Monday 17 December 2018

How do Schools Address Self Harm in Adolescents?

“Adolescent self-harm is a major concern in the UK, and our study reports the extent to which schools are involved in managing incidents of disclosure or detection. Rather worryingly, school staff are not yet receiving comprehensive training to support students. We need to do more to address this, particularly given some schools’ fear of encouraging students to engage in self-harming practices,” said lead author Dr. Rhiannon Evans, of Cardiff University, in the UK. “There are also positive findings from the study, however, not least the extent to which schools see themselves as an appropriate site to provide prevention and intervention activities.”
More details can be found in the full paper
LINK

Survey of schools’ work with child and adolescent mental health across England: a system in need of support


Background
With evidence of rising need around mental health in young people, cuts in specialist health provision and increasing recognition of the central role of schools in supporting young people with mental health problems, it is important to understand the provision of mental health support currently available in schools, the nature of the relationship with health and other providers of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services, and what are the key barriers to accessing support.
 Helen Sharpe et al

First published: 08 May 2016

The challenges of sharing information when a young person is experiencing severe emotional difficulties’: implications for schools and CAMHS

Background
Supporting the education of children and young people with complex emotional mental health difficulties requires schools to have knowledge of their needs. Exchanging information about less visible mental health difficulties is, however, known to be complex. Exploring the perceptions of young people experiencing problems can explicate some of this complexity and identify solutions. Yet their views are rarely given credence in this context.

First published: 06 October 2017


LINK

Saturday 1 December 2018

"Online ADHD service map aims to stop young people slipping through net"

"Researchers at the University of Exeter have released a map put together from the results of a national survey. The new map aims to help identify existing services and gaps in provision for young adults with Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD)."
"More than 2,500 young people, parents, health workers and UK commissioners provided information on services for adults with ADHD in their area, early in 2018. The survey responses have been used to create a map of existing adult ADHD services in the UK, which is now live."Link


Saturday 10 November 2018

"Bodily Maps of Emotions"

Body Maps -

A potential  tool for helping children and young people that could provide substance to the subject of emotions.

Fig. 2.

Link

Tuesday 6 November 2018

"Can this app help autistic people with anxiety?"

Posted in The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health 10th July 2018
New evidence based App developed by a UK Charity "Autistica" with Kings College London

Video Via Sound Cloud - 
https://soundcloud.com/user-664361280/could-a-research-based-app-called-molehill-mountain-ease-anxiety-in-autism-1


Link

Friday 19 October 2018

AI could be used to predict outcomes for people at risk of psychosis and depression


Australian Research - 
"Professor Wood said the research team found that machine learning outperformed human experts and could correctly predict social outcomes one year later in up to 83 per cent of patients in clinical high-risk states for psychosis and 70 per cent of patients with recent-onset depression.
“Predicting social outcomes is important as among young people and emerging adults in OECD countries the top causes of ‘disability’ – and poor social functioning is included in that – are mostly disorders of mental health, including those that typically present with a first episode of psychosis,” Professor Wood said.
“By being able to better predict what will happen to people at high risk of psychosis or with recent onset depression over time, we are able to provide individualised treatments to clients when they first present to mental health services and potentially improve their social functioning."

Link

Monday 1 October 2018

"Why reducing parental conflict matters for local government"


"Reducing parental conflict is everyone’s business Any practitioner or volunteer working with children, young people and families can have an impact on reducing parental conflict. The risk of conflict between parents is higher at crucial transition points in family life, such as becoming pregnant, having a baby, starting or changing school, or separation and divorce. However, relationship difficulties are often seen as a private matter and couples tend to only seek help when they are in crisis. Frontline practitioners often lack the confidence, tools and knowledge to raise relationship issues with parents and so miss opportunities to identify and support families experiencing parental conflict."

