Taking care of your physical health may help improve your mental health, as we know both are closely linked. However, when it comes to understanding how lifestyle choices and physical health of young people are impacted by an admission to a mental health inpatient ward – WE NEED MORE INFORMATION!

We want to improve the services we offer to young people on our inpatient wards and to ensure that when they are admitted the high-quality care that they receive has both their mental AND physical health in mind. This is especially important for our young people as it can have a significant impact on their development across multiple life domains (physical, mental/emotional, educational and social), as well as nourishing their potential to thrive in society.

Therefore, when our young people are admitted to mental health inpatient wards, we want to know- ‘WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR PHYSICAL HEALTH?’ The most effective way that we can learn this is by asking the young people who are admitted to our mental health wards about their physical health. That is exactly what we are doing!

Through this feasibility study we have the opportunity to pave the way for more research in this area, with the ultimate goal of building an evidence base for the development of physical health interventions on our wards. We want our CAMHS Physical Health Monitoring Study to change the way we view physical health in mental health inpatient settings and to put the physical health of our young people on the agenda!