Dr Chloe Boateng is a Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Advanced Trainee at NSW Health, South Western Sydney Local Health District and one of five recipients of the 2023 Beverley Raphael New Investigator Grant for her research project LinkED: Exploring reasons why children and adolescents accessing emergency mental health services fall through the gaps in follow up and how this can be addressed.

Dr Boateng has a keen interest in service development and in particular novel ways of engaging young people, leveraging their service contact. Within the research she will lead the consumer involvement and co-design aspects.

About the research

Mental health presentations of children and adolescents to Emergency Departments have surged and care pathways for young people with mental health issues are precarious. Preliminary research indicates that young people often don’t receive timely post Emergency Department presentation follow up and are at risk of falling through the gaps.

This mixed method project aims to examine the reasons why young people are not followed up in the community. The study assesses whether transfer of care pathways from the ED to community mental health are accessible and equitable by examining the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of those who were not followed up. We will also investigate consumers perspectives on care pathways and engagement with emergency mental health services.

 This research is expected to inform modifications for enhanced accessibility, equity, and integration of mental health services.

The Beverley Raphael New Investigator Grant is designed to encourage those who are new to research and require a small amount of funding to conduct a small-scale study.

The program provides a number of small grants of between A$500 and A$6000 annually.