It’s not too late to book!
To view the programme, click here.
The online meeting is a great opportunity to network with other professionals working in paediatrics and mental health, and to update yourself on the latest research and developments in the field.
If you have not already booked for the meeting, there is still time to do so. Members of the PMHA can attend at a special discounted price.
Click here for more information and to register.
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.
The webinars will run fortnightly on Monday evenings and will cover a range of topics relevant to the RCPCH training curriculum. Paediatric doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, as well as professionals from other medical specialties, are all welcome to attend.
We are excited to be collaborating with several different groups on this project. Half of our sessions will be aimed at general Paediatricians and we will be working with the very popular Thinking Together group to deliver some of these. The other half of our sessions will be run in conjunction with other subspecialty groups within the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), covering particular mental health issues affecting their patient populations.
First Webinar – Monday 7th June, 7:30pm
Our first webinar, run in collaboration with the Thinking Together group, will take place at 7:30pm on Monday 7th June. The focus will be Medically Unexplained Symptoms, and it will be delivered by the wonderful Dr. Virginia Davies, Consultant Paediatric Liaison Psychiatrist at The Whittington Hospital. It’s sure to be an engaging and interesting session and we look forward to welcoming lots of you there.
To register your interest in attending these webinars, please sign up to our mailing list at the following link using your professional email address (nhs.net or nhs.uk):
Click here to sign up to the mailing list
We will send regular emails with details of upcoming sessions and booking links. We will also make this information about the sessions available here on the PMHA website.
We’re looking forward to getting started with this new project
and can’t wait for you all to join us.
“I was hoping to deliver this message over the phone, but have unfortunately be unable to reach you. I felt that you deserved to hear this from us rather than through social media or hearsay due to your loyalty to us so I hope you don’t mind me emailing. I’m afraid I have some very sad news about Sundial Group. Unfortunately the Group, including the businesses of Highgate House and Woodside, were put into administration on Monday this week. After nearly 12 months of ongoing costs without income it has not been possible to extend our borrowings further in a way that would maintain the viability of the businesses. This is a cash flow insolvency as the businesses have very significant assets which will now be sold with the expectation that all liabilities will be settled in full. I’m afraid that this means we will not be reopening either venue. Obviously it is a very sad end to our hospitality business which, like so many others, has been unable to survive the global pandemic. Thank you so much for your wonderful support over the years. I know that many of our customers and guests have identified as part of the Sundial family and it’s such a shame that we have been left with no alternative. I am ever so sorry to have to deliver this news and I wish you all the best.”
The PMHA is delighted to be supporting #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek, organised by the charity @Place2Be. Of course, for those of us in the PMHA, every week is Children’s Mental Health Week, but this yearly event is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of this issue more widely and start some important conversations at work and at home.
This past year has been an incredibly difficult one for many families, and we are starting to see more and more evidence about the effects that COVID-19, lockdown and school closures have had on children and young people in the UK and around the world. A poll at our annual meeting last week found that 97% of attendees had seen a change in children and young people presenting in acute crisis during COVID-19, with more than 7 in 10 seeing both increased numbers and increased complexity of presentation. And for every child presenting to hospital, there are likely countless more struggling at home.
The theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is “Express Yourself”. Many of us can find it hard to talk about mental health, particularly with children and young people. Place2Be have compiled an excellent set of resources – available at https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/schools-and-youth-groups/ – to help start these conversations and empower children to express themselves in different ways.
Many young people may wish to seek support outside their immediate friends and family. @YoungMindsUK has compiled an excellent list of support services available by phone, text, email and web chat, available here: https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/get-urgent-help/
Of course, it’s not only children who need help and support during these challenging times. @LittleGoodDeed is a campaign aimed at helping parents and carers who may be struggling during lockdown. If you can, try to take the opportunity this week to reach out to a friend, colleague or family member who may be struggling. If you’re struggling yourself, see https://www.littlegooddeed.org.uk/getsupportnow for a list of useful resources you can access online or by phone.
We at the PMHA will continue to share useful resources throughout this week and beyond, so don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and, if you haven’t, sign up to become a PMHA member. We look forward to hearing more about how you’ve marked Children’s Mental Health Week and – crucially – how you keep that important work going in the weeks and months to come.
The meeting has a great line-up of talks and presentations relating to different aspects of paediatric mental health and is an excellent way to connect with others working in this field.
Don’t miss out on this excellent annual event. If you haven’t registered yet but would like to attend either of the days, then you can still do so by clicking here.
We look forward to seeing you later this week!
A letter in The Guardian written by a group of health and disability experts highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic has meant access to many support services is limited and deaf youngsters are even more vulnerable…
Click to read the whole letter:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/07/lockdown-and-the-impact-on-deaf-children
“We call upon Government to move quickly and decisively to try and repair the harm suffered by young, vulnerable people during this pandemic. Failure to do so will come at a price too high.”
To read the full text of the letter, click below:
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 …
A short post to say that the PMHA is going to be at the annual Royal College of Paediatrics meeting on Tuesday 28th April 2020.
The PMHA session is linked with the British Association of Paediatricians in Audiology (BAPA).
The theme of the PMHA / BAPA joint session is ‘difference and self’. Sound intriguing? Why not come along to find out more.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Paediatric Mental Health Association 