RESEARCH THEME
TRANSITION
The Need
Young people are required to move (‘transfer’) to adult health services when they reach 16-19 years.
In healthcare, ‘transition’ describes the purposeful, planned process that addresses the medical, psychosocial, and educational/vocational needs of adolescents and young adults with long-term conditions as they move from paediatric to adult health services.
Young people with long-term and rare conditions require safe, individualised, high-quality transition services, and support with gaining independence to engage with adult services.
Critically, poor healthcare transition leads to disengagement with adult health services and is associated with increased emergency hospital admissions, negative impacts on physical and mental health, poor patient experience, significantly increased morbidity and mortality, high complications rates, and increased NHS costs. Despite this, transition services and experiences across the UK are highly variable.
Theme Focus
The overall aim of the Transition theme is to support the development of technology to ensure the safe and effective transition of young people with long-term/life-limiting conditions and rare diseases.
This theme has three main areas of focus:
- Knowledge and education, specifically aiming to challenge conventional (and ineffective) methods of delivering information to young people, and seeking to work directly with young people and healthcare professionals to create developmentally appropriate technologies to deliver healthcare information.
- Self-management and gaining independence, with a focus on supporting the measurement of generic- and condition-specific parameters that will guide developmentally appropriate self-management of health conditions.
- Evaluate services to provide effective transition and developmentally appropriate healthcare, including developing nationwide digital platforms and tools for NHS Trusts and integrated care systems to benchmark and monitor their transition services against 2016 NICE guidance recommendations.
Team
DR PRIYA NARULA
CO-THEME LEAD
Dr Priya Narula is a Consultant in Paediatric Gastroenterology and the Trust Clinical Lead for Transition at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Priya currently chairs the British Society of Gastroenterology Adolescent and Young Person’s Section committee.
DR HELENA GLEESON
CO-THEME LEAD
Dr Helena Gleeson is a Consultant Endocrinologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. Helena chairs the Royal College of Physicians steering group for adolescents and young adults, and is a member of the Advisory Council for the Association of Young People’s Health, which leads the Young People’s Health Partnership. Helena has also worked closely with the National Clinical Director for Transition on NHS England service specifications for transition, and was a member of the NICE Guidance Development Group and NICE Quality Standards Advisory Committee for Transition.
EMMA MOFFAT
PROJECT MANAGER
Emma Moffat is our Project Manager for the Long-Term Conditions in Childhood and Transition themes. Emma is also our first point of contact for external enquiries. Prior to joining the team, Emma worked in various project supporting roles at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust within the e-Systems and Theatres departments.