The Transitions Service, which has been delivering specialist mental health services for 16- to 18-year-olds in County Durham and Darlington since March 2005, was set up in what staff describe as a "vacuum".
Service manager Jo Paul says society's perception of childhood ending at 16 and adulthood beginning at 18 has created a huge hole in research available on the mental health needs of young people in the 16 to 18 age group and the services available to them.
"It's as if 16-year-olds fall off a cliff and come back to life at 18," she says.
Service lottery
The need for a consistent service for 16- to 18-year-olds in Durham and Darlington was identified in Minding the Gap, a document produced in April 2004 by Durham County Council's scrutiny committee. The report highlighted differences across the region's six primary care trust areas in how over-16s with mental health problems were treated. For example, one trust would include young people up to 18 in its child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), whether they were in education or not. Three would end child services at 16 and the other two would accept young people up to 18 only if they were still in education.
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