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Caring about fun
Reva Klein
This article focuses on a few of the pilot Healthy Care programmes, which have prioritised arts provision for looked after children. The aim is to give children and young people the opportunity to express themselves using the arts, and to have some fun.
A commission to care
Angela Neustatter
The author interviews Al Aynsley-Green, the newly appointed Commissioner for Children in England. The article looks at his background, and his thoughts on issues connected to children.
Across the pond
Dr Patrick Lindesay
This article focuses on a study from the Henry J Kaiser Foundation, which looks at how the media impacts on the lives of young people. It shows that young people pack 8 and a half hours of media use into each day. The author speculates on how the media impacts on young people. He states that the best thing we can do is to encourage young people to analyse the messages that are being fed to them via the media and for them to develop a healthy scepticism.
Art therapy
Rachel Hindley
This article looks at the work of The Art Room, who are a charity based in Oxford. They provide a service for children, aged 7-15 years, who have difficulty coping with school. They use art as a means of getting children to engage with themselves and the people around them. The service is very popular with the children and their parents, and the young people themselves see it as a good place to go.
Building up a picture
Miranda Wolpert, Bob Foster and Richard Wistow
This article gives background information about and analyses findings from the CAMHS Mapping exercise. They state that the 2003 data is robust enough to provide a good picture of local and national services in the year before the publication of the Children’s National Service Framework (NSF). They also look at the mapping figures to see what they show in relation to the key areas prioritised in the Children’s NSF. They state that initial analysis of the 2004 data is looking very positive and suggests that some results can now be identified.
Child friendly clinics
Pam Ferguson
The author describes how she runs workshops on paediatric shiatsu, and discusses the benefits of using these techniques with children. One of the central aims of the workshop is to demonstrate ways of making the service or treatment child centered. The author then uses case studies to illustrate how she uses different approaches to address children’s individual needs.
I'll have to lie about where I've been
Dr Ben Sessa
The author reports on his research project, which aimed to understand the stigmatizing impact of mental illness on children. He held focus groups with inpatient adolescents with mental health problem to understand what it actually felt like to be labelled with a psychiatric diagnosis. He aimed to find out what fears they had on returning to school after discharge and what attitudes they thought their peers would have. He used the results to put together a questionnaire to find out what teenagers thought of people with mental and physical health problems. They found that there were significant levels of stigma towards both physically and mentally ill people, but there was a greater tendency to stigmatize towards mental illness. The study found that the fears that the adolescent psychiatric inpatients held about returning to school following discharge appear to be accurate.
Telling it like it is
Trisha Waters
The author developed a model for therapeutic story writing from her experience of working with pupils with emotional and behavioural problems. The author describes the model and gives some examples and quotes from schools who have used it. The evaluation report concluded that the approach had a positive impact on pupils’ emotional and academic learning. It then goes on to describe the Story Links programme, which was developed from the Therapeutic Story writing model, but extends the work to include parents of pupils at risk of exclusion.
The magic of myths
Angela Neustatter
This article looks at the work of the Wonderful Beast theatre company and is based on an interview with the company's director, Alys Kihl. Their repertoire includes fairytales and myths from around the world. The founder states that in her experience young children are engrossed in these stories because they are very exciting and full of issues that children have either experienced or recognise. Plus, she says that you can use these stories to discuss important issues such as bullying etc without lecturing children.
The man who claims to be my father
Lisa del Rosso
The author briefly outlines her relationship with her father, who neglected and abused her and her sisters when they were children. She has used her writing to give voice to her feelings about how her father affected her family.
The value of private madness
Jonathan Weil
This article is based on an interview with poet and academic Sally Bayley. It looks at her personal experience of mental health problems as child and how this has influenced her writing.
Touch therapy
Annita Wahab
This article looks at the work of Swedish massage therapist, Solveig Berggren. She is keen to persuade schools in the UK to use her ‘massage for children’ programme, which is claimed to helps children deal with stress. The author then goes on to look at how massage is being used in some schools the UK. All of these examples indicate that it can have a positive effect on children.
Working below the surface
Terry Philpot
This article describes the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation initiated and funded ‘First Time Projects’ in learning support units and pupil referral units. The aim was to bring the arts to these young people and encourage them to be creative. These projects were evaluated and they found that they had a very positive impact on the young people, but they didn’t think that these short-term interventions would have a profound long-term effect.
Opinion: Back to school with exclusions
Gavin Baylis
The author suggests developing local exclusion teams, which would be similar in principle to the youth offending teams. These teams would work with those at risk of exclusion from school and help and support the child and their parents. Plus produce a plan to enable a child to stay within the school or if necessary be educated outside of mainstream education.
Review: Difficult consultations with adolescents, and Counselling adolescents
Anna Flanigan
Difficult Consultations with Adolescents is the result of a qualitative research study involving GPs and practice nurses. The aim was to look at the emotions engendered in difficult consultations with adolescents in primary care. Counselling Adolescents is a revised edition with two additional chapters. It is based on the authors’ proactive approach, so is not aimed at those wishing to explore more psychodynamic models. Both books are eminently readable in clear and easy styles. The first book should be read in its entirety, whereas the second is more of a reference book to be dipped into.
Review: Evil
Imogen Le Patourel
This is a review of the film Evil, (Certificate 15) which is due for release on the 24th June 2005. It is set in 1950s Sweden and opens with 16 year-old Erik’s expulsion from school for vicious fighting. He is regularly beaten by his father and is later sent to a boarding school where the older pupils rule supreme. The question posed at the outset is are there inherently bad children, or is such behaviour rather a response to that child’s negative experiences.
Review: Nervous conditions
Yinka Sunmonu
This is the story of Tambu, who lives in a patriarchal society where ‘womanhood is a heavy burden’. It is set in the 60s, in a village in Zimbabwe. The story becomes intriguing when her cousin Nyasha returns to Zimbabwe. Tambu respects her elders and speaks Shona, whereas Nyasha doesn’t. Nyasha develops an eating disorder, and gradually loses sense of who she is and where she belongs. Tambu retains a sense or love and tradition, whereas Nyasha becomes a symbol of what can happen when trying to reconcile two different cultures at a difficult age.
Review: Promoting the emotional wellbeing of children and adolescents and preventing their mental ill health
Paul Caviston
The book is a surprisingly meaty tome and ambitious in its scope. It is a far from easy guide or handbook, but the editors are to be complimented for promoting discussion and developing coherent approaches to treatment and services.
Review: Rock me gently
Terry Connor
This disturbing, but moving ‘true story of a convent childhood’ is a far more composite personal account that the subtitle suggests. Even though the writer only spent a short time at a convent orphanage it in no way diminishes the terrible impact of this experience on her life, but rather draws attention to the more expansive nature of her affecting story.
Review: Soham, a story of our times
Terry Philpot
The author asks whether we can find boys who are going to turn into tomorrow’s Ian Huntleys and if so what can we do about it. The author also looks at why some crimes attract public attention when others don’t.
Review: The future of childhood
Christopher Hanvey
This book moves from an examination of changing childhood to childhood studies themselves, childhood, nature and culture and finally the future of childhood. The reviewer states that some of the language is impenetrable and written in a style more likely to alienate than bring on side the curious reader.
Webwatch: Young and arty
Rachel Hindley
This column pulls together useful websites, which give information about using and developing creative/artistic skills, and others that give information about projects that are being run across the UK.
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