Delivering developmentally appropriate health care: Roles for psychologists as members of the multi-disciplinary health care team.

There is increasing global attention on the health and wellbeing needs of young people. Preventive and proactive approaches will likely lead to the clearest dividends for young people, their own children and wider society. A brief overview of the international context for young people's health care is given.

Facilitating transition of young people with long-term health conditions from children's to adults' healthcare services - implications of a 5-year research programme.

Background: During transition from children's to adults' healthcare, young adults with long-term conditions may show delays in psychosocial development compared to their peers without long-term conditions, and deterioration of their conditions' medical control.

Methods: This paper integrates the findings, already published in 10 separate papers, of a 5-year transition research programme.

Implications: There is an important role for funders (commissioners) of adults' services to fund transitional healthcare, in addition to funders of children's services who currently take responsibility.

Can we normalise developmentally appropriate health care for young people in UK hospital settings? An ethnographic study.

Objective: The WHO has argued that adolescent-responsive health systems are required. Developmentally appropriate healthcare (DAH) for young people is one approach that could underpin this move. The aim of this study was to explore the potential for DAH to become normalised, to become a routine, taken-for-granted, element of clinical practice.

'You've come to children that are in care and given us the opportunity to get our voices heard': The journey of looked after children and researchers in developing a Patient and Public Involvement group.

Background: Looked after children and care leavers (denoted as LAC) are often described as a 'hard to reach' group of young people, and their voices are rarely sought to inform academic research.

Methods: This paper reports on experiences and reflections of a group of children and young people and academic researchers who developed a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group that was set up in the context of an ongoing health service intervention trial with LAC.

Setting And Participants: Eighteen qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven LAC, the participation officer within a North East Children in Care Council and the four researchers involved in developing and facilitating the PPI group.

The burden of proof: The process of involving young people in research.

Patient and public involvement in research includes non-academics working with researchers, on activities from consultative tasks, to joint working, and on user-led initiatives. Health and social care funding bodies require involvement in research projects. A current debate focuses on a perceived lack of empirical "proof" to demonstrate the impact of involvement upon the quality of research.

A longitudinal, observational study of the features of transitional healthcare associated with better outcomes for young people with long-term conditions.

Background: Most evidence about what works in transitional care comes from small studies in single clinical specialties. We tested the hypothesis that exposures to nine recommended features of transitional healthcare were associated with better outcomes for young people with long-term conditions during transition from child-centred to adult-oriented health services.

Methods: This is a longitudinal, observational cohort study in UK secondary care including 374 young people, aged 14-18.

Implementing a transition pathway in diabetes: a qualitative study of the experiences and suggestions of young people with diabetes.

Background: The prevalence of Type 1 diabetes is increasing with more children and adolescents being diagnosed with this chronic condition. There has been an increasing focus in recent years on the transition through adolescence and supporting young people who have chronic health conditions, with the recognition that young people are at risk of dropping out of healthcare services following transfer from paediatric to adult services. To date, there have been limited evaluations of transition models.

The influence of diabetes upon adolescent and young adult development: a qualitative study.

Unlabelled: It is not clear how developmentally appropriate healthcare services for adolescents (11-15) and young adults (16-25) should be provided.

Aims: First, to describe and understand the influence of diabetes upon psychosocial development and second, to highlight the implications for healthcare teams.

Design: Given the heterogeneity of findings, lack of conceptual clarity and lack of quantitative measures, qualitative semi-structured interviews were used, to define more clearly the constructs significant to young people.

Young adults' (16-25 years) suggestions for providing developmentally appropriate diabetes services: a qualitative study.

Managing the multiple demands of a chronic condition whilst negotiating the developmental tasks of adolescence and young adulthood is a process that is neither well described nor understood, particularly in relation to providing developmentally appropriate health care for young people. The importance of this issue is starting to be reflected within the literature, and although research into models of service delivery is emerging, a lack of user involvement in service development is apparent. This qualitative, user involvement study aimed to describe and understand the considered opinions of 19 young adults with diabetes who were receiving secondary care services about the provision of diabetes services for young people.