Tag: Child Mental Health

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Source: KnowledgeShare

Apps to support the mental health of young people: flashy and available versus evidence-based and hidden?
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(Belinda Platt highlights a new review of mental health apps for young people, which finds there are many apps which seem appealing to young people but have no evidence-base, but only a handful of apps with a sound evidence-base which are available to young people. The post Apps to support the mental health of young people: flashy and available versus evidence-based and hidden? appeared first on National Elf Service.)

Supporting healthy relationships among parents with mental health difficulties: A practical guide.
Early Intervention Foundation (EIF); 2022.
(This practical guide for local areas has been developed to improve understanding of how risk factors among parents with mental health difficulties can impact on parental conflict and in turn on child outcomes, how to effectively engage these parents, what evidence-based support can be offered, and how to appropriately assess progress for these families.)

UK Biobank: a globally important resource for cancer research.
Conroy MC. British Journal of Cancer 2022;:doi.org/10.1038/s41416-022-02053-5.
(UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective study with deep phenotyping and genomic data. Its open-access policy allows researchers worldwide, from academia or industry, to perform health research in the public interest. UK Biobank is uniquely placed to transform our understanding of the causes of cancer development and progression, and drive improvements in cancer treatment and prevention over the coming decades.)

Parental perception of mental health needs in young children.[Abstract]
McGinnis EW. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2022;27(4):328-334.
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(There is evidence of unmet psychiatric needs in children under 6. These young children are dependent on their parents to identify their mental health needs. This study tested child and parent associations with parent perception of young child mental health need. CONCLUSIONS: Most preschool children that meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder are not perceived as needing help by their parents, which is dependent on both child and parent factors.)

Talking to young people about online safety: the who, what, when and how.
The Mental Elf; 2022. (In his debut blog, Luke Bayliss explores a Delphi study that will help mental health practitioners to converse with young people about their online activities and impact on mental health. The post Talking to young people about online safety: the who, what, when and how appeared first on National Elf Service.)

To create your own personalised current awareness update, please complete the KnowledgeShare form and send it back to: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

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Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

COVID-19: long-term health effects.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.

(Information and guidance on persistent health problems reported following acute COVID-19 disease. There is accumulating evidence to suggest that cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) who have experienced both mild and severe symptoms can experience long-term health effects. This document provides information on the health problems reported in COVID-19 cases following acute disease, and guidance for healthcare professionals on how to advise recovering COVID-19 patients.)

COVID-19 in schools: study shows drop in infections Public Health England (PHE); 2021

(Round 4 of the Schools Infection Survey (SIS) shows a significant drop in the number of secondary school pupils and staff testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).)

Women’s Health Strategy: Call for Evidence.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.

(DHSC are seeking your views to help inform the development of the government’s Women’s Health Strategy. The easiest way to participate in the call for evidence as an individual is by completing the public survey. They also welcome written submissions from individuals or organisations who have expertise in women’s health, such as researchers and third-sector organisations. Written submissions can include the contribution of data, research and other reports of relevance to women’s health.)

Teachers’ concerns about pupils’ mental health in a cross-sectional survey of a population sample of British schoolchildren.[Abstract]
Mathews F. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2021;26(2):99-105.

(Understanding how well a teacher concern predicts mental disorder in a child or young person is important for mental health teams who need to respond to referrals. CONCLUSION: While teacher concern does identify those with poorer mental health, it is only moderately predictive of a disorder. When concerned about a child or young person, discussions with parents or others who know them may help teachers identify those who most need support.)

The relationship between alcohol-related hospital admission and specialist alcohol treatment provision across local authorities in England since passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
British Journal of Psychiatry 2021;:https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2020.120.


(The results suggest that the local authority areas in England most in need of adequately funded specialist alcohol treatment are not receiving targeted increased funding, and that the national rise in alcohol-related hospital admissions may be fuelled by local authority funding cuts to specialist alcohol treatment.)

Please contact: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk for any support accessing articles.

Left to their own devices: Young people, social media and mental health

Barnardo’s, July 2019

Using the internet and social media is an important part of life for children and young people. It can be a positive opportunity to learn, to connect with friends and family and to have fun. However, internet use can also expose children to dangers, such as cyberbullying, online grooming and sexual abuse. At the same time, mental health conditions are on the rise with recent data showing that 1 in 8 children and young people between ages 5-19 in England have a mental health problem.

