Promoting the Emotional Well Being of Children and Adolescents and Preventing Their Mental Ill Health: A Handbook

by Panos Vostanis (Contribution by), Kedar Nath Dwivedi (Editor), Peter Harper (Editor)

Overview

This comprehensive guide provides overviews of the key psychological processes affecting mental health, such as development, attachment, emotion regulation and attention, and draws out the implications for preventive measures and promotion of emotional well-being. The authors, from a range of professional disciplines, emphasise the importance of early intervention and prevention, exploring in particular how initiatives in parenting and education can promote children's emotional well-being. The topics they cover include:

* the prevention and management of addiction and eating disorders

* the development of culturally sensitive services for ethnic minority children and families

* the impact of parenting programmes and the life skills education programmes in schools

* ways of meeting the mental health needs of children who are socially excluded, homeless or in local authority care.

Providing examples of a broad range of projects and initiatives in Britain and other European countries, this handbook will be an invaluable resource for all professionals working in child and adolescent mental health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843101536
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd
Publication date:	07/15/2004
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Kedar Nath Dwivedi is a Consultant in child, adolescent and family psychiatry in Northampton, Honorary Clinical Teacher in the University of Leicester and Honorary Director of the International Institute of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. He has edited Group Work with Children and Adolescents and Meeting the Needs of Ethnic Minority Children, both published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Peter Brinley Harper is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working in the Child Health Directorate of the Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. He is a member of the Board of Examiners of the Oxford Doctoral Training Course in Clinical Psychology and has lectured on the newly established MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at University College Northampton.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Caroline Lindsey. 1. Introduction. Kedar Dwivedi, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Peter Harper, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. 2. The developmental perspective. Ezra Loh and Jillian Wragg, The Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Trust. 3. Attachment theory and mental health. Dawn Bailham, Clinical Psychologist and Peter Harper. 4. Emotion regulation and mental health. Kedar Dwivedi. 5. Attention and mental health. Rajeev Banhatti, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. 6. Addiction as a mark of adulthood: The enduring fascination of drugs and alcohol among adolescents. Allan Guggenbühl, Institute of Conflict Management and Mythodrama, Zürich. 7. Parenting. Annie Waldsax, Member of the Institute of Transactional Analysis. 8. Life skills education through schools. Judith Coley, Educational Consultant and Kedar Dwivedi. 9. Prevention of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents. Claire Hayes, National University of Ireland. 10. Prevention of eating disorders. Anne Stewart, Consultant Adolescent Psychiatrist. 11. Promotion of prosocial development and prevention of conduct disorders. Kedar Dwivedi and Sachin Sankar, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. 12. Prevention of mental health problems in socially excluded children and young people: a model for mental health service provision. Jane Callaghan, Research Associate, University of Leicester and Panos Vostanis, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Leicester. 13. Developing culturally sensitive services to meet the mental health needs of ethnic minority families. Peter Harper and Radha Dwivedi. 14. Ethnic minority children and families and mental health: preventative approaches. Philip Messent, London Borough of Tower Hamlets. 15. The Mental Health Europe Projects and the Greek Perspective. G. Kolaitis and John Tsiantis, Department of Child Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School. References. Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘This handbook provides a guide to the main psychological processes affecting mental health…This comprehensive publication will be a valuable resource for all professionals working in the field of child and adolescent mental health.'

childRIGHT

‘Dwivedi (International Institute of Child and Adolescent Mental Health) and Harper (child psychology, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, UK) provide an overview of the key psychological processes affecting mental health and draw out implications for preventive measures and promotion of emotional well-being in children and adolescents. Contributors from a range of disciplines offer examples of projects and initiatives in the UK for preventing addiction and eating disorders, developing culturally sensitive services, and meeting the mental health needs of children in local authority care'.

Book News

‘This textbook should be of interest to students specializing in child mental health, as well as to a range of social care practitioners who are seeking to develop their understanding and practice.'

Care and Health Magazine

‘This book is well grounded in developmental and systematic theory, but it also includes examples of how such theories apply to real-life situations with practical examples of how mental health promotion strategies can be implemented in local communities'.

Children Now

‘I found this book very useful. The authors state in their preface that they aim to "provide practitioners with information and examples of services…for children, young people and their families". They have achieved their aim, while also creating a resource for those who simply wish to learn more about child and adolescent mental health.

The 15 chapters in this book provide detailed and well presented information about mental health problems affecting children… I found the chapter on attachment and attachment disorders particularly useful. It gives an outline of attachment theory and its main concepts, before providing sections on attachment disorders in preschool, school-age, and adolescent children…One of the things I like best about this book is its avowed rejection of an over-medicalized view of child mental health problems. Thus there is a chapter on socially excluded children, and the mental health risks they face…This book will enable some of us to envisage and lobby for such services where gaps in provision remain.'

Journal of Mental Health

‘This would be a good read for a multitude of professionals working within practice or academia, concerned with the health and well-being of children and adolescents. Policy documents and statistical evidence are referred to, which add to the depth and relevance of discussion. Conceptual frameworks of practice make it a sound resource tool for professionals working with potentially vulnerable children'.

British Journal of Social work. Vol 35: No4 June 2005

‘This book provides content that is well referenced, clear, logically laid out, easy to read, and applicable to children and care providers across social systems and cultural groups. Topics covered include: the prevention and management of anxiety and depression, addiction, and eating disorders; the development of culturally sensitive services for ethnic minority children and families, the impact of parenting programmes and the life skills education programmes in schools; and ways of meeting the mental health needs of children who are socially excluded, homeless or under the auspice of a local authority care system. The authors provide evidence not only to support their theoretical claims but also to dispel unexamined myths about children and adolescents. What is stunning is the authors' targeting of developmental age-sensitive and developmental age-specific strategies to foster the development of age appropriate behaviour of children, adolescents and their parents. Also stunning is the authors' poignant call for better top-down, ‘systemic positioning' of programmes for children as a primary way of assuring their continuity and success. The authors are to be commended, as well, for their effort to increase the power of an intervention initiative with children and their parents by integrating multicultural concepts into the initiative.

In summary, this guide for promoting a child's emotional competence can be of great value for anyone who cares about children and those who are responsible for improving the lot of children in society including parents, practitioners, politicians, faculty and students. I highly recommend the guide for upper division, undergraduate nursing and social work students mastering concepts in the discipline of paediatrics, education, and mental health.'

International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research

'This would be a good read for a multitude of professionals working within practice or academia, concerned with the health and well-being of children and adolescents. Policy documents and statistical evidence are referred to, which add to the depth and relevance of discussion. Conceptual frameworks of practice make it a sound resource tool for professionals working with potentially vulnerable children'.

British Journal of Social work. Vol 35: No4 June 2005