Bone Abstracts

Objectives: Within the National Health Service there is a recognised need for supporting young peoples transition into adult services¹. Focus groups and forums have historically been used to identify how to achieve ‘good’ transition between services, from the perspective of patients, carers and professionals. A recent article recommended an individualised programme supporting transition for young people with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI)². The aim of our project was to evaluate whether groupwork was enjoyed by young people with OI, if their understanding of transition increased from this and how their healthcare team can support them during the transition process.

Method: 44 adolescents with OI aged 10–17 years were invited to a transition group, 13 attended. Of the participants nine had mild OI, three moderate and one severe (four participants use wheelchairs the majority of the time). Topics covered included an introduction to transition, the roles of the OI health care professionals and how transition plans can support a move to adult services. Anonymised pre and post questionnaires were used to explore their perspectives and effectiveness of the transition group.

Results: • 11 pre and post questionnaires were completed.

• Ten participants reported to have enjoyed the group and would recommend it to other young people with OI.

• Nine participants reported to have increased confidence when talking about issues relating to transition.

• There was an 18% increase in the proportion of participants understanding how different healthcare professionals can support them through transition.

• Two emerging themes were identified ‘not feeling alone’ and ‘change in hospital care’.

Conclusion:: Overall groupwork was found to be an effective way of supporting young people in their understanding of transition. Due to the relatively small number of attendees’ (30% of those invited) an alternative data collection method, such as semi-structured interviews or a focus group, would have provided more detailed feedback. It would be interesting to explore the reasons why the remaining 31 young people chose not to attend, even when given two opportunities. This pilot study supports the need for groupwork when focusing on transition, however further evaluation is needed to explore its on-going effectiveness.

References: 1. Care Quality Commission. From the Pond into the Sea: Children’s transition into adult health services. 2014.

2. Maman JD. Frank R. Trudy W. Joanne R. Francis HG. and Christophe B. From pediatric to adult care: strategic evaluation of a transition program for patients with osteogenesis imperfecta. BMC Health Services Research, 2014 14:489.

Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.