Monday 5 December 2016

It's Time to End Consistently Inconsistent Approach to Children's Mental Health


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/prof-dame-sue-bailey/children-mental-health_b_13296744.html

Violence Against Women and Girls Communications Insight Pack November 2016

This Communications Insight Pack has been developed to provide partners with key insights into violence against women and girls (VAWG) which can help to inform communications activities. Insight ensures that we understand our audiences. Understanding audiences is essential to all communications. By finding out more about audiences’ attitudes, habits and preferences, insight can help ensure communications are as relevant, meaningful and effective as possible.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571078/VAWG_Comms_Insight_Pack_161102.pdf

Friday 2 December 2016

"What doesn't kill us" ...

Post Traumatic Growth


"Post-traumatic growth refers to how adversity can often be a springboard to a new and more meaningful life in which people re-evaluate their priorities, deepen their relationships, and find new understandings of who they are. Post-traumatic growth is not simply about coping; it refers to changes that cut to the very core of our way of being in the world. Post-traumatic growth has to do with the way we greet the day as we wake in the morning. The way we brush our teeth and put on our shoes — it reflects our attitude about life itself and our place in the world".


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-joseph/what-doesnt-kill-us-post_b_2862726.html

Monday 21 November 2016

Vicarious Trauma in helping professionals - a social worker's story

"Today I realised that I have given almost a decade of my working life to supporting children and families. Most of this time has been spent in child protection, looked after or adoption teams. I worked out the other day that in my time I must have worked with nearly 500 children and families. I hope that I made a better life for some of them.
They say that the burn out rate for social workers is now seven years. I’m three years beyond this and have had to admit to myself that I am now past my sell by date".....
From
http://socialworktutor.com/given-my-all-to-social-work/ accessed 21-11-16

Monday 12 September 2016

Childline annual review 2015-16

"Mental health and wellbeing issues continue to be the main reason why children and young people contact us, with one in three counselling sessions about this topic. Most worryingly, we’re seeing increases in the most serious mental health problems. This year we provided over 19,000 counselling sessions with young people who were thinking about or planning suicide" 

"At the same time, we’ve seen an 87 per cent increase in the number of counselling sessions where children and young people talked to us about struggling to access appropriate professional support locally especially for mental health problems, some of which were linked to their experiences of abuse. This follows an increase of 124 per cent in the previous year."

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/2016/childline-annual-review-2015-16-turned-out-someone-did-care/

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Teaching children about how their brains effect them emotionally -

"Sometimes our brains can become overwhelmed with feelings of fear, sadness or anger, and when this happens, it’s confusing—especially to children. So giving children ways to make sense of what’s happening in their brain is important. It’s also helpful for children to have a vocabulary for their emotional experiences that others can understand. Think of it like a foreign language, and if the other people in your family speak that language too, then it’s easier to communicate with them."

http://www.mindful.org/how-to-teach-your-kids-about-the-brain/

Monday 29 August 2016

Rise in number of children seeking mental health support By Adam Offord | 24 August 2016

"In the three months between 1 April and 30 June this year there were 909 new referrals for people aged under 19 with eating disorder issues.This is a rise of 48.3 per cent on the 613 referrals recorded in the three months between January and March. Marc Bush, chief policy adviser atYoungMinds, said it is unclear whether the rise suggests progress on increasing access to child and adolescent mental health services or a failure to prevent needs from escalating." 


http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/2000607/rise-in-number-of-children-seeking-mental-health-support?platform=hootsuite

Monday 22 August 2016

Exam stress

"The NSPCC reports that the number of young people receiving counselling from Childline about their A-Level and GCSE results rose 20% this year, with 1 in 4 of all sessions being delivered in August. Childline’s advice about coping with exam results is highlighted."

Progress in child and adolescent mental health


"The Education Policy Institute has published a report on the progress made since the publication of Future in mind, the government’s strategy to transform mental health care for children and young people in England. Six key barriers to the effective delivery of Future in mind have been identified: workforce (both recruitment difficulties and training needs); funding; commissioning; data; fragmentation (the complexity and gaps between services); intervening too late." 

Tuesday 16 August 2016

"Prescription drug abuse tied to increased risk of teen suicide"

(Reuters Health) - Suicide is a leading cause of death for teens worldwide, and the odds of suicide attempts may be higher when adolescents abuse prescription drugs, a Chinese study suggests.

