KAOS (King’s Adolescent Outreach Service) was launched in April 2018. Initiated through a collaboration between King’s College Hospital and Redthread Youth Work charity, and supported by the Children & Young People’s Health Partnership (CYPHP), the project aims to identify and support adolescents aged 16-19 years who have been admitted to adult inpatient wards at King’s College Hospital.
The project is part of King’s College Hospital’s wider vision to become a young person friendly hospital by improving the suitability, accessibility, quality, and safety of services for young people. In addition, it aligns with CYPHP’s vision of improving everyday health care, by improving quality and age-appropriateness of care.
The KAOS team consists of three core members; Paediatricians Dr Hannah Baynes, Dr Simon Chapman, and Barney Dunn, a youth worker from Redthread. The team is also supported by over 20 professionals across the Denmark Hill site, representing a breadth of professions and specialities. These include adult surgeons/physicians, a gynaecologist, specialist nurses and sexual health professionals. Each day, the team identifies adolescent patients across the hospital, meets with these patients, and works with their medical and surgical teams to ensure that their needs are being met not only physically, but also emotionally and socially.
Since its launch in April 2018, the team has achieved some noteworthy successes. Between April and May, KAOS received 24 referrals from 16 different wards, representing 15 specialities. Between June and July, this increased to 40 referrals. These early figures already show that KAOS is relevant to many young people, across a wide range of adult wards. In addition, between April and May, and June and July, 87% and 91% of adolescents engaged with the service, respectively. This giving an initial suggestion that young people are in need of the unique support, and would like to receive the support.
The support given by KAOS vary from providing a health review, education and employment advice, supporting medical treatment and advocacy, enquiring about mental health needs and also signposting to relevant services.
CYPHP is delighted to hear about the team’s progress and their recent shortlisting for the Lammy 2018 awards, which was held on Wednesday 5th September. The Lammys are an award ceremony hosted by Lambeth CCG, recognising people or teams who have gone the extra mile to provide exceptional healthcare support and services.
If you would like to learn more about KAOS or have the latest updates on the project, follow the KAOS team on Twitter: @KAOS_Kings
Read more of the latest news from CYPHP here.