Association For Child And Adolescent Mental Health (acamh)

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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](https://www.acamh.org/journal-child-psychology-psychiatry-jcpp/) by Hollis et al.

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.

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.

An introduction to the [ADHD issue](https://www.acamh.org/category/journal/the-bridge/) 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](https://www.acamh.org/journal-publications/), "Brain firing, but not wiring, is different in children with ADHD".