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKKCN10Q1T1

Monday 15 August 2016

Thursday 4 August 2016

CCGs embrace effective VCS models

From Youth Access website -
"New evidence suggests we may be at the start of a voluntary sector-driven transformation of young people’s mental health services
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local authorities are increasingly turning to Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) delivery models to drive CAMHS transformation. That is the key finding of a report published today by Youth Access, the advice and counselling charity. "

http://www.youthaccess.org.uk/news/press-release-ccgs-embrace-effective-vcs-models/

Monday 18 July 2016

Beware the trap of seeing students as just labels

14th July 2016 at 16:00
Imagine a school where all the students stuck to all of the rules all of the time. Where they learned easily and put maximum effort into everything they did. Where there were no safeguarding issues, no mental health issues, and children arrived well dressed and well fed, dropped off by their parents who are eager to engage with and listen to the advice of their teachers.
For some, that would be the perfect school. But not me – schools should be for all learners, not just the ones that make life easy. And this utopian school does not, of course, exist in reality. But the hope – or the belief – that such a school could exist can leads to us perceiving some of our students differently: namely, those students that struggle, or that ruin a school’s 100 per cent attendance record or that need extra attention – in whatever form that might be.

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/beware-trap-seeing-students-just-labels

"Abused children ‘re-traumatised’ by support services"

A report by mental health charity YoungMinds has found that children who have been neglected, abused, bereaved or faced prejudice are often let down by services designed to support them.
The report, Beyond Adversity, shows that one in three adult mental health problems stem from "adverse childhood experiences" – including abuse, neglect, taking on adult responsibilities, prejudice and bereavement.  

But young people who suffered this type of trauma may communicate their feelings by being aggressive, self-destructive, withdrawn or highly sexualised, they are often treated as “the problem”, the report states. 
This means there is a risk that the cause of their trauma is never addressed and they don’t receive the mental health care they need.


http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1158183/abused-children-re-traumatised-by-support-services

Monday 11 July 2016

Information sharing to protect vulnerable children and families

The Department for Education has published a report by the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing, exploring information sharing challenges that exist around vulnerable children and families. Findings include: to support partnerships to promote and deliver earlier intervention, there is a pressing need to ensure that information sharing is seen as an integral part of professional practice.

Source: DfE  Date: 06 July 2016

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535525/Information-sharing-to-protect-vulnerable-children-and-families.pdf
Source - NSPCC Knowledge and Information Services <subscriptions@email.nspcc.org.uk>

Friday 8 July 2016

Tuesday 31 May 2016

Suicide in children and young people in England: a consecutive case series

"There is concern about the mental health of children and young people and a possible rise in suicidal behaviour in this group. We have done a comprehensive national multi-agency study of suicide in under 20s in England. We aimed to establish how frequently suicide is preceded by child-specific and young person-specific suicide risk factors, as well as all-age factors, and to identify contact with health-care and social-care services and justice agencies".

http://www.thelancet.com/action/showFullTextImages?pii=S2215-0366%2816%2930094-3

Tuesday 24 May 2016

A Systematic Assessment of Smartphone Tools for Suicide Prevention

"Suicide is a leading cause of death globally, and there has been a rapid growth in the use of new technologies such as mobile health applications (apps) to help identify and support those at risk. However, it is not known whether these apps are evidence-based, or indeed contain potentially harmful content. This review examines the concordance of features in publicly available apps with current scientific evidence of effective suicide prevention strategies."

  • Published: April 13, 2016

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0152285

Thursday 12 May 2016

A Brave New World

A Brave New World

Counselling online is a way of working that more and more counsellors are venturing into. For many it is an exciting concept; an opening of new avenues to communicate with clients, and creative ways of working therapeutically. For others the thought of counselling online feels daunting and full of challenges, particularly regarding confidentiality and working …

Monday 9 May 2016

A step in the right direction?

Children and Young People Now reports that the Childcare minister has announced the expansion of a programme to develop a more coherent system between schools and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The programme involves one “go-to” person in CAMHS working with a number of schools in one area, and one staff member in each school working with this CAMHS contact. The results of last year's pilot will be available in the autumn.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/mental-health-pilots-where-next

Brene Brown - Boundaries, Empathy and Compassion

Brene Brown - another great talk

https://www.facebook.com/trcounselling/posts/504584906416510

Friday 6 May 2016

How Does Grief Cause Physical Pain?

From the children's Bereavement Charity, Winston's Wish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36213249

Tuesday 26 April 2016

"Telephone and e counselling competences"

These have now been released on the BACP website and are available for viewing - 

telephone counselling competences

MindEd for Families

MindEd for Families was launched today to provide expert information that families with concerns about their children’s mental health can trust, free of charge. 

http://www.bacp.co.uk/media/?newsId=3923

Monday 18 April 2016

CentreForum Report

CentreForum has published the first report of its Commission on children and young people’s mental health. Key findings include: services turn away, on average, 23% of children and teenagers referred to them; there is a wide variation in average waiting times for different service providers; children and young people with mental health problems are still not always getting the right treatment, at the right time, in the right place.
Source: CentreForum 11 April 2016

http://centreforum.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/State-of-the-Nation-report-web.pdf

