Establishing a medical quality register for mental health in children and adolescents.
Every year, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) provide healthcare to 53,000 patients, which constitutes approximately five per cent of the child population. Nevertheless, there is much we do not know about the quality of the services they receive.
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One of the reasons a new national quality register for mental health care for children and young people has now received national approval from the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
The register, named the Quality Register for Mental Health Care for Children and Young People (KVABUP), will be operated through the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN).
This is stated by Børge Mathiassen, a clinical psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at UNN and the professional register leader at the National Register for Mental Health Care for Children and Young People.
Little is known about the quality of services
When so many children and young people in Norway receive health care from mental health services each year, one might take for granted that the quality is the same everywhere. This is not the case:
— There is significant variation in the health services provided to children and young people with mental disorders. In recent years, several reports have been published indicating that there is undesirable variation in the specialist health services for children and young people with mental disorders. We hope the establishment of the register will enable us to analyse the causes of this undesirable variation, says Børge Mathiassen.
The register will hopefully also facilitate a reduction in variation, making it more predictable what health care children and their families can expect.
— Today, we know little about the quality of the services provided. A national register will be able to provide patient groups with information about the quality of services. We have a plan to publish reports that will be accessible to all. This is information that user organisations can utilise in their dialogue with politicians, health authorities, and service leaders, explains Mathiassen.
Will be able to uncover areas for improvement
The data collected for the quality register can also be used to analyse operations and uncover areas for improvement. The knowledge gained should benefit professionals, patients, and relatives in the form of even better services.
— We want to know more about whether the benefits of treatment in PHBU are at a level that can be expected based on evidence-based practice. Mental health care for children and young people is a field where little research is conducted on ordinary clinical practice. The establishment of the register will facilitate research and international collaboration, believes Børge Mathiassen.
— What would it mean for you in the quality register to achieve national status?
— In establishing and operating a national register, there are many legal, technical, and professional issues that must be addressed. We who work in specialist health services are professionals with limited knowledge of these issues. National status for the register will provide us with professional support to establish the register and develop an organisation that can manage it, says Mathiassen.
The national quality register for mental health care for children and young people is the sixth medical quality register in Norway within mental health and addiction.