close window
Doing their heads in?
Ros Coward
This article takes a look at the relationship between cannabis use by young people and the risk to mental health. The author talks to various professional about the potential problems, and she looks at one particular study which suggests that heavy use of cannabis before the age of 15 leads a small, but significant number of young people to develop schizophrenia. The article also looks at issues surrounding the reclassification of cannabis and the confusion that this has caused.
Across the pond
Dr Patrick Lindesay and Angela Neustatter
This column, which is by a British doctor living in the US, looks at the growing problem of consumerism amongst young people in the USA.
Breast blues
Sue Lucas
The author discusses how the lack of breastfeeding support in this country can stop or prevent women from breastfeeding. The author describes the difficulties that her daughter faced when trying to get support to help her continue breastfeeding.
CAMHS in the 21st Century: possibilities and tensions
Miranda Wolpert and Bob Foster
This article briefly covers what CAMHS means, and then goes on to look at how these services are developing. It gives an overview of what a local CAMHS Partnership is, which agencies are likely to be represented in this partnership, and what their aims are. Plus, it also addresses some of the difficulties that they face. It also looks at how CAMHS provision has changed, and how issues such as evidence based practice have impacted on the workforce and the services they provide.
Elusive Normality
Terry Philpot
This article focuses on a film called The Woodsman. The main character is a paedophile who has been released from prison on parole. The author discusses how key issues relevant to the film, such as child abuse, are only raised at a secondary level. Also, the author discusses how the factual inaccuracies within the film make it potentially misleading and dangerous to a lay audience.
I like being me, now
Barbara Biggs
This article is a real-life account of a young girl who was sold by her grandmother to a man on the understanding that she would care for his children, but he turned out to be a paedophile. The narrative tells of how she was abused by this man, and how it impacted on her mental health, and prevented her from forming meaningful relationships with men.
Mission possible
Annita Wahab
The author looks at a domestic violence programme, which Birmingham Women’s Aid takes into schools. The article focuses on the lessons given to the pupils of a primary school for 5 to 11-year-olds in Birmingham. This is given as part of their Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons, and aims to help children understand what domestic violence is and what the effects are.
Mulling it over
Sue Bailey and Anthony Harbour
This article is based on the Child and Adolescent Facility of the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s submission to the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill. They look at the implications the Draft Mental Health Bill has for the rights and welfare of the children and young people.
Progress indeed
David Gribble
The author talks about the various international, progressive educational projects that he visited whilst researching his book ‘Lifelines’. The projects mentioned are from quite different countries, but they all work with damaged and vulnerable children.
Rebel with a cause
Annita Wahab
The author talks to Hilton Dawson MP, who has been working with and on behalf of vulnerable children from his days as a social worker and youth justice worker through to his work in politics.
School's back
Shima Islam
This article looks at a few of the projects that UNICEF are working on in Sri Lanka to help and support child victims of the tsunami. One of the projects is a temporary school that helps the children by providing them with a place where they can go and feel that life is normal. The article also mentions a project, which helps children share their experiences during the tsunami by talking to UNICEF trained support workers.
Soul searching
Angela Neustatter
This is an interview with comedian Paul Whitehouse. He talks about his childhood, briefly about his therapy, and his work.
Special Status
Anita Bennett
This article looks at the arguments for and against the provision of special schools for children with learning disabilities. The author states that many children with learning disabilities do well in primary school, but often fail educationally and suffer socially in secondary schools. Those against believe that inclusion is in the best interest of the child, and gives some examples where it has worked well. Also, they believe that special schools should be shut down and the resources put into mainstream education. Those in favour of special schools give examples of the difficulties faced by the children, their parents and their teachers. Also, they give examples about the effectiveness of special schools, and they argue that people should have a choice.
Tsunami
Kamran Saedi
This article is an interview with Dr Kamran (Kami) Saedi, a child psychiatrist with a wealth of experience in working in disaster zones, and who is now helping the victims of the tsunami. The article looks at his work in Bam following the earthquake and includes initiatives that were set-up at the time as well as the on-going work. Plus, it also looks at his work in war zones such as Kosovo and Cambodia.
Opinion: Rowing merrily on
Richard Meier
The author discusses Ellen McArthur’s recent round the world sailing record and the heroine worship that followed. He asks what is it that drives someone to put themselves and their families through such hardship.
Opinion: Scared to get help?
Gavin Baylis
The author argues why we need to offer help and support to all children and their families with the aim of preventing various problems arising. Rather than the norm, which is waiting until these problems escalate and require some kind of compulsory help or treatment.
Review: Bullet boy
Imogen Le Patourel
Bullet Boy (certificate 15) begins with 19 year-old Ricky’s release from a young offender institution, and follows the struggle he immediately faces to avoid being ensnared again in the antagonism and casual violence that disfigure the streets of his Hackney home. This is a very important film, and a good one. Despite the harshness, it remains highly watchable; and despite the bleakness of the story if tells, it never quite loses sight of grounds for optimism.
Review: Bullying in schools
Lindsay Gilbert
This book contains 14 different interventions aimed at addressing bullying in a number of different schools in various countries. To an extent it is more of an academic study into different interventions, but the editors have put together a chapter on the effectiveness of the interventions, and this would be of interest to those looking for more practical information.
Review: Honouring children
Jim Richards
The joint efforts of a human rights lawyer and a theologian have produced a work which anyone who has an interest in how the human rights of the child has and will develop should read.
Review: Kith and Kin
Alison Taylor
The main character Mara tells the story of her childhood in 1950s Swansea and of her intense, but troubled friendship with her long dead cousin Frankie. Her exploration of what led to Frankie’s death embraces themes of working class values, rites of passage and social upheaval, but above all, the role of family, perception and memory in the creation of the self.
Review: Somersault
Imogen Le Patourel
This is a review of the film Somersault (certificate 15) by writer and director Cate Shortland. It is a coming-of-age film that is astute and tender enough to bypass attendant clichés and capture the awkward and revelatory landscape between childhood and adulthood.
Review: The child's own story
Anne Bannister
This book gives us solid reasons why abused children usually need therapeutic work, without which there is a great risk of the abuse continuing to the next generation. The authors begin with a full explanation of attachment including the latest information about how the brain is affected by abuse. The whole book is written from a very practical viewpoint.
Review: The kite runner
Terry Philpot
The narrator of this book is an exiled Afghani novelist living in San Francisco. It tells the story of the narrator as a child growing up in Kabul before the soviet invasion and about his friendship with Hassan. This is a novel about childhood, betrayal, guilt, love and importantly redemption.
Webwatch: Wising up on cannabis
Paula Lavis
This column pulls together websites, which provide information and research on cannabis and the potential risks to mental health.
Print page
Email
page
Email
us
Donate