Association For Child And Adolescent Mental Health (acamh)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20792 In this podcast, we are joined by Lizzy Winstone, Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School, the University of Bristol. The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP Advances paper ‘Adolescent social media user types and their mental health and well-being, results from a longitudinal survey of 13 to 14-year-olds in the United Kingdom’ (doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12071). Lizzy sets the scene by detailing a summary of the paper and sharing insight into the methodology used for the research. In previous studies, distinctions are made between active and passive social media. Lizzy explains why her paper suggests that this distinction may be too simplistic and comments on the four classes of social media users identified in her paper – high communicators, moderate communicators, broadcasters, and minimal users – including how each of these different groups behave. Lizzy then highlights the key findings from the paper and provides further commentary on her finding that

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20778 For this podcast, in celebration of Playday (celebrated each year across the UK on the first Wednesday in August), we are joined by Professor Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology in the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Exeter. The focus of this podcast is on child mental health and the importance of adventurous play. As Playday encourages families, communities, and organizations to consider how they can build better opportunities for all children to play, Helen sets the scene by giving a brief overview of why play is so critical for children and young people. Helen talks to us about how the pandemic has affected children’s play, before turning to her research on adventurous play and why she sees adventurous play as an antidote to anxiety. Helen also discusses her recently published data that shows a link between adventurous and outdoor play and children’s mental health, as well as explains why she suggests that adventurous play itself can mitigate the risk

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20737 In this podcast, we are joined by Sally Hogg, Deputy CEO at the Parent Infant Foundation, to discuss early trauma and the importance of early relationships. To set the scene, Sally starts by providing details about the 1001 days movement, which she coordinates, and details what it is about the first 1001 days of a child’s life that is so critical. Sally discusses the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on mental and physical health and explores why we should be especially concerned about adversity that occurs early in a child’s life. Sally talks about how early trauma impacts emotional, behavioural, cognitive, and social functioning, as well as tells us more about the importance of nurturing parent/infant relationships, and how its presence can help a child to be more resilient to negative events. Sally then discusses how the relationship between babies and their parents can be strengthened, what her message is to CAMH professionals in terms of the role they can play, and he

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20683 In this podcast we are joined by student researchers Hannah Abdalla, Malaika Okundi, and Carl Simela. All three have been working on TRADE, which stands for Transmission of experiences of Racism, Anxiety, and Depression in families. TRADE is a collaboration between researchers at the Center for Mental Health and King’s College London. To set the scene, Hannah, Malaika and Carl provide insight into what TRADE is, how they gathered their data, and what the aims of the project were. Hannah, Malaika, and Carl then share what drew them personally to this research project and why they think that there has been so little focus until now on the UK experience, in terms of the transmission of experiences of racism, anxiety, and depression in families. Having met with parents and teenagers to talk through their experiences, during their research, Hannah, Malaika and Carl share their key findings, comment on what stood out to them, plus share what their expectations were when they started th

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20650 In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Rolland, a Harvard faculty member and author of The Art of Talking With Children, published by HarperCollins, to discuss how we communicate with children. To set the scene, Rebecca begins by talking about what inspired the book, The Art of Talking With Children, and discusses in what ways she feels that digital media has impacted the way we communicate across and between generations, and also in particular its impact on the mental health of young people. Rebecca touches upon the impact of the pandemic in terms of communication skills, before commenting on the importance of conversation, in particular daily conversation with kids, in supporting their deeper learning, to reduce conflict, to build their empathy, confidence, and creativity. Rebecca talks about how to know if what we say to children is helpful, details what a quality conversation with children and young people looks like, and shares tips on how to adapt our conversations t

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20553 For this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Jillian Halladay, registered nurse, clinical epidemiologist, and winner of ACAMH’s Research Trainee of the Year Award 2021. Jillian begins by commenting on what it meant to her to have received the ACAMH Research Trainee of the Year Award in 2021, before providing us with an insight into her research examining the co-occurrence of substance use in youth in general and in acute clinical settings. As principal investigator with the CAMP study, which sought to determine the feasibility of administering a standardized mental health and substance use assessment amongst youth admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit, Jillian tells us more about the study, its findings, and whether she envisions the standardisation being rolled out. Having published several papers on student mental health and substance use, Jillian also discusses the importance of schools and teachers on youth mental health and substance use, plus provides insight into what types

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20530 For this podcast, for Refugee Week, we are joined by Dr. Tina Rae, Consultant Educational and Child Psychologist and ACAMH Board Member. The focus of this podcast is on child refugees and how best to support them within educational settings. Tina talks to us about trauma and mental health as it relates to child and adolescent refugees and sets the scene by detailing what tends to happen in terms of initial entry into schooling, and education, when it comes to child and adolescent refugees. Tina then discusses if schools do, or should, play a role in assessing and providing for the mental health needs of child and adolescent refugees and explores what more can be done to give staff training in this area. Tina shares her advice and tips for teachers and teaching assistants who have pupils who are refugees, comments on what they can do to help these students settle into school life, plus talks about what other children at the school can do, or be encouraged to do, to help ease the