This report gained insight from 80 practitioners across more than 30 Barnardo’s services in the UK. It found:

• Half of these practitioners responding said they had worked with children aged five to 10 who had been exposed to unsuitable or harmful materials online, and more than one third said children in that age group had been victims of cyberbullying.

• When it comes to 11-15 year olds, 79% of practitioners responding said children they work with have experienced cyberbullying. Some practitioners highlighted that cyberbullying had led to self-harm and suicide.

• 78% of practitioners responding also said they had worked with children in this age group who had been groomed online and 78% also said they’d worked with children in this age group who had accessed unsuitable/harmful content.

Click here to view the full report.

The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry – January 2019

The January edition of Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry has been published.  This issue includes articles on the impact of maternal depression on child psychopathology across the first decade of life and a population‐based birth cohort study on what distinguishes adolescents with suicidal thoughts from those who have attempted suicide.
Click here to view the table of contents.
Click here to request an article from the Library.

Children’s Mental Health briefing: A briefing by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England

Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, November 2018
Report that finds improvement in the provision of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in most areas in the country, yet with the exception of eating disorder services, the provision of services in the youth justice system and in perinatal mental health care, the rate of progress is slow. A vast gap remains between what is provided and what children need. As a result, the current rate of progress is still not good enough for the majority of children who require help but are not receiving it. Main findings include:

  • Of more than 338,000 children referred to CAMHS last year, less than a third (31%) received treatment within the year.
  • Another 37% were not accepted into treatment or discharged after an assessment appointment, and 32% were still on waiting lists at the end of the year.
  • Less than 3% of children in England accessed CAMHS last year, a small fraction of those who need help. This is partly because many children who seek help are not accepted into treatment, but also because many children do not know they have a problem or do not seek help.
  • Of those children who did enter treatment, around half did so within six weeks.
    However, nearly 80% of children entering eating disorders treatment are seen within four weeks.
  • Most areas are increasing funding for CAMHS, but parity with spending on adult mental health services remains a distant prospect. Nearly fifteen times as much is spent on adult mental health as on child mental health.
  • In cash terms this means children’s mental health services require an additional £1.7bn a year to achieve equivalent funding to that provided to adult mental health
  • Some areas are already far exceeding the existing NHS target to be treating a third of children with significant need (based on 2004 levels of prevalence) by 2021. Yet for every area exceeding what NHS England expects of them, there is an area failing to deliver.

Click here to view the full report.

Improving children and young people’s mental health services

National Audit Office, October 2018
This report forms part of The National Audit Office’s wider programme of work on mental health, following their 2016 report Mental health services: preparations for access and our 2017 report Mental health in prisons. It examines whether the government is on track to meet its ambitions for children and young people’s services, taking Future in Mind as the starting point.  It has a focus in particular on how the government decided to implement Future in Mind; whether it is on track to deliver improved mental health services to young people; and accountability for spending and outcomes.  It finds the government has not yet set out or costed what it must do to realise these aspirations in full and there remains limited visibility of activity and spending outside the health sector. While the NHS has worked to improve information on its activity and spending, significant data weaknesses are hampering its understanding of progress. Slow progress on workforce expansion to deliver NHS services is also emerging as a major risk to delivery.  It calls for the government to ensure a coherent and coordinated cross-sector response, and that the right levers are in place to ensure local actions deliver the national ambitions. It has started to tackle issues of parity of esteem between physical and mental health services for children and young people, but it still has a long way to go, particularly as demand may be higher than originally thought, and an increased focus on mental health may uncover greater demand. Given these weaknesses and uncertainties, we conclude that the government cannot demonstrate that it has yet delivered value for money.
Click here to view the full report.

Access to children and young people’s mental health services: 2018

Education Policy Institute, October 2018
Report from the the Education Policy Institute considering the  state of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in England.  It finds:

  • Referrals to child and adolescent mental health services have risen significantly in recent years.
  • Some areas have lost early intervention services supporting children and young people’s emotional and mental health and wellbeing, including those for children that receive statutory support.
  • Timely and high-quality specialist care will always be necessary, and more needs to be done to ensure it is in place across the country.
  • There needs to be a focus on taking demand out of the system.

Click here to view the full report.