified which support the notion that education transition can impact health transition. Firstly, transition to adult health services typically requires continued prescription of ADHD medication, yet many young people stop taking their medication due to a belief that it is only needed for education-based learning. Secondly, if a young person is continuing education post-18, a lack of joined-up planning between education and health (outside of special schools) or consistent support in Higher/Further Education can leave young people with ADHD in limbo between health services and struggling within education.

Given these findings, we recommend regarding multi-agency service statutory health care transition, educational staff training and ongoing oversight of child to adult health service and adult to adult health service transition effectiveness.

摘要

注意缺陷/多动障碍 (ADHD) 是一种常见的神经发育疾病。因此，大多数学校、继续教育学院、职业培训和高等教育机构都需要支持受影响的儿童和年轻人。当需要持续治疗多动症的年轻人大约 18 岁时，他们必须从儿童心理健康服务过渡到成人心理健康服务。然而，只有一小部分成功转型。由于重大的教育转型往往同时发生，因此需要考虑教育和卫生服务转型如何相互影响。本文介绍了英国一项大型定性研究的结果，该研究涉及对患有多动症的年轻人、父母和健康专业人员进行的 144 次半结构化访谈。

确定了两个主题，支持教育转型可以影响健康转型的观点。首先，过渡到成人健康服务通常需要持续开具 ADHD 药物处方，但许多年轻人因为相信药物仅用于基于教育的学习而停止服用药物。其次，如果年轻人在 18 岁后继续接受教育，则教育和健康（特殊学校之外）之间缺乏联合规划或对高等教育/继续教育的持续支持可能会使患有多动症的年轻人在健康服务和在教育中挣扎。

鉴于这些发现，我们建议关于多机构服务法定医疗保健过渡、教育人员培训和对儿童到成人保健服务和成人到成人保健服务过渡有效性的持续监督。