Intensive community care services for adolescents with acute psychiatric emergencies: trial feasibility findings from the pilot phase of a multi-centre randomised controlled trial (Ourgin, Wong, Woolhouse, 2026)
Dennis Ougrin, Thilipan Thaventhiran, Ben Hoi-Ching Wong, Izabela Pilecka, Sabine Landau, Sarah Byford, Petrina Chu, Hassan Jafari, Margaret Heslin, Emma Tassie, Paula Reavey, Toby Zundel, Mandy Wait, Ruth Woolhouse, Tauseef Mehdi, Jovanka Tolmac, Joe Clacey, Leon Wehncke, Veronika Beatrice Dobler & Rhys Bevan-Jones
BMC psychiatry,2026 Feb 19
Adolescents experiencing psychiatric emergencies often require intensive intervention to avoid hospital admission and support their transition into education, employment, or training (EET). Intensive Community Care Services (ICCS) offer a potential alternative to inpatient care. This pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of ICCS compared to treatment as usual (TAU) in reducing time to start or return to EET.