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20476 For this podcast, for Refugee Week, we are joined by Professor Panos Vostanis, professor of Child Mental Health at the University of Leicester, and founder of the organisation World Awareness for Children in Trauma (WACIT). As an expert in the impact of trauma on child and adolescent mental health, Panos sets the scene by talking to us about trauma as it relates to child refugees and other young people in conflict. Panos then turns to his work at WACIT and details what WACIT is and the goals of the organisation, before detailing some of the training services for CAMH professionals who work with refugees, asylum-seekers, and other vulnerable groups. With WACIT also running interventions for children and young people themselves, Panos further discusses the work they have done with children and young people who are refugees or living in conflict zones, and shares what the outcomes were like. As one of the aims of WACIT is to develop evidence based psychosocial interventions and capa

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20426 For this podcast, for Refugee Week, we are joined by Dr. Hayley Rajpal, a child and adolescent psychotherapist with a specialism in working with looked after children and their networks. Hayley’s thesis research explored the challenges of therapeutic engagement with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, and this will be the focus of the podcast. To set the scene, Hayley provides a brief overview of psychotherapy before turning to detail how she came to be interested in child and adolescent mental health as it relates to refugees and asylum seekers. Turning to Hayley’s studies, where she explored the experiences of care networks providing therapeutic support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, Hayley shares some of the main takeaways from her thesis. Furthermore, having touched on the impact of difference and diversity, plus racism and media perceptions, Hayley also shares what issues have arisen around difference and diversity when it comes to the provision of care for unaccom

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20329 For this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Maria Loades, clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. The focus of this podcast is on the Common Elements Toolbox (COMET), a study testing a digital intervention to help university students improve their wellbeing. To set the scene, Maria provides us with an insight into what the COMET programme entails and describes some of the specific interventions that are being tested. With the programme targeted at students, Maria details why she has chosen to focus on this particular demographic and discusses student mental health as well as the impact that the pandemic has had on students entering university. As COMET was originally developed in the US, Maria shares what is already known about the COMET intervention from the USA, plus comments on the difference between COMET GB and COMET US, including adaptations to account for cultural differences. Furthermore, Maria talks to us about th

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20231 In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Mandy Steiman, clinical psychologist at the Azrieli Centre for Autism Research (ACAR) at the McGill University Health center. The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper ‘Predictors of language regression and its association with subsequent communication development in children with autism’ (doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13565) As co-author of the paper, Mandy sets the scene by detailing what they looked at in this study and gives us a summary. Mandy provides clarification, and a definition, as to what language regression looks like, before turning to the methodology used for the research. Mandy then shares the key findings from the paper and elaborates on her findings that children with language regression walked earlier and spoke their first word nearly a year sooner than the children without regression, and that language regression may have decreased impact over time, and that regressive patterns are not associated with worse outcomes. Mandy further di

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20057 In this podcast, we are joined by Akhgar Ghassabian, Assistant Professor at the Departments of Pediatrics, Population Health, and Environmental Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, and Dr. Tonya White, Professor at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam. The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper ‘Adolescent gender diversity: sociodemographic correlates and mental health outcomes in the general population’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13588). Akhgar and Tonya set the scene by detailing what their study looked at, providing us with a summary of the paper, plus insight into what methodology they used, before sharing some of the key findings from the research. In their paper, Akhgar and Tonya point to an association between gender diversity and mental health symptoms in adolescents, and in this podcast, Tonya elaborates on the relationship between the two. Akhgar and Tonya then comment on their finding that more females were li

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19889 In this podcast, we talk to Will Mandy, Professor of Neurodevelopmental Conditions at the research department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London (UCL). The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper, ‘Mental health and social difficulties of late-diagnosed autistic children, across childhood and adolescence’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13587) Will is the first author of this paper and sets the scene by clarifying what constitutes as ‘late diagnosis’ when talking about autism in children, before turning to the paper itself and providing a summary of what they looked at in this study. Will talks us through the methodology used and shares an overview of the findings, including further insight into why some children get missed and the role of diagnostic overshadowing. Will also mentions that girls were overrepresented in the late diagnosis group and explores why this might be the case. With this study showing that the late diagnosed group had milde

