Promoting mental health and well-being for children and young people

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-350
Author(s):  
Pat Cox ◽  
Jane March McDonald

Adopting a children’s rights perspective, a critique and analysis underpinned by documentary research methodology was undertaken in order to assess the extent to which the government’s Green Paper (Department of Health and Social Care and Department of Education, 2017. Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper (accessed 7 December 2017)) addresses the mental health and well-being needs of refugee children and young people in England and Wales, identifying strengths, limitations and challenges for future policy and practice. Findings suggest that there is much of potential benefit to refugee children and young people’s future mental health and well-being. However, a paradigm shift, explicit in implications, scale and time frame, will be required, if the Green Paper is to achieve those changes in attitudes, practice and service delivery which it anticipates. We argue that this Green Paper’s overarching challenge is that it is premised on Western-centric models in its understanding of the experiences of refugee children and young people, and management of trauma and mental health. It fails to recognize the meanings and significance of culture, and of diversity and difference, and the need to invest in all communities in facilitating engagement and support for children and young people’s mental health issues.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e042815
Author(s):  
Rhiannon Evans ◽  
Maria Boffey ◽  
Sarah MacDonald ◽  
Jane Noyes ◽  
G.J. Melendez-Torres ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe mental health and well-being of children and young people who have been in care (ie, care-experienced) are a priority. There are a range of interventions aimed at addressing these outcomes, but the international evidence-base remains ambiguous. There is a paucity of methodologically robust systematic reviews of intervention effectiveness, with few considering the contextual conditions under which evaluations were conducted. This is important in understanding the potential transferability of the evidence-base across contexts. The present systematic review will adopt a complex systems perspective to synthesise evidence reporting evaluations of mental health and well-being interventions for care-experienced children and young people. It will address impact, equity, cost-effectiveness, context, implementation and acceptability. Stakeholder consultation will prioritise a programme theory, and associated intervention, that may progress to further development and evaluation in the UK.Methods and analysisWe will search 16 bibliographic databases from 1990 to June 2020. Supplementary searching will include citation tracking, author recommendation, and identification of evidence clusters relevant to included evaluations. The eligible population is children and young people (aged ≤25 years) with experience of being in care. Outcomes are (1) mental, behavioural or neurodevelopmental disorders; (2) subjective well-being; (3) self-harm; suicidal ideation; suicide. Study quality will be appraised with methodologically appropriate tools. We will construct a taxonomy of programme theories and intervention types. Thematic synthesis will be used for qualitative data reporting context, implementation and acceptability. If appropriate, meta-analysis will be conducted with outcome and economic data. Convergent synthesis will be used to integrate syntheses of qualitative and quantitative data.Ethics and disseminationWe have a comprehensive strategy for engagement with care-experienced children and young people, carers and social care professionals. Dissemination will include academic and non-academic publications and conference presentations. Ethical approval from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences REC will be obtained if necessary.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020177478.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren Sharpe ◽  
Mohsen Rajabi ◽  
Clement Chileshe ◽  
Sitali Mayamba Joseph ◽  
Ibrahim Sesay ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantining on children and young people (CYP) living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has yet to be fully comprehended. CYP in LMICs are at utmost risk, given the COVID-19-related restrictions and social distancing measures, resulting in reduced access to school-based services for nutritional and mental health needs. This study examined mental health of CYP during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Zambia and Sierra Leone. Method A total of 468 disabled and disadvantaged CYP aged 12 to 25 completed a planning tool that comprised the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), as well as open-ended questions covering social connectedness, physical distancing and educational challenges during the lockdown. The community coaches screened individuals and families who could be eligible to receive emergency aid, and based on a convenience sample following distribution of aid, recipients were invited to complete the planning tool. Results The data showed that participants in the global south have increasing anxieties and fears centred on accessing offline educational resources and income loss in the family effecting food security and their ability to return to education. Mean (SD) SWEMWBS scores for all participants in Zambia and Sierra Leone, were 19.61 (3.45) and 21.65 (2.84), respectively. Mental well-being scores were lower in females, children aged 12–14 and participants with two or more disabilities. Factors significantly associated with poor mental wellbeing in the sample were: type of disability, nationality, peer relationships, connection to others during the pandemic, knowledge about COVID-19, worry about the long-term impact of COVID-19, and the types of self-isolating. Conclusion The study shows that participants who self-reported low levels of COVID-19 health literacy also scored low on the mental wellbeing self-assessment. Yet, despite undoubted limited resources, these CYP are doing well in identifying their needs and maintaining hope in the face of the problems associated with COVID-19 in countries where stigma persists around mental ill-health.


Author(s):  
Karolina Baras ◽  
Luísa Soares ◽  
Carla Vale Lucas ◽  
Filipa Oliveira ◽  
Norberto Pinto Paulo ◽  
...  

Smartphones have become devices of choice for running studies on health and well-being, especially among young people. When entering college, students often face many challenges, such as adaptation to new situations, establish new interpersonal relationships, heavier workload and shorter deadlines, teamwork assignments and others. In this paper, the results of four studies examining students' well-being and mental health as well as student's perception of challenges and obstacles they face during their academic journey are presented. In addition, a mobile application that acts as a complement to a successful tutoring project implemented at the authors' University is proposed. The application allows students to keep their schedules and deadlines in one place while incorporating virtual tutor features. By using both, the events from the student's calendar and his or her mood indicators, the application sends notifications accordingly. These notifications encompass motivational phrases, time management guidelines, as well as relaxation tips.


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