Sunday 17 April 2016

The Importance of Personal Best -

Dr. Atul Gawande, surgeon and well-known author, recently had an article published in The New Yorker.
“Personal Best” is his personal account of being coached by a senior surgeon with the objective of honing his surgical skills.
In addition, he also gives a favorable nod to executive coaching for physicians.
Dr. Gawande is an outstanding writer and provocative thinker.
After reading the article, how would you answer the question Dr. Gawande poses at the beginning of the article: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best

Friday 15 April 2016

Unhappy child, Unhealthy adult

Scientists are now revealing that these stressful childhood experiences have a direct impact on our physical health, through their impact on the developing brain and the immune system.
The question now is how to use this knowledge to improve the nation's health. Should health professionals routinely ask patients about traumatic events in their childhoods? And if so, who should broach the subject, where and when?
Geoff Watts visits a GP practice which is about to trial this novel idea, and looks at the growing body of evidence revealing how adverse childhood experiences contribute to poor health and shorter lives.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070dksr

Friday 4 March 2016

Young Minds - University Magazine


YoungMinds VS Stress at University
Coping on Campus Zine Launched Today! ‪#‎UniMentalHealthDay‬
http://ow.ly/Z1WOD
In a first for YoungMinds, we've launched a zine! The zine brings together everything we’ve done so far for the YoungMinds VS Stress at University…
YOUNGMINDS.ORG.UK

https://www.facebook.com/youngmindsuk/

Thursday 3 March 2016

"Off the Record" (Croydon) have produced a list of books, along with reviews, dealing with mental health issues:-

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1208274722533820&id=1924362
74117675&fref=nf

Friday 26 February 2016

A new report from Carers Trust

A new report released by Carers Trust maintains that gaps in services are leaving many young carers without support for their mental health.
 
The report, ‘Invisible and in distress: prioritising the mental health of England’s young carers’ explains that caring is a risk factor for children and young people’s mental health, which continues to be little understood and is often invisible to professionals and policy-makers.

https://www.carers.org/news/young-carers-need-more-mental-health-support-or-they-will-remain-invisible-and-distress

Thursday 11 February 2016

"MindEd online Risk and Resilience resource"


"This resource has been developed as information and support for all professionals who work with children and young people.  The content has been co-produced by Xenzone and young people from their onlinecounselling and support service, KOOTH.com."

https://www.minded.org.uk/course/view.php?id=402

"A National Scandal"

"The NSPCC confirmed there had been a rise in children seeking its help. “Our ChildLine service has seen a huge increase in calls from desperately unhappy children,” a spokesperson said. “Last year more than half of the young people we referred to other agencies were suicidal.”
"Charities said the numbers were a “national scandal”. The records show 98 children under 15 killed themselves in the UK from 2005 to 2014, 59 boys and 39 girls."
"For the first time the ONS included in its research on UK suicides the deaths from intentional self-harm of 10- to 14-year-old children as well as those of people aged 15 and over. Children under 10 are not recognised in suicide figures and therefore not included."
"Ged Flynn, the chief executive of the charity Papyrus, which is dedicated to the prevention of suicide among young people, told the Press Association: “We have ‘hidden’ the fact that children and young people die this way because it is so flipping painful for us."

https://www.facebook.com/PAPYRUSUK/posts/10153384551235950

Thursday 28 January 2016

Investigating the benefits of school counselling - Chartered Psychologist leads large scale trial.

"The benefits of professional school-based counsellors in supporting young people experiencing emotional problems will be evaluated through an extensive three-year study, which will establish a dedicated counselling service in 18 English secondaries.
"The randomised controlled trial, due to start in April 2016, has received £835,000 funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and will be led by Chartered Psychologist Professor Mick Cooper from the University of Roehampton in London." 
"Participating schools will receive a professional school-based counselling service provided by fully qualified and experienced school counsellors at no cost for two years. School who are interested should contactpeter.pearce@metanoia.ac.uk"

http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/investigating-benefits-school-counselling

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Children Focusing ** Felt Sense with René Veugelers

Mind your ‘C’s and ‘S’s: The Language of Self-harm and Suicide (and why it matters)

By Emma Nielsen

"We all say things that we don’t mean sometimes. Perhaps the time that you snapped at the end of a long day or said that deliberately hurtful comment in the heat of an argument. Sometimes these instances are easily recognisable (perhaps easily apologised for). However, often our language conveys more subtle messages as well."



https://imhblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/emma-nielsen-mind-your-cs-and-ss-the-language-of-self-harm-and-suicide-and-why-it-matters/?platform=hootsuite&blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Alistair Burt talks about plans to improve children and young people’s mental health including a national anti-stigma campaign for teenagers



"Today we’re talking about nothing short of the biggest transformation to young people’s mental health and one of the largest investments the sector has seen. I want to place the emphasis on building young people’s resilience, promoting good mental health and wellbeing and intervening early. We need to build care around the needs of young people and their families. I want to deliver a clear joined-up approach to mental health care, so children and young people can navigate through the system to get the care they need."

http://xenzone.com/reports/1452182476Alistair_Burt_MP_speech.pdf