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19898 For this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Andrés Martin, Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor at the Child Study Center, and director of the simulated participant program, SPP, Teaching and Learning Center TLC, Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Jose Paez, also of the Yale Child Study Center, and Dr. Doron Amsalem, child and adolescent psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University. The focus is on their co-authored paper “Destigmatizing Perceptions About Black Adolescent Depression, Randomized Control Trial of Brief Social Contact-based Video Interventions” (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13570), recently published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP). Andrés sets the scene by providing a summary of their paper, detailing what they looked at in this study and why it was important to focus on Black adolescents in relation to depression. Doron details the methodology used for this paper and describes the types of brief contact-based video interventions

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19805 In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Emma Sciberras, Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and Dr. Julian Fernando, a lecturer in the same department. The focus of this podcast is on their co-authored paper, ‘Climate change-related worry among Australian adolescents: an eight-year longitudinal study’ (doi: 10.1111/camh.12521) , published in the CAMH 2022 Special Issue on ‘Child and youth mental health & the global ecological crisis’. Emma and Julian begin by providing an overview of their paper, detailing the methodology used, and sharing some of the key findings. Whilst the paper determined that both the high persistent and increasing worry group reported greater engagement with news and politics, only those in the persistent worry group had higher depression symptoms. Emma and Julian provide insight into how they differentiated between high persistent and increasing worry, and discuss whether those with increasing wor

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19791 In this podcast we talk to Ana Maria Portugal, Developmental Neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher in developmental behaviour genetics at the Centre of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Ana was the first author of the recent Open Access JCPP paper, ‘Pupil size and pupillary light reflex in early infancy: heritability and link to genetic liability to schizophrenia’ Ana sets the scene with a summary of the paper highlighting what is currently known about the link between pupillary light reflex and hereditary neurodevelopmental conditions. Ana discusses the methodology, key findings, including some surprising results relating to the association between the pupil measures and the polygenic score for autism. Plus of course Ana looks at the implications that the study has for researchers and clinicians, and what the next phase for research will be.

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19695 For this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Aja Murray, lecturer in psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and winner of ACAMH’s Kathy Sylva ‘Rising Star’ Award 2021. Aja begins by providing us with an insight into her background, her research interests, and her role as a developmental psychologist who specializes in mental health, before commenting on what it meant to her to have received the ACAMH ‘Rising Star’ Award in 2021, for best scientific contribution to child and adolescent mental health by a person within 10 years of their first published paper in a peer-reviewed journal. With Aja’s primary research interests relating to the developmental aspects of mental health phenotypes and their comorbidity, with a particular interest in ADHD, autism, and conduct problems, Aja shares some recent highlights from her work. As the deputy director of the Evidence for Better Lives Study, Aja also discloses the aims of this study, plus their findings so far. In addition, Aja also mention

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19594 In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Joey Fredrick, a clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, USA, to tackle the question ‘Is sluggish cognitive tempo associated with circadian preference, sleep, and daytime sleepiness in adolescence?’. Joey is the first author of a paper on this topic published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP). To set the scene, Joey provides us with an insight into what sluggish cognitive tempo is, before turning to his co-authored JCPP paper ‘A multi method examination of sluggish cognitive tempo in relation to adolescent sleep, daytime sleepiness, and circadian preference’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13568). Joey explores what he looked at in this study, provides us with a summary, and details the methodology that he used. With adolescence being the ‘perfect storm’ for sleep issues, Joey details how he differentiated between normal adolescent sleep patterns and those who have sluggish c

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19507 In this podcast, we are joined by Professor Lina Gega, professor of mental health at the University of York and honorary nurse consultant in psychological therapies at Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust. Lina is also a joint editor of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal, one of the three journals produced by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Lina sets the scene by providing an insight into how she came to specialise in cognitive behavioural therapy and digital mental health, as well as what makes digital media so applicable to child and adolescent mental health. With the COVID pandemic having been an accelerator for digital technologies, Lina discusses her recently published paper on the impact of digital technology during the pandemic, including what conclusions she drew and how this impacts children and young people. Lina also talks us through her work on several interesting projects and provides insight into their aims, plus findin

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19446 For this podcast, focusing on adolescent sleep, we are joined by celebrated neuroscientist Dr. Dean Burnett, author of The Idiot Brain and a speaker at a February 2022 live stream event, The enigma of adolescent sleep: misunderstood science and effective intervention. Dean sets the scene by exploring whether there is a typical teenage sleep pattern and if so, how this compares to an adult sleep pattern. Dean then provides insight into the impact that the stereotypes of teenagers as being lazy, staying up all night, and being a bit delinquent can have, as well as what aspects of the science around adolescent sleep are misunderstood. Dean also explains how we should be supporting our adolescents who naturally might sleep at different times to us, and shares an insight into what societal and policy changes could be implemented to support adolescent sleep. Dean talks to us about the impact of insufficient sleep on behaviour, ability to study, and on mental health; exploring the como