Background: Transfer of care from one healthcare provider to another is often understood as a suboptimal version of the process of transition.
Aims: To separate and evaluate concepts of transfer and transition between child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS).
Method: In a retrospective case-note survey of young people reaching the upper age boundary at six English CAMHS, optimal transition was evaluated using four criteria: continuity of care, parallel care, a transition planning meeting and information transfer.
Results: Of 154 cases, 76 transferred to AMHS. Failure to transfer resulted mainly from non-referral by CAMHS (n = 12) and refusal by service users (n = 12) rather than refusal by AMHS (n = 7). Four cases met all criteria for optimal transition, 13 met none; continuity of care (n = 63) was met most often.
Conclusions: Transfer was common but good transition rare. Reasons for failure to transfer differ from barriers to transition. Transfer should be investigated alongside transition in research and service development.