Interventions within social services while awaiting treatment at child and adolescent psychiatry

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SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut202514 Registration no: SBU 2025/470

Question

What systematic reviews have been published regarding interventions within social services while awaiting treatment at child and adolescent mental health services?

PICO

Population: Children and adolescents with psychiatric issues requiring intervention from child and adolescent psychiatry services, as well as their families.

Intervention: Psychosocial or psychoeducational interventions that could be offered by social services (e.g., crisis support, parental support, or social support) while awaiting treatment at child and adolescent mental health services (BUP)

Comparison: No intervention or alternative intervention.

Outcome: Mental health, quality of life, and functional ability of the child and the parent. Parenting ability and the parent’s relationship with the child.

Inclusion criteria: Studies evaluating interventions offered specifically during the waiting period for treatment at the equivalent of child and adolescent mental health services (BUP).

Exclusion criteria: Interventions aimed at treating the psychiatric condition (e.g. psychological treatment).

Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline (Ovid), Scopus och PsycInfo.

Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.

Risk of bias in relevant systematic reviews was assessed using an assessment tool based on AMSTAR.

Identified literature

No relevant systematic reviews with low to moderate risk of bias were identified. In two relevant systematic reviews, the risk of bias was considered to be high, therefore the results and conclusions are not reported and only the interventions are presented in Table 1 [1, 2].

References

  1. Thomas KA, Schroder AM, Rickwood DJ. A systematic review of current approaches to managing demand and waitlists for mental health services. Ment Health Rev (Brighton). 2021;26(1):1-17. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/mhrj-05-2020-0025
  2. Valentine AZ, Hall SS, Sayal K, Hall CL. Waiting-list interventions for children and young people using child and adolescent mental health services: a systematic review. BMJ Ment Health. 2024;27(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjment-2023-300844

Literature search

Medline via OvidSP 07 May 2025

Title: Insatser inom socialtjänst i väntan på behandling vid barn- och ungdomspsykiatri
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. Exp Mental Health/ 73 228
2. Exp Suicide/ 80 823
3. Persons with Psychiatric Disorders/ 6478
4. Exp Mental Health Services/ 111 023
5. (suicid* or parasuicid* or mental health or self injur* or (eating adj4 disorder)).ab,bt,kf,ti. 373 657
6. OR 1-5/ 487 587
Intervention:
7. exp Waiting Lists/ 14 751
8. exp Crisis Intervention/ 6448
9. (wait* list* or waitlist* or queue or (delay* adj2 treatment*) or (delay* adj2 access)).ab,bt,kf,ti. 48 831
10. ((crisis or brief or network or famil* or parent* or home or home-based or wait* or interim or parent-direct*) adj4 (support or intervention or counseling or counselling)).ab,bt,kf,ti. 96 290
11. OR 7-10/ 154 903
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials[1]
12. ((Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/)) 542 200
Final result
13. 6 AND 11 AND 12 998
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp = Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase

Scopus via scopus.com 7 May 2025

Title: Insatser inom socialtjänst i väntan på behandling vid barn- och ungdomspsykiatri
Search terms Items found
Population:
1.; TITLE-ABS-KEY (suicid* OR parasuicid* OR "mental health service*" OR "mental health" OR (eating W/3 disorder)) 945 931
Intervention:
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY (“wait* list*” OR waitlist* OR queue OR (delay* W/2 treat*) OR (delay W/2 access)) 142 684
3. TITLE-ABS-KEY ((crisis OR brief OR network OR famil* or parent* OR home OR home-based OR wait* ) W/3 (support OR intervention or counseling or counselling)) 245 093
4. OR 2-3/ 383 379
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials
5. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic W/2 review ) OR "meta analy*" OR metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”)) 803 486
Final result
6. 1 AND 4 AND 5 2 271
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase

PSYCINFO via EBSCO 7 May 2025

Title: Insatser inom socialtjänst i väntan på behandling vid barn- och ungdomspsykiatri
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. DE Suicidal Behavior 1224
2. DE Suicide 39 019
3. DE Suicidal Ideation 16 896
4. DE Attempted Suicide 13 154
5. DE Suicide Prevention 7396
6. DE Suicidology 513
7. DE Mental Health 113 860
8. DE Mental Health Services 52 088
9. TI ( suicid* OR parasuicid* OR “mental health” OR “mental health servic*” OR “eating W3 disorder”) OR AB ( suicid* OR parasuicid* OR “mental health” OR “mental health servic*” OR “eating W3 disorder”) OR KW ( suicid* OR parasuicid* OR “mental health” OR “mental health servic*” OR “eating W3 disorder”) 346 250
10. OR 1-9/ 370 435
Intervention:
11. TI (“wait* list*” OR “waitlist*” OR "queue" OR "delay W2 treatment” OR “delay W2 access”) OR AB (“wait* list*” OR “waitlist*” OR "queue" OR "delay W2 treatment” OR “delay W2 access”) OR SU (“wait* list*” OR “waitlist*” OR "queue" OR "delay W2 treatment” OR “delay W2 access”) 11 132
12. TI ((crisis OR brief OR network OR famil* or parent* OR home OR home-based OR wait* OR interim OR parent-direct* ) W3 (support OR intervention or counseling or counselling)) OR AB ((crisis OR brief OR network OR famil* or parent* OR home OR home-based OR wait* OR interim OR parent-direct* ) W3 (support OR intervention or counseling or counselling)) OR SU ((crisis OR brief OR network OR famil* or parent* OR home OR home-based OR wait* OR interim OR parent-direct* ) W3 (support OR intervention or counseling or counselling)) 77 286
13. DE Emotional support 1410
14. DE Social casework 22 734
15. DE Social services 11 126
16. OR 11-15/ 119 393
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials
17. TI((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR AB((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR SU((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR (MR "Systematic Review" OR MR "meta analysis") 111 441
Final result
18. 10 AND 16 AND 17 819
TI = Title; AB = Abstract; SU = Keyword, exact or part (including all other fields for indexed and author keywords); DE = Exact keyword; TX = All text; MR = Methodology; Nn = Near. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
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