Children and Young People (CYP) affected by Neurodevelopmental,
Emotional, Behavioural and Intellectual Disorders (NDEBIDs) such as Attention
Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are
at increased risk of other Mental Health (MH) difficulties such as anxiety and
depression. Therefore, they require comprehensive and holistic services to meet their
complex needs. However, many countries still offer them disjointed services involving
different healthcare providers and professionals each looking at only one aspect of the
CYP’s needs. To address this problem, the framework of “Integrated Care” is
recommended as a template for providing comprehensive and joined-up care to meet
the complex needs of these CYP with NDEBIDs and MH difficulties. This chapter
aims to explore integrated care. It outlines the adverse impacts of disjointed care
including: unnecessary multiple referrals, inefficient multiple assessments, delays in
accessing required assessment and treatment, frustration and distress for affected CYP
and their families and conflicts among professionals. Identified barriers to integrated
care include problems with health planning, limited evidence-base, inter-professional
difficulties related to different training and professional cultures and mental health
stigma. The chapter highlights the benefits of integrated care including user
satisfaction, the shortened path to point of care, systemic efficiencies and improved
professional relationships. Finally, the chapter discusses the following desirable
characteristics of integrated care: joint care commissioning, adequate ring-fenced
funding, strategic leadership and planning, cross-training for professionals and good adherence to evidence-based protocols. Perspectives from Low and Middle-Income
Countries (LMICs) were also discussed to acknowledge the international nature of the
problem.
Keywords: Adolescent, Children, child-health services, Co-morbidities, Holistic services, Integrated care, Mental-health difficulties, mental-health services, Neurodevelopmental disorders, Paediatric services, young people.
