Our voices, our lives

Terry Philpott

This article is about the work of Photovoice, a charity that helps young asylum seekers through the medium of photography. The aim is to build confidence by giving young people the means to speak out about what is important to them.

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Financial pressures closes 30 year-old flagship service for young people

News item

This news item reports on the closure of a young people’s therapeutic outpatient service for 16-25 year olds in Cambridge. The closure is connected to financial problems within the local Primary Care Trust (PCT).

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Psychiatric inpatient care for children is being cut back across England

News item

This news item reports on the children’s psychiatric units that have been forced to close or are under threat of closure. In 1999 the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsychs) reported that there were 12 children’s units across England, which catered for children aged between 0-12, 13 or 14 years, but since 1999 four of these inpatient units have closed. The RCPsychs are currently conducting a full recount, and they estimate a 37% reduction in the number of beds for children since 1999.

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Government downplays impact of cuts to mental health services on patients

News item

This news item is based on a parliamentary debate on the financial problem and subsequent cuts in mental health services. MPs voted against Andrew Lansley’s MP call for MPs to note that ‘mental health trusts are facing some of the largest cuts in planned budgets whilst already having to cope with high recruitment shortages.’

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Across the pond

Patrick Lindesay

This column looks at how our modern lifestyle means that adults and children are sleeping less than previous generation. The author discusses how sleep deprivation is associated with poor memory, poor attention and diminished academic importance.

An eye on the heart

Debbie Roker and Stephanie Stace

Parents are monitoring their children’s emotional health and well-being by paying attention to their behaviour, particularly during difficult times. The author calls for more research into this important aspect of family life.

An uncertain sanctuary

Hannah Frankel

Asylum seeking children entering the UK have often been exposed to extreme violence and brutality that can have serious affects to their mental health and well-being. Unaccompanied children fare worse than accompanied children and access to mental health services is patchy and oversubscribed. Prolonged uncertainty about their future in this country and the unfriendly treatment they receive from the immigration service can often contribute to their psychological difficulties.

CAMHS in a new world

Miranda Wolpert

This article explores the role of CAMHS within the new Children’s services directorates. The authors argue the CAMHS resources can be used to raise the mental health awareness of all agencies working with children and young people as well as providing specialist care.

Creating a barefoot therapist

Dickon Bevington

This column gives some information about a new training programme being run by the Anna Freud Centre and the Marlborough Family Service. The programme is called ‘A Community Based Integrative, Multimodal Treatment Project for Adolescents and Young Adults with Severe Psychiatric Disturbance’.

From flight to refuge

Mehret Geberhawarit

This article is a personal account of what is like to be an unaccompanied child refugee. The author speaks movingly about her life after arriving in the UK with her sister. Her experiences illustrate the problems asylum seeking children face and how their treatment by the authorities responsible for their care can cause anxiety and depression.

Matters of law and justice

Sarah Green

This article examines the way that unaccompanied asylum seeking children are treated when entering the UK. The “best interests” of the child should be the primary consideration as defined by Article 3 of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child. The reality in the UK is that the treatment of these children does not always promote their best interest and can exacerbate mental health problems caused by their experiences in their homelands.

On the look out - but be careful

Reva Klein

The recent kidnapping incidents will have made some children wonder about how safe they are at home. The article explains that anxious children should be helped to express their fears to trusted adults who can help to re-assure them.

Rules of engagement

Ruth Clarke

The provision of outreach services for young people is a new service development. It is characterised by informal support rather than more structured therapeutic services. The author’s research indicates that the informal, flexible approach to young people and their families can be successful.

Some things on their minds

Kathryn Pugh and Dinah Morley

The authors report back on her talks with a wide variety of young people as part of the YoungMinds Stressed Out and Struggling project. The aim of the focus groups was to find out about the transition from adolescence to adulthood through discussion and a confidential questionnaire. Despite the differing background the young people had common concerns about money and jobs and the importance of the family. The second part of the article looked at young asylum seekers and how they dealt with the problems of transition to adulthood and moving to a new country and culture.

The art of the matter

Terry Philpot

This article looks at the benefits of giving young refugees and asylum seekers access to arts provision. Exiled artists have been given training to adapt their work for schools and to familiarise them with the national curriculum. The arts projects range from visual to performance arts and allow young people to express themselves in their own language and culture. This helps build confidence in young people as they struggle to cope with a new language and home.

Women and children first

Roxanne Escobales

This article explains the work of the Maya Centre in Islington, which aims to help women break the cycle of abuse and depression through psychodynamic counselling. The author highlights the success of the Centre in reaching women from economically deprived background who are in need of mental health services. The future of the Centre is in doubt as the building has been sold to a private landlord.

Review: Emotional health and wellbeing - a guide for schools

George Varnava

This publication is a valuable and timely contribution to the current investigations into the behaviours of children and young people that impact on their mental health. This is a book that deserves to be read and can serve as a source of information on how various behaviours have been defined, investigated and addressed. It will serve as a practical guide for schools addressing the problems as they see it.

Review: Helping abused children and their families

Billy Pughe

This book is described as being about the evidence based connected to working with families and children, where the families are together but there continue to be ongoing child protection issues.

Review: Julianna kiss

Angela Neustatter

This story is about 20 year old Julianna Kiss, who came to the Britain from Hungary to work on a farm in Kent. The author takes us into the emotional world of a young immigrant and invites us to contemplate how it is to be an immigrant.

Review: Nobody's child

Terry Connor

Kate Adie examines the history of foundlings through history and culture in her book that examines the nature of child abandonment. Anyone interested in family and identity will find plenty to stimulate them in this book with its underlying current of loss.

Review: The pampered child syndrome

Sonia Jackson

The central argument of this book is that many of the symptoms and behavioural problems diagnosed as mental health problems are actually the product of over-indulgence, unwillingness to set limits and an inability to allow children to suffer the mildest degree of frustration or discomfort. The book is aimed at both professional and parents, but the reviewer feels that it is more likely to be of interest to professionals, especially to health professionals who are not mental health specialists.

Review: Transfer boy

Oliver Russell

This book describes the life of 12-year old Teodor Mihail, who is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. The review says that the book is a lost opportunity to explore what it really feels like to be an adolescent with Asperger’s Syndrome. Somewhere in the middle of this book the authors lost sight of for whom they were writing.

Review: Tsotsi

Imogen Le Patourel

This Certificate 15 film is about Tsotsi, a 19-year-old who lives in a shantytown on the edge of Johannesburg. He has drifted into a life of petty crime and casual violence, but whilst stealing a car he also abducts a baby and decides to keep it. The baby reawakens memories of his own childhood and his need for love and care. Plus, he starts to question the violence and anger that fuel his present life.

Review: White on black

Terry Philpot

The book is based on the author’s personal experience of being a resident in the orphanages in Communist Europe. The reviewer states that although the book has won literary prizes, it is haphardard, even slapdash that it lacks almost any context.

Webwatch: Home problems

Rachel Hindley

This column looks at a selection of websites that aim to help young people deal with domestic violence issues.