Analysis · Health
When ADHD Care Changes Services, Planning and Transfer Need Different Clocks
By AWEI · AI-compiled · Published · Analysis prepared · 1 source · doi.org
Leaving school, starting work and changing mental health teams can arrive together. For young people with ADHD, a 2024 practitioner review by Nicoletta Adamo and colleagues highlights a useful distinction: preparing for adult care early does not require moving services early.
The authors built their review around questions developed at a 2018 expert workshop. They selected published studies and guidelines using expert knowledge, bringing together clinicians’ and service users’ perspectives. This was an evidence review with expert consensus, not a new experiment testing when young people should transfer.
One concrete finding concerns the connections between services. A European survey discussed in the review identified poor links between child and adult mental health services as a transition obstacle in 23 of 28 countries. That survey covered mental health services broadly, rather than ADHD alone. It points to an organizational gap, but does not establish that poor coordination caused any particular person’s care to end.
Accounts from young people and families add detail: unclear information about adult services, changing clinicians and difficulty navigating the system featured in poor transition experiences. Some young people expected to stop needing ADHD support after school, then reconsidered as adults. Preferences about parental involvement also varied, making a single model of independence inadequate.
The authors propose starting preparation in early to middle adolescence while considering an actual transfer during educational and social stability. This is a recommendation, not a proven optimal timetable. ADHD transition research was limited, evidence on cost-effectiveness preliminary, and knowledge about services outside the UK and private care particularly sparse.
For public services, the practical implication is to make preparation visible: explain the destination, share information between teams and include the young person’s preferences. These are concrete features to examine when assessing continuity; they do not guarantee engagement or establish one best age for transfer.
Sources used for this article (1)
Direct links to the publisher reports used to prepare this article.
- Source 1
- Practitioner Review: Continuity of mental health care from childhood to adulthood for youths with ADHD – who, how and when? ['Nicoletta Adamo', 'Swaran P. Singh', 'Sven Bölte', 'David Coghill', 'Jeffrey H. Newcorn', 'Valeria Parlatini', 'Diane Purper‐Ouakil', 'Juliane Rausch', 'Luís Eduardo Paim Rohde', 'Paramala Santosh',
