Measuring patient dependency in child and adolescent mental health.

Within the context of child and adolescent mental health inpatient services, a literature review was undertaken to understand the concept of inpatient dependency and how it can be measured. Articles and books relating to patient dependency and its measurement in various contexts were retrieved, and other published measures were identified. It was found that dependency has been defined in many different ways, and various techniques have aimed to quantify or categorize patients' dependencies. This article focuses particularly on measures used in adult psychiatry and paediatric services. At present, there is no available established measure of patient dependency in child and adolescent inpatients. This article identifies the need to develop a measure of inpatient dependency that is specifically designed for these services, and outlines a tool that the authors have recently designed.