Assessing the Feasibility of an Intervention for Youth and Parents Transitioning to Adult Eating Disorder Services
Condition: Eating Disorders; Eating Disorders in Adolescence
MeSH terms: Feeding and Eating Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Teenagers with eating disorders often experience a disruption in care upon turning 18. At
      this age, they are no longer eligible to receive pediatric treatment but are also not yet set
      up with the appropriate adult services. There are currently no supports in place to help
      youth with eating disorders and their families during this transition from child to adult
      care. In this project, the investigators will be implementing an intervention designed to
      improve this transition experience; it will include peer support, parent education, a meeting
      with the child and adult care providers, contact with the family doctor, and a written guide
      about the transition. Among 10 adolescent-parent pairs leaving McMaster Children's Hospital
      to adult programs in Hamilton, Ontario, the investigators will assess how feasible the
      intervention is to implement, how feasible the chosen measures are, participants' experience
      of the intervention, how many adolescents actually transition to adult care, as well as a few
      adolescent and parent outcomes, such as how prepared the teen feels or what the parents'
      needs are.
    

Detailed description: 
      Eating disorders (EDs) are severe psychiatric illnesses that negatively impact the health and
      quality of life of sufferers and their families. EDs typically begin in adolescence and often
      progress into adulthood, often requiring youth to transition from pediatric to adult mental
      health services. However, patients often experience a discontinuity in care due to a lack of
      coordinated transition between services, which has a significant impact on their health.
      Although barriers to a smooth transition and solutions to mend the gap have been identified
      in the literature, there is no stakeholder-informed protocol in Canada to address this issue.

      The aim of this project is to develop and test a protocol to support the health services
      transition from pediatric to adult treatment for adolescents with EDs and their families.

      The investigators have prepared a protocol aimed at improving this transition experience
      using suggestions from the existing literature. The investigators will also invite
      stakeholders to offer recommendations for its local use. The proposed suite of interventions
      will be tested in a sample of adolescents who are in treatment at a pediatric ED program
      based in Hamilton, Ontario during their transition to adult services, along with their
      parents. The investigators will report upon enrolment and retention rates into adult
      programs, feasibility indicators of the intervention and research procedures, self-reported
      readiness to transition, post-transition qualitative interviews with adolescents and parents
      regarding their experience, and written reflections by all participants regarding each
      intervention component. The eligibility criteria and outcome measures will be elaborated upon
      below.

      If this study is successful, the investigators will test the feasibility, acceptability, and
      cost of this protocol across pediatric ED programs in Ontario, and eventually Canada. This
      innovative protocol has the potential to improve health outcomes for this population, to
      decrease long-term disability costs associated with EDs, and to improve the quality and
      success of the mental health service delivery that directly influences the quality of life of
      Canadian youth and families affected by EDs.
    

Intervention name(s): Transition Intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Each adolescent-parent pair will be invited to complete 5 components of the intervention (peer support session, parent education session, transition meeting with healthcare providers, family doctor contact, and reading a transition navigation guide) over a 3-month period. These intervention components were designed with the intention of making the transition process transparent for the duo, preparing the adolescent to take responsibility of their own health as it relates to their disorder, and helping the parent step back from the process to help the adolescent integrate to adult care better.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: healthcare transition; health services; adolescent medicine