The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) recently published an interested article about supporting children who have had adverse experiences:
“Recent NIHR research aims to improve the lives of children and young people exposed to adverse childhood experiences. It identifies the types of support young people feel they need from services, and offers ways to support the mental health of children in care and those adopted from care…”
Click here to read more.
We would like to draw your attention to this recent research article published in the journal JCPP Advances by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH).
Increasing specialisation and technical sophistication of medical tools across the 21st century have contributed to dramatic improvements in the life-expectancy of children and adolescents with complex physical health problems. Concurrently, there is growing appreciation within the community of the extent that children and adolescents experience mental disorders, which are more prevalent in those with complex chronic, serious or life-limiting health conditions. In this context, there are compelling reasons for paediatric services to move to a model of care that promotes greater integration of child psychiatry within the medical, somatic teams that care for children and adolescents in children’s hospitals.
In this article, we discuss the range of medical disorders managed by contemporary paediatrics.
We conducted a broad review of the literature and existing services, and use individual accounts to illustrate adolescents’ healthcare preferences in the context of the challenges they experience around their mental health.
For the full article click here
JCPP is a new open access journal in the field of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and related disciplines
The organisation Our Time, which seeks to help young people affected by parental mental health illness, has just launched what sounds like a fantastic new podcast called “My Family, Mental Illness… and Me”:
“At Our Time, we are very proud of this podcast. With it, we want to open up the conversation around parental mental illness. All of the guests who took part have or had a parent with a mental illness, or facing a mental health difficulty. Many have a significant public profile including: Joe Wicks, the nation’s PE teacher; BAFTA-winning screenwriter Kayleigh Llewellyn (In My Skin); comedian, author and actor Grace Campbell; and MP Neil Coyle. The interviews are brilliantly hosted by Dr Pamela Jenkins from the Mental Health Foundation, whose own mother had schizoaffective disorder.”
For more information about the podcast and the work which Our Time does, visit their website here.
Dr Sarah Temple, a GP and director of EHCAP – an organisation providing innovative solutions for education, health, care and prison services – has written a great book aimed at supporting children and families to be emotionally ready for school. The book, ‘All Emotions Are Okay’, is a bright and colourful exploration of the emotions young children, and their parents or carers, might feel when they start school.
Click on the picture above, or click here, to see and download a pdf version of this book. You can also give feedback on the book.
The Anna Freud Learning Network is a free national network for professionals, both individuals and organisations, which shares the latest research, resources, and learning opportunities to those working to transform the mental health of children and young people.
To find out more and to join the network, please click on the link below
https://www.annafreud.org/mental-health-professionals/anna-freud-learning-network
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has a wide range of useful information about young people’s mental health written to support young people, as well as their parents and carers.
The information is written by psychiatrists and young people working together. It includes information on topics such as…
– coping with stress
– depression in children and young people
– worries about weight and eating problems
– drugs and alcohol
– psychosis and schizophrenia for young people
Click on the links above to go to the specific section, or click on the link below to go an overview of all the information:
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people
Last month, the RCPCH published an interesting report ‘Reimagining the future of paediatric care post-COVID-19 – a reflective report of rapid learning‘. The report is the first in a series of reports from the Paediatrics 2014 Project.
“This report, published on 26 June 2020, is the first in a series from the Paediatrics 2040 project that will inform RCPCH’s vision for the future of paediatrics in the UK. We summarise our learning from this period of rapid change, focusing in particular on the elements of new practice that we want to keep and take forwards into the future…
To read the report, click the link below:
Well, in these crazy times – with universal maelstroms – all of us are trying to cope with our personal whirlpools. Being a front line medic, whilst coping as a “full time” parent and teacher; trying to keep yourself, your kids and everyone else around you sane – it’s not manageable, is it?
I wish I had all the answers. Medice, cura te ipsum. Heal thyself. But no-one knows the cure for Covid-19, no immunisation – even against the anxiety and psychological impact of it. As a paediatrician, mother of four, with “shielded” vulnerable relatives; suddenly homeschooling three children and trying to get a “gap-year” son trapped in Vietnam back to the family; I, like the rest of us, am trying to juggle all the balls whilst wearing minimal / flimsy PPE.
At the PMHA (Paediatric Mental Health Association) we are trying to find resources to support parents who are doing the best they can to care for their children’s health, education and emotional needs at home. A popular PMHA Facebook post (which has currently reached over 9.6 million people!) suggests taking the pressure off ourselves with regard to home-schooling or children; to try to take the stress out of the situation as much as possible.
Enjoy the time together – “cuddle up and read, read, read” etc. The best way to de-stress kids is to de-stress ourselves (often easier said than done). Obviously older kids (GCSEs and A Levels) need more structured work (thank you teachers!), but the principle is the same – our kids will remember what this felt like at home. They will remember the emotions and relationships.
We are seeing an increase in mental health presentations to paediatric wards – when we are doing our best to keep people safe at home. However, not all young people are safe at home. Abuse is escalating, domestic violence and parental mental health / substance abuse difficulties are worsening. As paediatricians, we need to be more aware of mental health and safeguarding issues, more than ever. The most vulnerable children are more hidden from view – and we are waiting for a tsunami (not only from Covid-19 ventilated elderly – but also young people who have had to cope with the “perfect storm”at home).
In addition to our Facebook page; the PMHA, along with Serena Haywood (St Georges) and Simon Chapman (Kings) have also developed a website – Indoor Explorers – to try to bring together resources to support parents at this difficult time.
If you have any useful resources for parents or professionals at this time – please share them with us at ContactPMHA@gmail.com
Dr Emma Blake,
Child Mental Health & General Paediatric Consultant,
Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children, Isle of Wight,
Vice Chair PMHA and Chair of Child Mental Health (CSAC) at the RCPCH
By Suzanne Moore on Monday 18th May, 2020.
Click here to read the whole article:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/18/we-should-be-overhauling-the-school-system-not-rushing-to-send-children-back
Let us know your comments or thoughts …
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition website has some more good resources to help children and young people, as well as parents and carers, cope during this period.
To look at the resources available, click here: https://cypmhc.org.uk/resources-for-children-and-you-people-to-help-during-isolation/
Paediatric Mental Health Association 