Depression in children and young people

Structure

Evidence of local arrangements to ensure that the health outcomes of children and young people receiving treatment for depression are recorded at the beginning and end of each step in treatment.

Data source: Data can be collected from information recorded locally by healthcare professionals and provider organisations.

Process

Proportion of children and young people receiving treatment for depression who have their health outcomes recorded at the beginning and end of each step in treatment.

Numerator – the number of people in the denominator who have their health outcomes recorded at the beginning and end of each step in treatment.

Denominator – the number of children and young people receiving treatment for depression.

Data source: Data can be collected from information recorded locally by healthcare professionals and provider organisations, for example from patient records. For CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), data on outcomes are collected in the NHS Digital Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services secondary uses data set with Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). Routine outcome monitoring is part of the NHS England Children and young people's improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) project.

Methods to monitor health outcomes

NICE's guideline on depression in children and young people indicates that healthcare and CAMHS professionals can use self‑report measures, as used in screening for depression (for example, the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire), or generic outcome measures (for example, Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents or the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) to record health outcomes.

A step in treatment

This is the movement between steps of the stepped‑care model. For further information, see table 1 in NICE's guideline on depression in children and young people.