Link

Sunday 23 September 2018

Great new website; “Mentally Healthy Schools“


The World Health Organisation defines mental health as a state of wellbeing in which every individual achieves their potential, copes with the normal stresses of life, works productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel and act.”
“Like physical health, mental health is something we all have. It can range across a spectrum from healthy to unwell; it can fluctuate on a daily basis and change over time.”prMentally 

Mentally Healthy Schools LINK

Tuesday 21 August 2018

"Mediation in online therapy – reflections of applicability to the autistic population"

As part of an assignment for the Online Therapy Institute’s Certified Cyber Therapist course, I have been thinking about the concept of “presence” in online therapy (Lombard & Ditton, 2006).   What type of “presence” it is that most resonates with me, or that I would seek to try and create in my online therapeutic work?  For me, I think it is/will be about a combination of immersion (engagement) and transportation (“we are together”) – the co-creation of a space which is both novel yet can quickly come to be familiar, therefore allowing both client and therapist to quickly relax into the business of becoming immersed in the process and the relationship. I am less interested in the need to make the experience feel like a traditional therapy environment or encounter (realism) – indeed, because, to many of my autistic clients, that is the whole problem!

 by 

Link

Monday 20 August 2018

"Youth loneliness"


"UK Youth have published a report looking at the role of local youth organisations in addressing youth loneliness, focusing on the perspective of youth workers. Findings from an online survey with 152 youth workers show that: 82% of youth workers agreed that loneliness is an issue for the young people they work with; 73% of youth workers disagreed with the statement that young people actively seek help. Recommendations include the development of a youth sector-wide strategy for youth loneliness."

Source: UK Youth Date: 09 August 2018


Link

"Children living in households with complex needs "

"The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report analysing the voices of children living in households with domestic abuse, parental substance misuse and parental mental health problems. The report presents findings from interviews with 15 children and young people aged 6 to 19 who were supported in three projects in London, Doncaster and Herefordshire. The interviews explored: how experiences at home affected their emotional wellbeing, mental health, behaviour and relationships with family and friends; how they coped; what stopped them from speaking out about what was happening at home; and their experience of support."

Source: Children’s Commissioner for England Date: 14 August 2018

Link

Tuesday 7 August 2018

"Siblings of disabled people know them best. Let's use their insight" Monica McCaffrey


Sibs has launched a series of practical guides that outline how care staff and families can collaborate better to improve care. Organisations that recognise and value siblings, we believe, should aim to involve them in their disabled brother or sister’s support. Providers can demonstrate their commitment to communicating with, listening to and involving relatives by signing a statement of intent (Sibs has created a template for this).

LINK

Monday 6 August 2018

"Young carers"


Action for Children and Carers Trust have released findings from a survey of 270 young carers under the age of 18 looking at how they spend their summer holidays. Findings show that: 47% of young carers spend more than four hours a day during the summer caring for a relative; 68% said they feel more stressed or worried during the holidays; and 57% worry about talking about what they did in the summer break when they go back to school.

Source  Action for Children  Date: 02 August 2018

Friday 20 July 2018

Asking about suicide does not cause harm, in fact it may help

"There is a fear that when we talk about suicide, we increase the likelihood of suicide. It’s a fear shared by teachers, nurses, academics, commissioners and many others. It’s a fear that’s not only getting in the way of important conversations, but it’s impeding potentially life-saving research too. When deciding whether or not to approve a research proposal, ethics committees must balance up the potential benefits of the study against the risk of doing harm. Because of this, research proposals where participants are exposed to suicide-related content may be rejected on the basis that they may have ‘iatrogenic effects’; which put simply means that ethics committees who aren’t used to dealing with suicide related research may fear that these studies may cause harm."


"A recent meta-analysis by Blades, Strizke, Page and Brown from the University of Western Australia tackled this issue head on in their paper: The benefits and risks of asking research participants about suicide: A meta-analysis of the impact of exposure to suicide-related content."

