Mental Health Conditions in Young People: Prevalence, Shifts & Support – Ask the Expert recording

For this session we welcomed Professor Mina Fazel to share some of the latest insights into the prevalence of common mental health conditions in children & young people, highlighting some of the underlying risk factors and overlaying the impact of the pandemic.

Slides from the session

ACAMH Members can receive a CPD certificate, simply email and let us know the date and time that you watched the recording.

Mina is a highly respected Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Oxford; her research focuses on how to improve access to mental health interventions for children and adolescents. She has a particular interest in school-based mental health interventions and has been running the Oxwell School Survey since 2019, which aims to better understand what school pupils need and want.

About the event

The trends in children & young people’s mental health are concerning, with 1 in 6 young people having a probable mental health disorder, evidently there were significant challenges that existed pre-pandemic, which have been heightened over the last two years.

Schools play an integral role in supporting children & young people’s mental health, as an anchor institution in society they can identify, refer and support those at risk, whilst creating positive environments that encourage all children to learn and thrive.

As teachers, it is important to understand some of the shifts in the presentation of some of the common mental health conditions, in order to be able to look for the cues and clues that children and young people may present and to understand how they may be able to better support them at school.

Key Takeaways

Resources

Podcasts

The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 School Closures

Associate Professor Mina Fazel ‘Child refugee mental health needs’ – In Conversation

Filmed sessions

COVID & the impact on Mental Health of School Closures – CAMHS around the Campfire recording

Literature review of support tools for school staff to respond to CYP self‐harm – CAMHS around the Campfire recording

Open Access papers

COVID-19 partial school closures and mental health problems: A cross-sectional survey of 11,000 adolescents to determine those most at risk by Karen L. Mansfield, Danielle Newby, Emma Soneson, Nemanja Vaci, Christoph Jindra, Galit Geulayov, John Gallacher, & Mina Fazel

How did the mental health symptoms of children and adolescents change over early lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK? by Polly Waite, Samantha Pearcey, Adrienne Shum, Jasmine A. L. Raw, Praveetha Patalay, & Cathy Creswell

About the Speakers

Mina Fazel is a Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in the Department of Children’s Psychological Medicine at the Oxford Children’s Hospital. She has been working for two decades on how to improve mental health services for vulnerable and hard to reach populations which has led to an interest in school-based mental health services. She has worked with local CAMHS services to change how they interface with education. She also conducts the OxWell Student Survey which in 2021 had responses from over 30,000 students from 180 schools, guiding our understanding of what school-aged students say they want and need. Her other main interest is in improving access to evidence-based trauma therapies, especially for young people suffering from PTSD, having worked with refugee populations for many years. In her clinical work, she is part of a team helping children and young people with chronic health difficulties and pain.

Professor Barry Carpenter has been appointed to the ACAMH Board with special responsibility for disseminating our work to schools, teachers, and others involved in the education of children and young people. Barry is the UK’s first Chair of Mental Health in Education, at Oxford Brookes University

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barry has held the leadership positions of Headteacher, Principal, Academic Director, Chief Executive, Inspector of Schools and Director of the Centre for Special Education at Westminster College, Oxford. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Director of the Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project. Since completing that research, Barry has overseen the development of a national project developing online ‘Training materials for teachers of children with severe, profound and complex learning disabilities’ www.complexneeds.org.uk

Full bio on ACAMH Board page.

Coram Life Education is the leading provider of relationships, health, wellbeing, and drugs education to almost half a million children across the UK, delivered under the strapline ‘Helping Children Make Healthy Choices’. Trained Educators use evidence-based, interactive, creative methods and resources to stimulate curiosity and imagination amongst children in 1 in 10 English and Scottish primary schools (2,041 schools).

Our memorable life skills sessions are currently delivered as ‘Life Base’ in school or as ‘SCARF Live Online‘ sessions via Zoom. Coram Life Education takes a three strand approach addressing children’s knowledge, skills and attitudes, and programmes are aligned with the National Curriculum (Citizenship, PSHE Education), covering all Key Stages. Coram Life Education helps schools meet their statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education, children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, and Ofsted inspection criteria for personal development, behaviour and welfare. Coram Life Education’s programmes are also aligned with Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. Recognising the role of the community and home life in influencing children’s choices, we design our programme with schools and deliver special sessions and assemblies for parents and carers to amplify our effectiveness.