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Change on camera
Rachel Andrew
The author who took part in Channel Four’s programme Don’t Make Me Angry talks about her role in helping four angry teenagers turn their lives around in just two weeks.
A new understanding
Annita Wahab
The author reports on the first-ever European child and adolescent mental health in educational settings conference organised by the Tavistock Institute. One of the key issues that the conference highlighted was the need to understand what affects children’s mental health while they are involved in education and not to condemn those with behaviour problems as being bad and nothing else.
Across the pond
Dr Patrick Lindesay
Patrick Lindesay journeys out of the US to South Africa where he undertook some voluntary work on the Phelophepa train – a clinic on wheels, with medical, dental, eye and psychology clinics.
Adopting a pro-active approach
Angelique Cox
The author talks about her role as a child advocate at the Post-Adoption Centre, and how she helps children explore how they might feel about seeing their birth mother for the first time.
Altered minds
Annita Wahab
The author reports on the theatre play When Time Collapses, which portrays the grim consequences that can result when serious mental illness is not detected soon enough, and how lives are wasted if help comes too late.
CAMHS in the frame
Miranda Wolpert and Bob Foster
The author’s discuss how recent government policy and proxy measures give us a framework for how CAMHS should appear, and how progress can be measured. It also briefly looks at how newly established formal reviews of services will touch on CAMHS i.e. Joint Area Reviews.
Enjoying a fresh start
Diana Page
The author talks about her innovative scheme, Freshstart, which was established in 2000 to help unemployed young people in Italy, France and the UK.
Expertise unseen
Martin Smith
Clinical nurse specialist, Martin Smith, explains how nurses and some health workers, who work within the youth justice system, are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the mental health needs of young offenders in a culture that does not recognise their expertise.
Inside stories
Angela Neustatter
The Film It! Charity helps marginalised young people address problems in thelr lives. The author looks at the scheme established in 2003, which has had the effect of increasing the participants’ capacity to have fun from 30 per cent before the workshop to 74 per cent afterwards.
Keeping ahead
Joe Roberson
Joe Roberston talks to Angela Neustatter about the “HeadSpace Toolkit” which aims to support young people aged 12 to 17 in adolescent psychiatric units through advice and information.
Lights, camera, rehabilitation
Sue Dawson
The author describes how she founded Film It! in 2004 as a registered charity. She discusses how film can be used to engage what are normally considered to be disaffected young people, and gives some examples of her work.
Mental health behind bars
Juliet Lyon
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, says young offender institutions hold some of the most damaged and distressed young people in our society. She calls for youth offending to be viewed through a public health lens and calls on health and social services to shoulder their responsibilities to respond to troubled adolescents.
Professional Dilemma - Talking it through
Peter Wilson, Bill Young, & Keith Guy
Psychotherapist Peter Wilson introduces this ‘Professional Dilemma’ column on talking therapies. This is followed by two separate discussion pieces where a Child and Adolescent psychiatrists, and a Red Poppy Company Therapeutic Centre counsellor using the “Human Givens approach” describe the two different ways they would try to help 15 year-old Sarah who has chronic depression and is suicidal.
Right sides of the track
Lee Robinson and Marc Ermisz
Two ex. young offenders, who took part in the C-FAR programme, talk about how it changed their lives.
So long a journey
Ruth Cadby
Ruth Cady, who was born at the end of the Second World War into abject poverty tells her story about how she was sent to an orphanage, placed for adoption, then sexually abused.
Unlocking potential
Trevor Philpott
The Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation (C-FAR) has helped many young offenders to change the way they lived their lives. The 2002 Social Exclusion Report, Reducing Re-offending by Ex-Prisoners, estimated that C-Far saved the Treasury over £12million. But following refusal by the Home Office to “bridge the gap” following a cash flow deficit of just £200,000, C-FAR was forced to close. Trevor Philpott reports on its demise.
Waiting in vain
Claire Norgrove
The author looks at a study, which aimed to find out why children and families do not attend (DNA) child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) appointments. They approached 50 families who had not attended their initial appointment. Of these 30 agreed to take part. The article looks at the reasons why they didn’t attend. These ranged from the crisis had passed to they had waited so long they couldn’t remember why they had been referred in the first place. The article lists suggestions from the families regarding how the referral process could be improved. These included: children should not have to wait for a service, especially one that may have an impact on their child’s emotional wellbeing later on in life; and families were not prepared by the referrer for who they might see and what would be on offer.
Review: Borrowed body
Alison Taylor
Novelist and journalist, Alison Taylor, reviews this novel of a girl’s miserable voyage through Britain’s care system. She finds the novel will appeal to older children and teenagers, especially those in care. Taylor believes that for childcare professionals, it will illuminate the psychological reality of the care situation for those on the receiving end.
Review: Child and adolescent mental health services. Strategy, planning, delivery and evaluation
Dr Paul Caviston
The reviewer says that every CAMHS clinic and commissioner’s office should have a copy of this book.
Review: Children at the margins
Jacqui Newvell
Reviewed by the manager of the Pupil Inclusion Unit at the National Children’s Bureau, Jacqui Newvell, this book considers the competing dilemmas of improving achievement, reducing social exclusion and, at the same time, listening to the voice of the child. She finds the case study on the impact of a learning mentor’s intervention in the life of young boy “an uplifting tale that demonstrates so well the impact of a positive educational experience on the entirety of a child’s life.”
Review: Improving the health and well-being of young people leaving care and Social work with young people in care
Sonia Jackson
Sonia Jackson from the Institute of Education finds 'Improving the Health and Well-Being of Young People Leaving Care' by Bob Broad, an invaluable reference text for leaving care teams, social workers with older children and adolescents, designated teachers in schools, further education college tutors, psychologists and health workers. She also found that "Social Work with Young People in Care: Looking After Children in Theory and Practice" by Nigel Thomas, would be an ideal introduction for a student embarking on a social work degree.
Review: Love child. A memoir of adoption, loss and love
Elizabeth Webb
Adoption Manger, Elizabeth Webb at The Adolescent and Children’s Trust reviews this autobiographical book about the emotions involved in searching for birth relatives and the ensuing reunions. She finds it a fascinating and informative read as the Elliott sets in context the developing and changing nature of adoption over the last century.
Review: Mental health services for minority ethnic children and adolescents
Elaine Arnold
The reviewer finds that this publication is timely in view of the growing awareness of mental health problems among children and adolescents from minority groups in the UK and the dearth of literature about them.
Review: Oliver Twist
Imogen Le Patourel
Imogen Le Patourel finds gothic atmosphere aplenty in this latest version of Oliver Twist directed by Roman Polanski, which incidentally lists “pick pocket consultants” in the end credits.
Webwatch: Away from home
Rachel Hindley
This column gives a roundup of useful websites concerning children and young people who are living away from home, such as children in care, young people in hospital or secure accommodation, and children at boarding school.
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