Link

Monday 16 July 2018

ICO - Consultation


The Information Commissioner (the Commissioner) is calling for evidence and views on the Age Appropriate Design Code (the Code).
The Code is a requirement of the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act). The Act supports and supplements the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR).
The Code will provide guidance on the design standards that the Commissioner will expect providers of online ‘Information Society Services’ (ISS), which process personal data and are likely to be accessed by children, to meet. Once it has been published, the Commissioner will be required to take account of any provisions of the Code she considers to be relevant when exercising her regulatory functions. The courts and tribunals will also be required to take account of any provisions they consider to be relevant in proceedings brought before them. The Code may be submitted as evidence in court proceedings.

Further guidance on how the GDPR applies to children’s personal data can be found in our guidance Children and the GDPR. It will be useful to read this before responding to the call for evidence, to understand what is already required by the GDPR and what the ICO currently recommends as best practice. In drafting the Code the ICO may consider suggestions that reinforce the specific requirements of the GDPR, or its overarching requirement that children merit special protection, but will disregard any suggestions that fall below this standard. 

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/ico-and-stakeholder-consultations/call-for-evidence-age-appropriate-design-code/

Guidance - 
Information Commissioner’s Office
Consultation:
Children and the
GDPR guidance
Start date: 21 December 2017
End date: 28 February 2018




Tuesday 10 July 2018

Discussion with Cath Knibbs - Doki Doki and More!

VIDEO


CHAPTER 17 - “Supervising online counsellors of young people” – Jan Stiff (Excerpt)


"At a time where the provision of online counselling for young people is expanding, yet there is a scarceness of supervisors trained in online supervision, this chapter aims to provide an introduction to the role of the online supervisor (CYP) offering supervision to counsellors counselling young people online with insights from personal practice. Since every young client, every online supervisee and every online supervisor are unique, some points within this chapter are likely to be up for discussion and I would welcome readers’ feedback."Introduction"The first part of this chapter begins by providing a broad account of the typical world of a young person followed with an explanation of the differences between online counselling and face to face counselling within this age group. There are a number of significant differences between counselling young people online and counselling adults online. These can be attributed to differences in lifestyles, emotional and physical and intellectual development and behaviours as well as issues around mental health and available support and treatment for this age group. I feel it is important to focus upon these differences within this chapter, suggesting that an online supervisor (CYP) requires a comprehensive understanding of these differences to ensure they provide effective and safe online supervision for counsellors counselling young people online""The second part of this chapter proposes a model for online supervisors’ work that provides a flexible framework for online supervision (CYP) that incorporates these differences and reflects upon the value of the relationship between the online supervisee and online supervisor.""No differentiation is made between either asynchronous or synchronous forms of online supervision (CYP) or online counselling (CYP). Both are applicable.""The term “online supervisor (CYP)” will be used for online supervisors providing supervision for counsellors, counselling children and young people online. “Online supervisee (CYP)” will be used for counsellors counselling children and young people online, where “children” are secondary school age and above and “young people” can be understood to be adolescents up to the age of 21."

Monday 9 July 2018

"Rise in Childline counselling sessions about loneliness"


"Childline carried out 4,636 counselling sessions for loneliness in 2017/18 – a 14% rise on the previous year1. Young people spoke to Childline about struggling with feelings of isolation and loneliness due to mental health issuesbullying and social media use.
Girls received almost 80% of sessions, some of who shared concerns about:
  • the harmful effects of social media use
  • how comparing themselves to others online made them feel increasingly isolated."


LINK

Wednesday 4 July 2018

The Dangers of Distracted Parenting


"Smartphones have by now been implicated in so many crummy outcomes—car fatalities, sleep disturbances, empathy loss, relationship problems, failure to notice a clown on a unicycle—that it almost seems easier to list the things they don’t mess up than the things they do. Our society may be reaching peak criticism of digital devices.  


Even so, emerging research suggests that a key problem remains underappreciated. It involves kids’ development, but it’s probably not what you think. More than screen-obsessed young children, we should be concerned about tuned-out parents."

