Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) (The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health)

An introduction to the ADHD issue of The Bridge Abridged from Editor and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Juliette Kennedy. This is followed by the latest research digest from the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, "Brain firing, but not wiring, is different in children with ADHD".

ACAMH Chair, Professor Stephen Scott talks to Professor Sir Robin Murray about his research into the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and developing better treatments for these disorders. There will be a particular focus on the topic of adolescent drug use and its link to psychosis, as this forms the basis for Sir Robin’s Memorial Lecture at the 2018 Emanuel Miller Conference.

Professor Dame Sue Bailey OBE DBE talks to ACAMH Publications Manager and Deputy CEO, Prabha Choubina, about progress and priorities for mental health in schools.

Professor Dame Bailey is Mental Health Advisor to Health Education England, Chair of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition and Vice Chair of the Centre for Mental Health.

Research digest of a systematic and meta-review on the use of digital mental health interventions for children and young people published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry by Hollis et al.

In conversation with Dr Duncan Gillard, Senior Educational Psychologist and an experienced ACT practitioner, trainer and author. Duncan is the co-author of the popular self-help book Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Dummies.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a trans-diagnostic therapeutic approach, belonging to the broad church of cognitive behavioural therapies (CBTs). With the practice of mindfulness as one of its core processes, the aim of ACT is to enable people to move toward a life with meaning and purpose through values-based action.

Dr John Ivens talks to ACAMH Publications Manager and Deputy CEO, Prabha Choubina, about the role of schools in mental health provision, the Government's green paper on children and young people's mental health, and assessing students' experiences of happiness in schools in order to develop personalised approaches. 

Dr John Ivens is Headteacher at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School, an educational psychologist and an advisor to Place2Be.

The first prevalence studies estimated one in 2,500 children were autistic whereas the latest figures indicate around one in every 39 children is reported to have an autism diagnosis. Dr Ginny Russell discusses why we may have seen such an increase.

Dr Ginny Russell is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School and the Department of Sociology. She will be speaking about time trends in diagnosis of autism at ACAMH’s upcoming Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture and National Conference.

Professor Stephen Scott CBE FRCPsych FMedSci joins ACAMH to discuss his journey from paediatrics to child and adolescent psychiatry, the importance of evidence-based research and what he wants to see in the future for the field of child and adolescent mental health. 

Professor Scott is the Chair of the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Professor of Child Health & Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London.

How can mental health practitioners support refugee children? Professor Panos Vostanis shares insights into complex trauma, evidence and interventions in the field, as well as discussing his upcoming Refugee Children and Mental Health Masterclass.

Professor Vostanis is a Professor of Child Mental Health at the University of Leicester, Visiting Professor at University College London and he set up the World Awareness for Children in Trauma programme.

Renowned clinical psychologist, Kim Golding, discusses how we can support developmentally traumatised children and their parents, as well as how support for adopted children has changed in the UK over the years.

Kim will be speaking at an upcoming ACAMH conference, "Introduction to Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Parenting and Practice".

Join JCPP’s Editor-in-Chief, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Annual Research Review Editor, Professor Pasco Fearon, as they talk to researchers about the Annual Research Review.

Annual Research Review topics include epigenetics, stress physiology, neonatal imaging, inter-parental conflict, bullying, autism treatments and suicide. The papers considered together represent the very best of contemporary child psychology and psychiatry research.

A practitioner review by Paulus et al., published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, investigates school-based interventions, their effectiveness, efficiency and the practical implications.

Tamsin Ford is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Exeter Medical School. While Tamsin set out on her career path aiming to become an old age psychiatrist working as a clinician, she ended up as a child psychiatrist working in research.

Discover more about Tamsin's career and her research group assessing the effectiveness of services and interventions which aim to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Hear from Professor Kathy Sylva OBE on her research which has explored early education and children's development, parenting interventions, and the impact of children's centres on families. 

Kathy is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, as well as ACAMH President.

Audio from our Autism Symposium with lectures and discussion on the role of research in autism, pathways to mental health problems in autism, and the wider landscape. Speakers included:

• Dr Marinos Kyriakopoulos, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr Ann Ozsivadjian, Principal Clinical Psychologist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr James Cusack, Director of Science for Autistica
• Carol Povey, Director of the Centre for Autism, National Autistic Society
• Dr Mark Lovell, Consultant Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Psychiatrist, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

The Education, Health and Social Care Committees recently called upon the government to take a stronger stance on child and adolescent mental health and to join up the appropriate services in a way that places children and young people at the heart of its strategy.

In their recent review published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jack Turban and Diane Ehrensaft provide an update on how the field of pediatric gender identity is changing and discuss the approaches to supporting and managing the gender identity concerns of children and adolescents. What can this research tell us about reducing the high rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal intentions in transgender young people?

Many parents naturally worry whether their child is getting enough food if they refuse to eat sometimes. It would appear to be normal for young children to refuse to eat or even taste new foods but what is the science and evidence behind this? Are there interventions that parents can take?

