The Bridge, ACAMH’s Magazine, shares the latest clinically relevant child and adolescent mental health research, best practice, and policy. We publish accessible, interesting, and useful articles to inform our readers’ work with young people, bridging the gap between expert evidence and current practice.
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Editor's Welcome
Welcome to Bridge 2021 New Issue 1: Relaunch
The Bridge is back with a new format and features, introduced by our Editor, Stephanie J Lewis. -
Expert Perspectives
Genetics research informing mental health care
Anita Thapar discusses that genetic studies of mental health have revealed important insights about the influence of genes and the environment, and the nature of disorders.Are ACE scores useful for identifying individuals at risk of health problems?
Clinics are increasingly screening for ACEs, but ACE scores may not tell us who will go on to develop poor health, explain Jessie R Baldwin and Andrea Danese.Complex PTSD in young people in care
Aishat Hamzat, Rachel M Hiller and Helen Minnis discuss what research tells us about the mechanisms underlying complex PTSD symptoms experienced by young people in care. -
Young Insights
Conflating risk and mental illness
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. -
Research Digests
Do autistic girls have better communication and interaction skills than autistic boys?
Do autistic girls talk differently about social groups?
What role does genetic risk play in shaping the developmental patterns of depressive symptoms?
Which perinatal exposures confer a risk of offspring depression?
What are the characteristics of arguments that precede youth suicide?
How effective are tools to help school staff better respond to young people who self-harm?
Summaries of clinically relevant research recently published in JCPP, JCPP Advances, CAMH, and other journals, written by Jessica K Edwards.
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Policy Reviews
Engaging with UK Parliament on child and adolescent mental health research and policy
Researchers and expert practitioners can contribute to parliamentary work to inform policy-making. Sarah Bunn and Stephanie J Lewis describe why engaging with Parliament is important and explain how this can be done.Mental Health Act White Paper: potential implications for children and young people
Reforms to the Mental Health Act will affect children and young people detained in hospitals. Susan Walker, Bernadka Dubicka, and David Kingsley discuss recent proposals for reform and consider their implications for children and young people.
2021 New Issue 1
About the author
Dr Stephanie J Lewis is Clinical Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. Steph is keen to promote the translation of research and expert evidence into clinical practice to improve mental healthcare for young people, so is delighted and proud to be Editor of the Bridge.