Link

Tuesday 3 July 2018

"The secret life of a child therapist: you have to accept you can’t fix everything" - Anonymous


You learn early on that you’re not going to make everything all right. Lots of kids just have very tough lives, whether one of their parents has a drink or drug problem, their dad’s just died, or they are seeing a lot of fighting going on. Sometimes social services do something about it. Mostly, they don’t because they simply can’t.

A lack of therapeutic intervention by social services is quite common in austerity Britain, and it was one of the big surprises when I started my career, working on the frontline of child mental health in schools. Indeed my local social services describe themselves as an “emergency service”, and increasingly seem to manage levels of risk, rather than help situations or people improve. In many parts of the country, Camhs – child and adolescent mental health services – is similarly stretched.


From the Guardian - Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 21.12 GMT
LINK

Wednesday 6 June 2018

Trauma


This topic guide has been written by Dr Andrea Danese, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, and Dr Patrick Smith, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Credit to the National and Specialist Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Clinic, Michael Rutter Centre, Maudsley Hospital.


Most children and young people (hereby children) experience at least one traumatic event before age of 18 years. A sizeable minority of children exposed to trauma will develop symptoms including re-living of the trauma, avoidance strategies, and physiological hyper-arousal. When these symptoms persist for more than one month after trauma and are impairing, they indicate a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is important to identify and treat PTSD because many children fail to recover from the symptoms without treatment. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the treatment with the strongest evidence based in children and is often effective. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) can also be helpful. There is no clear evidence to support use of medications for treatment of PTSD in children, but medications may be very helpful to treat other psychiatric problems (e.g., depression, anxiety) that often accompany PTSD.

The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health - accessed 06.06.18
LINK

Tuesday 22 May 2018

Internet Use, Depression, and Anxiety in a Healthy Adolescent Population: Prospective Cohort Study

ABSTRACT

Background: Psychiatric disorders, including conduct disturbances, substance abuse, and affective disorders, emerge in approximately 20% of adolescents. In parallel with the rise in internet use, the prevalence of depression among adolescents has increased. It remains unclear whether and how internet use impacts mental health in adolescents.

LINK

Tuesday 8 May 2018

"Ethical Issues for Direct-to-Consumer Digital Psychotherapy Apps: Addressing Accountability, Data Protection, and Consent"


ABSTRACT

"This paper focuses on the ethical challenges presented by direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital psychotherapy services that do not involve oversight by a professional mental health provider. DTC digital psychotherapy services can potentially assist in improving access to mental health care for the many people who would otherwise not have the resources or ability to connect with a therapist. However, the lack of adequate regulation in this area exacerbates concerns over how safety, privacy, accountability, and other ethical obligations to protect an individual in therapy are addressed within these services. In the traditional therapeutic relationship, there are ethical obligations that serve to protect the interests of the client and provide warnings. In contrast, in a DTC therapy app, there are no clear lines of accountability or associated ethical obligations to protect the user seeking mental health services. The types of DTC services that present ethical challenges include apps that use a digital platform to connect users to minimally trained nonprofessional counselors, as well as services that provide counseling steered by artificial intelligence and conversational agents. There is a need for adequate oversight of DTC nonprofessional psychotherapy services and additional empirical research to inform policy that will provide protection to the consumer."

JMIR Ment Health 2018;5(2):e32

doi:10.2196/mental.9423


Link

Systematic review into cyberbullying and self-harm in children and young people



"The Population Psychiatry, Suicide and Informatics (PPSI) research group at Swansea University has published a systematic review of research on the relationship between cyberbullying in children and young people, and self-harm and suicidal behaviour. The review of 33 articles from 26 independent studies, covering 156,384 children and young people, concluded that children who have been cyberbullied were at a greater risk than those who had not of both suicidal behaviours and self-harm."

Link

Monday 30 April 2018

Does Mentoring Work?