We caught up with Dr Andrea Smith, Dr Clare Llewellyn, Dr Alison Fildes, and Dr Moritz Herle to discuss fussy eating, its impact on children's health and how it can be addressed in policy and practice.

Autistica recently invited us along to the testing sessions for their new app, Molehill Mountain. We spoke to Professor Emily Simonoff and one of the autistic people who tested the app so you have an overview of the evidence base around mental health and autism and how this app will be able to support autistic people to understand and self-manage their anxiety.

Join Professor Louise Arseneault and Dr Andrea Danese as they discuss bullying, childhood adversity and their contributions to the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry’s Annual Research Review.

Anne Lawlor, Co-Founder and Chairperson of 22Q11 Ireland joins ACAMH to discuss 22q11 deletion syndrome, its impacts on sleep and mental health, as well as how her lived experience informs her work and how it could inform the work of professionals.

Sleep difficulties are common in children and adolescents, especially in some high-risk groups, such as young people with neurodevelopmental conditions or mental health problems. Clinicians working in paediatric or child mental health settings need an understanding of sleep disorders as it is important to know how sleep disturbance impacts on a young person’s physical and cognitive development, and mental health.

At our recent Sleep and Mental Health Conference, we caught up with the speakers, Dr Michael Farquhar, Dr Jenna Vyas-Lee, Dr Max Davie and Dr Sally Hobson to discuss the relationship between sleep, behaviour and mental health, as well as some insights into assessment, management and barriers to interventions.

The World Health Organization has stated that parental mental illness is a major public health issue across the globe and Adverse Childhood Experiences research identifies it as one of the 10 most significant adversities and risk factors for children and young people's mental wellbeing. 70% of these children will suffer some level of largely preventable mental ill health themselves by the age of 21. 

In this podcast, Dr Alan Cooklin and Jessica Streeting discuss the impact of parental mental illness, how family psychiatry has developed, how everyone has a key role to play, and the power of explanation and understanding as a protective intervention.

There have been growing levels of awareness of harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people. In this podcast, psychology journalist, Jo Carlowe interviews Professor Kieran McCartan, Professor of Criminology, and Dr Anna Markham, Forensic Psychologist and Acting Clinical Lead for the Child and Adolescent Harmful Behaviour Service. Together they consider what might predispose a young person to harming sexually, what are the warning signs, and what it means to go beyond criminal justice to a public health approach.

Dr Sophie Browning is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working on whole school approaches to mental health. In this podcast with psychology journalist Jo Carlowe, she discusses an innovative cognitive behavioural therapy approach for reducing anxiety and mental health problems in schools.

Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental health problem across the lifespan. They have a particularly early age of onset – half of all people who experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life will first experience those difficulties by the age of 11 years. Yet we have found that an extremely small proportion of children who experience significant and sustained problems with anxiety receive any sort of professional support, let alone support that is known to be effective.

We spoke to Professor Cathy Creswell about some of the barriers to support for children with anxiety, the Anxiety and Depression in Young people research clinic, and her role as the lead for the Emerging Minds: Action for Child Mental Health research network.

Dr Duncan Law discusses the importance of everyday participation and improving the therapeutic alliance by collaboratively creating goals.

Join Dr Dennis Ougrin as he discusses growing up in the Soviet Union and the role of psychiatry there and choosing to develop a career in psychiatry, as well as his recent appointment as Editor-in-Chief of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the future of the journal.

A specialist in self-harm and suicide, he emphasises the importance of early intervention and prevention, as well as the potential of Therapeutic Assesssment, a novel model of assessment for young people with self-harm ahead of his upcoming Self Harm Masterclass.

At the recent Parental Mental Illness Masterclass led by charity Our Time, ACAMH CEO, Martin Pratt, caught up with the speakers, Dr Alan Cooklin, Jess Streeting and Kirsty Taha-Wraith, to discuss the impact of parental mental health and what Our Time's interventions mean for young people.

Professor Helen Minnis and Lisa Dinkler discuss their paper "Maltreatment-associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-twin control analysis" published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Professor Courtenay Norbury defines Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), expands on its impact and discusses how and when to identify it. Together with Jo Carlowe, psychology journalist, she explores the critical nature of effective interventions and what current thinking says about the causes. The next steps for raising awareness are identified along with ways to improve outcomes for DLD.

André Tomlin, The Mental Elf, interviews the Project PERFECT team at the University of Birmingham to find out how unusual beliefs offer philosophers of mind the opportunity to challenge mental health stigma.

Dr Mark Lovell, and Mary Busk, talk to journalist Jo Carlowe about Intellectual Disabilities from a professional and personal viewpoint.

Mary is a Family Carer Advisers in the Improving Health and Quality Team, part of the Learning Disability Programme for NHS England. Mark is a dual-trained Consultant Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Psychiatrist.

For more on Intellectual Disabilities check out our free evidence-based topic guide.

Dr Seonaid Anderson and Helen Eadie, of Tourettes Action, define Tourettes Syndrome and expand on its impact. Together with Jo Carlowe, psychology journalist, they explore the next steps for raising identification, awareness, and positive outcomes.

