Identifying the Mental Health Needs of Looked after Young People

Abstract

Fifty looked after young people and their carers were interviewed to elicit whether, intuitively, they considered the young person to have a mental health problem and when they would seek professional help. This intuitive judgement of need was compared with responses to a mental health screen, and specific depression and conduct disorder scales. The results suggest that carers perceived 70% of young people to have significant mental health need; high levels of depression (28%) and conduct disorder (34%) were also found. Carers were four times more likely to identify mental health needs, both intuitively and on the mental health screen, than young people did themselves. Two-thirds of carers were intuitively accurate in identifying mental health need in their young people, although fewer than half of those identified as having high needs were being seen by a mental health specialist. Of concern, 23% of carers failed to identify needs, subsequently identified by the mental health screen. Perceived familial burden predicted a high mental health needs screen outcome. Given the established risks to mental health for this population of young people, the utility of a systematic mental health screen is discussed.