Association For Child And Adolescent Mental Health (acamh)

Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental health problem across the lifespan. They have a particularly early age of onset – half of all people who experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life will first experience those difficulties by the age of 11 years. Yet we have found that an extremely small proportion of children who experience significant and sustained problems with anxiety receive any sort of professional support, let alone support that is known to be effective. We spoke to Professor Cathy Creswell about some of the barriers to support for children with anxiety, the Anxiety and Depression in Young people research clinic, and her role as the lead for the Emerging Minds: Action for Child Mental Health research network.

Dr Sophie Browning is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working on whole school approaches to mental health. In this podcast with psychology journalist Jo Carlowe, she discusses an innovative cognitive behavioural therapy approach for reducing anxiety and mental health problems in schools.

There have been growing levels of awareness of harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people. In this podcast, psychology journalist, Jo Carlowe interviews Professor Kieran McCartan, Professor of Criminology, and Dr Anna Markham, Forensic Psychologist and Acting Clinical Lead for the Child and Adolescent Harmful Behaviour Service. Together they consider what might predispose a young person to harming sexually, what are the warning signs, and what it means to go beyond criminal justice to a public health approach.

The World Health Organization has stated that parental mental illness is a major public health issue across the globe and Adverse Childhood Experiences research identifies it as one of the 10 most significant adversities and risk factors for children and young people's mental wellbeing. 70% of these children will suffer some level of largely preventable mental ill health themselves by the age of 21.  In this podcast, Dr Alan Cooklin and Jessica Streeting discuss the impact of parental mental illness, how family psychiatry has developed, how everyone has a key role to play, and the power of explanation and understanding as a protective intervention.

Sleep difficulties are common in children and adolescents, especially in some high-risk groups, such as young people with neurodevelopmental conditions or mental health problems. Clinicians working in paediatric or child mental health settings need an understanding of sleep disorders as it is important to know how sleep disturbance impacts on a young person’s physical and cognitive development, and mental health. At our recent Sleep and Mental Health Conference, we caught up with the speakers, Dr Michael Farquhar, Dr Jenna Vyas-Lee, Dr Max Davie and Dr Sally Hobson to discuss the relationship between sleep, behaviour and mental health, as well as some insights into assessment, management and barriers to interventions.

Anne Lawlor, Co-Founder and Chairperson of 22Q11 Ireland joins ACAMH to discuss 22q11 deletion syndrome, its impacts on sleep and mental health, as well as how her lived experience informs her work and how it could inform the work of professionals.

Join Professor Louise Arseneault and Dr Andrea Danese as they discuss bullying, childhood adversity and their contributions to the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry’s Annual Research Review.

Autistica recently invited us along to the testing sessions for their new app, Molehill Mountain. We spoke to Professor Emily Simonoff and one of the autistic people who tested the app so you have an overview of the evidence base around mental health and autism and how this app will be able to support autistic people to understand and self-manage their anxiety.

Many parents naturally worry whether their child is getting enough food if they refuse to eat sometimes. It would appear to be normal for young children to refuse to eat or even taste new foods but what is the science and evidence behind this? Are there interventions that parents can take? We caught up with Dr Andrea Smith, Dr Clare Llewellyn, Dr Alison Fildes, and Dr Moritz Herle to discuss fussy eating, its impact on children's health and how it can be addressed in policy and practice.

In their recent review published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jack Turban and Diane Ehrensaft provide an update on how the field of pediatric gender identity is changing and discuss the approaches to supporting and managing the gender identity concerns of children and adolescents. What can this research tell us about reducing the high rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal intentions in transgender young people?

The Education, Health and Social Care Committees recently called upon the government to take a stronger stance on child and adolescent mental health and to join up the appropriate services in a way that places children and young people at the heart of its strategy.

Audio from our Autism Symposium with lectures and discussion on the role of research in autism, pathways to mental health problems in autism, and the wider landscape. Speakers included: * Dr Marinos Kyriakopoulos, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust * Dr Ann Ozsivadjian, Principal Clinical Psychologist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust * Dr James Cusack, Director of Science for Autistica * Carol Povey, Director of the Centre for Autism, National Autistic Society * Dr Mark Lovell, Consultant Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Psychiatrist, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Hear from Professor Kathy Sylva OBE on her research which has explored early education and children's development, parenting interventions, and the impact of children's centres on families.  Kathy is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, as well as ACAMH President.

Tamsin Ford is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Exeter Medical School. While Tamsin set out on her career path aiming to become an old age psychiatrist working as a clinician, she ended up as a child psychiatrist working in research. Discover more about Tamsin's career and her research group assessing the effectiveness of services and interventions which aim to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

A practitioner review by Paulus et al., published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, investigates school-based interventions, their effectiveness, efficiency and the practical implications.

Join JCPP’s Editor-in-Chief, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Annual Research Review Editor, Professor Pasco Fearon, as they talk to researchers about the Annual Research Review. Annual Research Review topics include epigenetics, stress physiology, neonatal imaging, inter-parental conflict, bullying, autism treatments and suicide. The papers considered together represent the very best of contemporary child psychology and psychiatry research.

Renowned clinical psychologist, Kim Golding, discusses how we can support developmentally traumatised children and their parents, as well as how support for adopted children has changed in the UK over the years. Kim will be speaking at an upcoming ACAMH conference, "Introduction to Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Parenting and Practice".

How can mental health practitioners support refugee children? Professor Panos Vostanis shares insights into complex trauma, evidence and interventions in the field, as well as discussing his upcoming Refugee Children and Mental Health Masterclass. Professor Vostanis is a Professor of Child Mental Health at the University of Leicester, Visiting Professor at University College London and he set up the World Awareness for Children in Trauma programme.

Professor Stephen Scott CBE FRCPsych FMedSci joins ACAMH to discuss his journey from paediatrics to child and adolescent psychiatry, the importance of evidence-based research and what he wants to see in the future for the field of child and adolescent mental health.  Professor Scott is the Chair of the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Professor of Child Health & Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London.

The first prevalence studies estimated one in 2,500 children were autistic whereas the latest figures indicate around one in every 39 children is reported to have an autism diagnosis. Dr Ginny Russell discusses why we may have seen such an increase. Dr Ginny Russell is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School and the Department of Sociology. She will be speaking about time trends in diagnosis of autism at ACAMH’s upcoming Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture and National Conference.