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Attendance at child psychiatric clinics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. Ubeysekara*
Affiliation:
Brynffynnon Child and Family Centre, Merthyr Road, Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan CF37 4DD
N. Cox
Affiliation:
Brynffynnon Child and Family Centre, Merthyr Road, Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan CF37 4DD
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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A study of 41 families who failed to attend their first appointment at a child psychiatric clinic is described. The study was prospective over a period of one year and the families were interviewed personally; 14.9% failed their first appointment. Improvement of the child's symptoms during the waiting period, anxiety about seeing a psychiatrist/social worker, financial difficulties and the invitation to the family to attend were common reasons given for non-attendance. Another important factor was that families were ill-prepared by the referrers.

Type
Original papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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Cottrell, D., Hill, P., Walk, D., et al (1988) Factors influencing non-attendance at child psychiatry outpatient appointments. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 201204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Lefebvre, A., Sommerauer, J., Cohen, N., et al (1983) Where did all the ‘no-shows’ go? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 28, 387390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richards, H. (1990) What do they do at the child guidance? Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review and Newsletter, 12(3), 1317.Google Scholar
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