Association For Child And Adolescent Mental Health (acamh)

**Dr Seonaid Anderson** and **Helen Eadie**, of [**Tourettes Action**](https://www.tourettes-action.org.uk/), define [**Tourettes Syndrome**](https://www.acamh.org/topic/tourette-syndrome/) and expand on its impact. Together with Jo Carlowe, psychology journalist, they explore the next steps for raising identification, awareness, and positive outcomes.

Dr Mark Lovell, and Mary Busk, talk to journalist Jo Carlowe about Intellectual Disabilities from a professional and personal viewpoint. Mary is a Family Carer Advisers in the Improving Health and Quality Team, part of the Learning Disability Programme for NHS England. Mark is a dual-trained Consultant Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Psychiatrist. For more on Intellectual Disabilities check out our free evidence-based [topic guide](https://www.acamh.org/topic/intellectual-disabilities/).

André Tomlin, The Mental Elf, interviews the Project PERFECT team at the University of Birmingham to find out how unusual beliefs offer philosophers of mind the opportunity to challenge mental health stigma.

Professor Courtenay Norbury defines Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), expands on its impact and discusses how and when to identify it. Together with Jo Carlowe, psychology journalist, she explores the critical nature of effective interventions and what current thinking says about the causes. The next steps for raising awareness are identified along with ways to improve outcomes for DLD.

Professor Helen Minnis and Lisa Dinkler discuss their paper "Maltreatment-associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-twin control analysis" published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

At the recent Parental Mental Illness Masterclass led by charity Our Time, ACAMH CEO, Martin Pratt, caught up with the speakers, Dr Alan Cooklin, Jess Streeting and Kirsty Taha-Wraith, to discuss the impact of parental mental health and what Our Time's interventions mean for young people.

Join Dr Dennis Ougrin as he discusses growing up in the Soviet Union and the role of psychiatry there and choosing to develop a career in psychiatry, as well as his recent appointment as Editor-in-Chief of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the future of the journal. A specialist in self-harm and suicide, he emphasises the importance of early intervention and prevention, as well as the potential of Therapeutic Assesssment, a novel model of assessment for young people with self-harm ahead of his upcoming Self Harm Masterclass.

Dr Duncan Law discusses the importance of everyday participation and improving the therapeutic alliance by collaboratively creating goals.

Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental health problem across the lifespan. They have a particularly early age of onset – half of all people who experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life will first experience those difficulties by the age of 11 years. Yet we have found that an extremely small proportion of children who experience significant and sustained problems with anxiety receive any sort of professional support, let alone support that is known to be effective. We spoke to Professor Cathy Creswell about some of the barriers to support for children with anxiety, the Anxiety and Depression in Young people research clinic, and her role as the lead for the Emerging Minds: Action for Child Mental Health research network.

Dr Sophie Browning is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working on whole school approaches to mental health. In this podcast with psychology journalist Jo Carlowe, she discusses an innovative cognitive behavioural therapy approach for reducing anxiety and mental health problems in schools.

There have been growing levels of awareness of harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people. In this podcast, psychology journalist, Jo Carlowe interviews Professor Kieran McCartan, Professor of Criminology, and Dr Anna Markham, Forensic Psychologist and Acting Clinical Lead for the Child and Adolescent Harmful Behaviour Service. Together they consider what might predispose a young person to harming sexually, what are the warning signs, and what it means to go beyond criminal justice to a public health approach.

The World Health Organization has stated that parental mental illness is a major public health issue across the globe and Adverse Childhood Experiences research identifies it as one of the 10 most significant adversities and risk factors for children and young people's mental wellbeing. 70% of these children will suffer some level of largely preventable mental ill health themselves by the age of 21.  In this podcast, Dr Alan Cooklin and Jessica Streeting discuss the impact of parental mental illness, how family psychiatry has developed, how everyone has a key role to play, and the power of explanation and understanding as a protective intervention.

Sleep difficulties are common in children and adolescents, especially in some high-risk groups, such as young people with neurodevelopmental conditions or mental health problems. Clinicians working in paediatric or child mental health settings need an understanding of sleep disorders as it is important to know how sleep disturbance impacts on a young person’s physical and cognitive development, and mental health. At our recent Sleep and Mental Health Conference, we caught up with the speakers, Dr Michael Farquhar, Dr Jenna Vyas-Lee, Dr Max Davie and Dr Sally Hobson to discuss the relationship between sleep, behaviour and mental health, as well as some insights into assessment, management and barriers to interventions.

Anne Lawlor, Co-Founder and Chairperson of 22Q11 Ireland joins ACAMH to discuss 22q11 deletion syndrome, its impacts on sleep and mental health, as well as how her lived experience informs her work and how it could inform the work of professionals.

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