Supporting Parents of Children with Serious Mental Health Problems

Author(s):  
Kylie Burke

Serious mental illness affects between 10% and 20% of children and adolescents, significantly representing the world’s children and adolescents. Parents are a critical protective factor in their child’s treatment and recovery from serious mental illness. They support the child during treatment, manage symptom reduction, maintain treatment gains, and promote their child’s development and well-being. Parenting a child or adolescent with serious mental illness places significant strain and burden on them. This chapter discusses evidence-based parenting interventions (e.g., the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program) within the child and adolescent mental health context and their potential to be flexibly and sustainably incorporated into existing usual treatment services. The need is highlighted for researchers, policy-makers, and service providers to focus on developing child- and family-focused mental health policy and better processes for conducting high-quality research that examines specific and combined contributions of parenting interventions within child and adolescent mental health services.

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gifford Sawyer ◽  
Robert John Kosky

Approximately 10% of children and adolescents experience mental health problems, however only a small proportion receive specialised help. Identifying approaches which can provide a balanced and effective service for the large number of children and adolescents with problems is currently a major challenge for child and adolescent mental health services in Australia. In South Australia, following a review in 1983, child and adolescent services were reorganised into two separate but closely related services. This paper draws on experience in South Australia over the last decade to identify approaches which can be employed in six key areas that significantly influence the effectiveness of child and adolescent mental health services. The paper also describes the specific features which were included in the South Australian child and adolescent mental health service to address these issues.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261131
Author(s):  
Umme Marzia Haque ◽  
Enamul Kabir ◽  
Rasheda Khanam

Background Mental health problems, such as depression in children have far-reaching negative effects on child, family and society as whole. It is necessary to identify the reasons that contribute to this mental illness. Detecting the appropriate signs to anticipate mental illness as depression in children and adolescents is vital in making an early and accurate diagnosis to avoid severe consequences in the future. There has been no research employing machine learning (ML) approaches for depression detection among children and adolescents aged 4–17 years in a precisely constructed high prediction dataset, such as Young Minds Matter (YMM). As a result, our objective is to 1) create a model that can predict depression in children and adolescents aged 4–17 years old, 2) evaluate the results of ML algorithms to determine which one outperforms the others and 3) associate with the related issues of family activities and socioeconomic difficulties that contribute to depression. Methods The YMM, the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2013–14 has been used as data source in this research. The variables of yes/no value of low correlation with the target variable (depression status) have been eliminated. The Boruta algorithm has been utilized in association with a Random Forest (RF) classifier to extract the most important features for depression detection among the high correlated variables with target variable. The Tree-based Pipeline Optimization Tool (TPOTclassifier) has been used to choose suitable supervised learning models. In the depression detection step, RF, XGBoost (XGB), Decision Tree (DT), and Gaussian Naive Bayes (GaussianNB) have been used. Results Unhappy, nothing fun, irritable mood, diminished interest, weight loss/gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation or retardation, fatigue, thinking or concentration problems or indecisiveness, suicide attempt or plan, presence of any of these five symptoms have been identified as 11 important features to detect depression among children and adolescents. Although model performance varied somewhat, RF outperformed all other algorithms in predicting depressed classes by 99% with 95% accuracy rate and 99% precision rate in 315 milliseconds (ms). Conclusion This RF-based prediction model is more accurate and informative in predicting child and adolescent depression that outperforms in all four confusion matrix performance measures as well as execution duration.


2021 ◽  

In this thoughtful article, a young person, Anna, reflects on her experience of risk being conflated with mental illness in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), highlighting crucial lessons for clinicians, commissioners, and policy makers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkan Brøndbo ◽  
Børge Mathiassen ◽  
Monica Martinussen ◽  
Einar Heiervang ◽  
Mads Eriksen ◽  
...  