Professor Pasco Fearon, Deputy Editor in Chief of JCPP, Chair in Developmental Psychopathology Clinical, Education & Health Psychology, UCL, talks about his relationship with the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Edmund Sonuga Barke, Editor in Chief of JCPP, talks about the papers that influenced him, how JCPP maintains its quality, and what the future holds for JCPP.

Edmund is currently Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience working in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He also holds Visiting Chairs at Ghent University, Aarhus University and the University of Sussex. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. His work integrates Developmental Psychopathology and Neuroscience perspectives to employing basic developmental science approaches to study the pathogenesis of neuro-developmental and mental health conditions; their underlying genetic and environmental risks, mediating brain mechanisms and developmental outcomes. He has a particular interest in ADHD and related disorders. In 2016, Prof Sonuga-Barke was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

At the recent (Dec 2018) ACAMH Southern Branch conference on Infant Mental Health we spoke to Professor Pasco Fearon about his work on attachment.

At our Infant Mental Health conference, held in Southampton in December 2018, Clare Evans, second year training psychologist, University of Southampton, spoke to Professor Helen Minnis, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Glasgow.

Professor Minnis discussed her early experiences of working in an orphanage in Guatemala and how it influenced her career, attachment disorders, and her current innovative research with the BeST? Study, which aims to find out what is the best service for young abused and neglected pre-school children coming into foster care.

Clare is one of ACAMH growing group of students and early career researchers who are given opportunities to publish blogs, interview leading players in psychology and psychiatry, and attend our events for free. For details of how you can get involved email membership.

Professor Tamsin Ford, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Exeter Medical School, talks to Jo Carlowe, psychology journalist, about attachment and early intervention, and explains why schools are an important setting in relation to child mental health.

Tamsin's work focuses on the effectiveness of interventions and services for children with poor mental health, such as the Incredible Years Classroom Management Course that is tested in the STARS trial.

Tamsin will be speaking at the Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture and National Conference, in London on Friday 8 March. Her discussion will be on 'The incredible years teacher programme – update on recent trials .'

Professor David Olds, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health, University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics, talks to freelance journalist Jo Carlowe about his career and the Family-Nurse Partnership.

David is the Keynote Speaker at the Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture and National Conference - 'Attachment & Early Intervention: Improving emotional wellbeing and relationships in the family, and at school.'

The title of his talk is 'Using Randomized Clinical Trials of the Family-Nurse Partnership to Inform Policy, Practice, and Developmental Science.'

David says of his discussion: 'I will use our experience in developing, testing, and replicating the Nurse-Family Partnership to address the following questions. How can we design early parental interventions to maximize their likelihood of working? How can we design research to build a strong evidence-base for early-intervention?How can we scale evidence-based early interventions to maximize their societal impact?'

Dr Dennis Ougrin, Editor in Chief of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal and Dr Bernadka Dubicka‏, Deputy Editor in Chief, discuss the future of CAMH and why you should submit papers for consideration.

Please note at the start of this podcast there are some minor sound issues, apologies.

Dr Amita Jassi & Dr Gazal Jones talk to freelance journalist Jo Carlowe about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), the latest treatments available, and about the Topic Guide written for ACAMH.

JCPP Annual Research Review: Does late‐onset attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder exist?

Professor Philip Asherson & Dr Jessica Agnew‐Blais discuss their paper.

Dr Arnon Bentovim, Child and Family Psychiatrist, and founder the Child and Family Practice discusses his work with freelance journalist Jo Carlowe.

In particular Arnon talks about child and family training to develop and train evidence-based approaches to assessment, analysis and intervention.

Professor Andrea Danese, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, talks to freelance journalist Jo Carlowe about trauma.

Andrea discusses the impact trauma has on the child, the Topic Guide on the subject he wrote with Dr Patrick Smith for ACAMH, and findings from the recent paper in The Lancet 'The epidemiology of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder in a representative cohort of young people in England and Wales' Lewis, S J et al.

Andrea Danese is Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. He is also Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the National and Specialist CAMHS Clinic for Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression at the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.Arnon is one of the speakers at the upcoming Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture and National Conference.

Dr. Faith Orchard talks to freelance journalist Jo Carlowe about the impact of sleep on mental health.

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a neglected area of mental health practice, little mentioned in recent government policy documents.

The evidence base is strong in theory but often hard to put into practice at the front line. Unhelpful misunderstandings and prejudices persist both in the general population and in professionals. 

Dr. Max Davie talks about this and how you can get involved in ACAMH's Neurodevelopmental Special Interest Group.

Dr. Margiad Williams & Prof. Judy Hutchings talk to freelance journalist Jo Carlowe about 'Parenting' and the behavioural and emotional difficulties in young children face.

What is harsh parenting? What are the latest interventions? Plus what's in the pipeline?

All this and more detailed in this podcast. Don't forget to read the Parenting Topic Guide written by Margiad, and overseen by Judy.