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A Child In Time
Angela Neustatter
This article looks at projects and research currently being undertaken around the characteristics of child sex abusers and interventions to prevent them from becoming adult sexual abusers. In particular the author talks to Dr Eileen Vizard from the NSPCC’s Young Abusers Project (YAP). The article reports on Dr Vizard’s involvement in a three-year Home Office funded study which, aims to understand the characteristics of young people who attend the YAP and will also look at what makes them different to other groups who may have also suffered from delinquency and deprivation.
Across the Pond
Dr Patrick Lindesay
This column, which is by a British doctor living in the US, looks at a debate that is raging there about the 17-year-old John Lee Malvo and whether he and other juveniles should be sentenced to death. Malvo was the younger member of the duo that was know as ‘the sniper’. The column gives a quick overview of the case, and of Malvo’s background.
Fighting Spirit
Clare Moynihan, Priscilla Alderson and Alastair J. Cunningham
This debate asks three experts for their views on whether children with cancer should be encouraged to adopt a ‘fighting spirit’. Clare Moynihan, from the Institute of Cancer Research, discusses the importance of supporting young people and their families. Priscilla Alderson, Institute of Education states that her research has led her to believe that the best way to help children cope with very serious disease is by informing them and giving them a sense of control and helping them to trust the adults who support them. Alastair J Cunningham, University of Toronto, states that how young people approach their situation can have a profound effect on their experience of it and they are less likely to have fixed ideas about the importance of their mental attitude in battling their cancer.
Getting to Grips with Asperger’s Syndrome
Stephen Bradshaw
The author describes the characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome, and discusses why it can be difficult to diagnose and why it is often misdiagnosed. The article has a particular emphasis on education. Two cases studies are used to illustrate the difficulties children with Asperger’s can have in mainstream schools, and how specialist schools have helped.
It’s All My Fault
Dr Mike Boulton
The author describes his research project, which found that many young people who had been bullied blamed themselves and discusses how this could lead to an increased risk of negative outcomes.
It’s the final countdown...
Terry Philpot
Terry Philpot gives an overview of the new post of Children’s Commissioner for England. Plus, Six experts give their opinions on what the new post could, or should achieve.
Loss Depicted
Rebecca Abrams
This article looks at the work of artists Augustus and Gwen John, and how the death of their mother when they were children, impacted on their lives and their paintings. The author also looks at how the death of a mother effects her children, and in particularly she looks at how gender influences our reaction to this kind of bereavement.
Now We Are Ten
Miranda Wolpert and Bob Foster
This article gives a brief overview of how CAMHS, mainly in England, has developed over the years and looks at where it is now. It lists some of the key policy initiatives that contributed to the development.
Popular Justice
Joe Levenson
The author describes his research project, which found that many young people who had been bullied blamed themselves and discusses how this could lead to an increased risk of negative outcomes.
The Power of Group Work
Katrin FitzHerbert
The author argues that group work is low-cost, easily accessible to children and non-stigmatising, plus it is proven to be effective, but is often ignored as viable intervention. In the USA it is an integral and respected strand of the mainstream CAMHS i.e. it has a career structure, professional organisation, journals, etc and is supported by academic departments and a large body of research. The author mentions that there is some group work in the UK, but it lacks the status of a valid professional activity, and it isn’t being taken up by NHS policy makers.
Review: Cherish
Terry Philpot
This novel attempts to throw light on the subject of children who are privately fostered. It tells the story of Kike, a child of West African parentage who was placed, as a baby, with a white family, on an all white estate outside of town in the south east of England. The book goes on to explore the disadvantages of transracial placement.
Review: Dear Frankie
Imogen Le Patourel
‘Dear Frankie’ is a Certificate 12A film, and is about a nine year-old, Scottish boy called Frankie, who has recently moved to a coastal town with his mother and grandmother. They keep moving so that the boy’s father will not find them. The film is about the moral dilemma for adults choosing whether to tell a child something difficult and distressing, or whether to withhold the truth.
Review: Mother Country
Angela Neustatter
The central character of this novel is Antonia Sinclair who takes us deep into the psyche of the child brought up in a well-to-do middle-class home in the post-war years. She describes her Jewish mother as attacking her physically and verbally; and assaulting her emotionally, and she describes her father as being as emotionally dry as a cadaver. As an adult she intends to go to Israel to escape her past, but she finds her abused child self mirrored in the plight of the Palestinians.
Review: Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents
Julia Tugendhat
The author, who is a professor at the University of California, analyses 20 out of the 550 psychotherapies for children and adolescents in use today. He only focuses on treatments that have been tested empirically and shown to have beneficial effects.
Review: The End of Adolescence
Debi Roker
This is a well written and thought provoking book, which aims to challenge some of the myths and stereotypes about the adolescent years. The book is aimed at parents, practitioners and policy-makers and is written in a jargon-free style.
Review: Why Love Matters
Paul Caviston
The author of this book looks at the biological explanation of our social behaviour. Unfortunately, the reviewer believes that she is overstating her case and that the evidence is not as clear-cut as the author suggests.
Webwatch: Knowledge central
Paula Lavis
This columns gives some tips for how to get the best out of the National Institute for Mental Health in England’s (NIMHE) Knowledge Community.
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