Child Health Support Group:Inpatient Working Group - Psychiatric Inpatient Services for Children and Young People in Scotland: A Way Forward
APPENDIX 7: NATIONAL INPATIENT FORUM
The National Child and Adolescent Inpatient Forum was formed in September 2001. Clinicians from the inpatient units had previously been meeting three times a year for peer support, working towards developing national standards of care, discussing difficult cases and looking at the literature and the latest evidence informing practice. There was also increasing concern about the need for a national strategy in order to adopt a recognisable identity and make a case to commissioners for better services.
When the Fife Playfield House unit stopped admitting patients in the summer of 2002, the group felt that it would be appropriate to formalise the National Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit Forum. A Chair and Secretary were elected and meetings were established on a more formal basis. The regular membership of the Forum consists of professionals of all disciplines and agencies who work with inpatient units. From time to time, special meetings are convened to include professionals from community teams, as they are involved in the preparation of young people and their families for admission and for the rehabilitation and discharge processes.
The Forum now meets for a full day every 3-4 months, with business in the morning and peer support and education in the afternoon. The Chair of the Forum sits as a co-opted member on the Executive Committee of the Scottish Section of the Child and Adolescent Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Staff from the psychiatric inpatient units for children in England and Scotland have a regular meeting organised by CHIPSIG (Child Inpatient Special Interest Group). Staff from the children's psychiatric inpatient unit at Yorkhill in Glasgow have only limited involvement with the National Inpatient Forum.