Objective: This study examined the agreement between diagnoses and severity ratings assigned by clinicians using a structured web-based interview within a child and adolescent mental health outpatient setting. Method: Information on 100 youths was obtained from multiple informants through a web-based Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA). Based on this information, four experienced clinicians independently diagnosed (according to the International Classification of Diseases Revision 10) and rated the severity of mental health problems according to the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) and the Children’s Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS). Results: Agreement for diagnosis was κ=0.69-0.82. Intra-class correlation for single measures was 0.78 for HoNOSCA and 0.74 for C-GAS, and 0.93 and 0.92, respectively for average measures. Conclusions: Agreement was good to excellent for all diagnostic categories. Agreement for severity was moderate, but improved to substantial when the average of the ratings given by all clinicians was considered. Therefore, we conclude that experienced clinicians can assign reliable diagnoses and assess severity based on DAWBA data collected online.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. e022936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Howarth ◽  
Maris Vainre ◽  
Ayla Humphrey ◽  
Chiara Lombardo ◽  
Ainul Nadhirah Hanafiah ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo identify priorities for the delivery of community-based Child and Adolescent Mental health Services (CAMHS).Design(1) Qualitative methods to gather public and professional opinions regarding the key principles and components of effective service delivery. (2) Two-round, two-panel adapted Delphi study. The Delphi method was adapted so professionals received additional feedback about the public panel scores. Descriptive statistics were computed. Items rated 8–10 on a scale of importance by ≥80% of both panels were identified as shared priorities.SettingEastern region of England.Participants(1) 53 members of the public; 95 professionals from the children’s workforce. (2) Two panels. Public panel: round 1,n=23; round 2,n=16. Professional panel: round 1,n=44; round 2,n=33.Results51 items met the criterion for between group consensus. Thematic grouping of these items revealed three key findings: the perceived importance of schools in mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness; an emphasis onhowspecialist mental health services are delivered rather thanwhatis delivered (ie, specific treatments/programmes), and the need to monitor and evaluate service impact against shared outcomes that reflect well-being and function, in addition to the mere absence of mental health symptoms or disorders.ConclusionsAreas of consensus represent shared priorities for service provision in the East of England. These findings help to operationalise high level plans for service transformation in line with the goals and needs of those using and working in the local system and may be particularly useful for identifying gaps in ongoing transformation efforts. More broadly, the method used here offers a blueprint that could be replicated by other areas to support the ongoing transformation of CAMHS.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiane Duarte ◽  
Christina Hoven ◽  
Carlos Berganza ◽  
Isabel Bordin ◽  
Hector Bird ◽  
...  

Objective: This report reviews population studies of child and adolescent mental health carried out in Latin America over the past 15 years. Also considered is the issue of how to meet the needs of children and adolescents who may present mental health problems in Latin America, given that most of them live in poverty in economies that are underdeveloped, providing limited resources. Method: Ten studies from six different countries were identified that employed some form of randomized sampling method and used standardized instruments for assessment. The authors present a summary of the main characteristics of these studies, highlighting methodological features that may account for differences in the rates obtained. Results: Overall, a similar pattern of prevalence and risk factors for mental health problems in children and adolescents in Latin American countries emerged. Moreover, rates of disorders in these children are similar to the 15 to 20% found in other countries. These findings are similar to those observed when adult mental health problems are considered. Prevention and treatment strategies are discussed and the peculiarities of the delivery of mental health services for children and adolescents are explored. Conclusions: Future research needs to focus on understanding of resilience and formal and informal mental health delivery systems of care available in different Latin American countries. Such research has high potential for ameliorating the prevention and treatment of child and adolescent mental health problems in this region of the world.


Author(s):  
Olivia D. Herrington ◽  
Ashley Clayton ◽  
Laelia Benoit ◽  
Cecil Prins-Aardema ◽  
Madeline DiGiovanni ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To examine, through photo-elicitation, the personal and professional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health professionals working with children and adolescents around the globe. Methods We invited the submission of images collected about the pandemic between May and August 2020. We encouraged participants to yoke personal reflections or voice memos to their images. Using snowball sampling, we began with two invitations, including one to the graduates of a mentorship program continuously hosted since 2004 by the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP). We analyzed de-identified images and anonymized transcripts through iterative coding using thematic analysis informed by rich picture analysis and aided by NVivo software. Results We collected submissions from child and adolescent mental health professionals (n = 134) working in 54 countries spread across the five continents. We identified four overarching domains with component themes that revealed both the commonality and the uniqueness of the pandemic experience around the globe: (1) Place (adjusting to emptiness and stillness; shifting timeframes; blending of spaces); (2) Person (disruption to life rhythms; emotional toll; positives of the pandemic); (3) Profession (changing practices; outreach efforts; guild pride—and guilt); and (4) Purpose (from pandemic to syndemic; from lamenting to embracing; planning toward a better tomorrow). Conclusions Photo-elicitation provided a disarming and efficient means to learn about individual, regional, and global similarities and differences regarding the professionals charged with addressing the mental health needs of children and adolescents around the globe. These findings may help inform practice changes in post-pandemic times.


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