"The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report assessing the impact of over 350 mentoring programmes across England on the lives of vulnerable youth. Overall, the report suggests there is good evidence that mentoring can have a modest positive outcome. Key findings include: the most effective mentoring programmes and relationships are those that last, are properly monitored, include support for mentors and allow young people a role in setting the agenda." Source CASPAR weekly update


Link

Children’s rights and justice: Minimum age requirements in the EU



"The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has published a report that examines EU Member States’ approaches to age requirements and limits, highlighting how age limits can impact children’s rights. Key findings include: age thresholds for children to be heard vary across the EU; thresholds also vary according to whether they relate to family, criminal or asylum law or whether children are witnesses, victims or need to be taken care of; and procedural safeguards may not apply to all children to the age of 18 across Member States. The report also includes recommendations on how Member States can remove inconsistencies to better deliver child protection. Correspondingly, the FRA has also published a report examining the age assessment and fingerprinting of children in asylum procedures." - Source CASPAR weekly update 30-04-18

Link

Monday 26 March 2018

"CRUMBLING FUTURES" The Children’s Society Seriously Awkward 2018

Why vulnerable 16 and 17 year olds need more support as they move into adulthood ...


 “As local authorities struggle to meet demand with reducing funding, our research highlights compelling reasons to be alarmed. We can’t wait while children fall between the cracks of childhood and adulthood. Vulnerable 16 and 17 year olds need more support now and that support must continue as they transition into adult life. Our findings provide important evidence to those responsible for reviewing, resourcing and defining the future of children’s services.” Matthew Reed Chief Executive, The Children’s Society

Link

Monday 19 March 2018

"BREAKING NEWS: SAFEGUARDING AMENDMENT TO DATA PROTECTION BILL"

"The adoption of certain new amendments by the House of Commons this week is a hugely promising development for child protection and adult safeguarding professionals."

"The new amendment 85, adopted by the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on Tuesday 13 March, goes further in empowering organisations – in the course of their own activities and judgment – to process personal data for safeguarding purposes lawfully, without consent where appropriate. This will be welcome news for schools, charities and volunteer organisations, religious organisations and sports clubs and governing bodies alike."


Link

Monday 12 March 2018

YOUNG PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING IN SCOTLAND: ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS


Children and Families Analysis February 2018

“Key findings The 2017 Young People in Scotland survey asked respondents a number of questions about their ability to make their views heard and acted on in decisions that affect their lives.”
“Fieldwork was conducted by Ipsos MORI Scotland and analysis and reporting was conducted by the Scottish Government, Children and Families Analytical Services”



LINK

Monday 12 February 2018

“Parental mental health - How to help children living with parents with mental health problems”


“Living in a household where parents or carers have mental health problems doesn't mean a child will experience abuse or negative consequences. Most parents are able to give their children safe and loving care.
Many children whose parents or carers have mental health problems go on to achieve their full potential in life, particularly if their parents receive the right support at the right time (Hogg, 2013).

However, there is a risk that parental mental health problems can have a negative impact on children.”

Tuesday 23 January 2018

The Welsh Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and Resilience Survey


“The Welsh Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and Resilience Survey was undertaken to examine individual and community factors that may offer protection from the harmful impacts of ACEs on health, well-being and prosperity across the life course. Resilience is described as the ability to overcome serious hardships such as those presented by ACEs.

The survey measured access to various sources of resilience in both childhood (personal, relational and community resources; social and leisure activities; relationships with adults) and adulthood (current personal, relationship and community resources; social and leisure activities; expectations of support from services; perceived financial security; and community culture and traditions).”


link to document

Monday 15 January 2018

CORC - Child Outcomes Research Consortium

Results from Headstart Annual Survey - Executive Summary


Implications and recommendations

1. High rates of mental health problems in this population highlight the importance of finding the best means to promote positive wellbeing, and to prevent and address mental health problems.
2. Tackling mental health problems may involve tackling social inequalities due to the consistent association between deprivation and mental health problems which was evident in the results of this survey.
3. It should not be assumed that young people from minority ethnic groups are at greater risk of mental health problems; this is not the case based on current evidence. In addition, those from different minority ethnic backgrounds should not be grouped together in analysis of the prevalence of mental health.
Link

Wellbeing Measurement Frameworks - Primary, Secondary, College
Link