About the session
There is a general reluctance to diagnose personality disorders during youth and the personality deviations are often considered to be reflective of the developmental stages they are in by most clinicians/professionals.
It would be of paramount importance to understand that the diagnosis of personality disorder should be the result of careful and if possible, longitudinal assessment. It brings with it a range of obligations for mental health professionals in terms of meeting the need of this population. On the other hand, late identification of these disorders prevents timely treatment and likely to have a potential negative impact on the prognosis.
This event will stimulate questions concerning the validity of the construct of personality disorders in adolescence and help bring together the current research and understanding pertaining to assessment and evidence-based management alongside exploring the long term impact and the appropriateness of using diagnostic labels in this population.
About the speakers
Dr. Mario Speranza – Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist – Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Versailles General Hospital, University of Paris Saclay, Versailles
Dr. Speranza is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. He is currently the head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Versailles General Hospital and Professor at the University of Paris Saclay. A major focus of his clinical and research activity is the study of emerging personality disorders in children and adolescents, especially borderline personality disorders, using a developmental framework. Dr Speranza has been especially interested in the development and disruption of emotion regulation, using both a quantitative and qualitative approach. He is a certified trainer in Mentalization Based Treatment for adolescents. A second thread of his research is concerned with the evaluation of the effectiveness of mental health organizations for severe mental disorders.
Dr. Jennie Eeles – Lead clinician – Urgent assessment and home treatment, DBT and Emotional regulation pathway – Hampshire CAMHS
Dr. Jennie Eeles has been working in CAMHS since 2001, specialising in working with young people who present with primary emotional dysregulation, who are suicidal and engage in self-harm. As such these young people are often considered as presenting with emerging personality disorder. Jennie’s work with this cohort of young people includes – DBT, Trauma focused DBT, EMDR and ACT. In 2021 Jennie completed a doctoral research project which focussed on the Adolescent and Practitioner experience of mindfulness as taught in DBT. Since 2021 Jennie has been developing and implementing an adaptation of DBT for young people in crisis and is currently applying for NIHR funding to establish the transferability of this intervention to other services.
Dr. Oliver White – Consultant Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Since 2011, Ollie has worked as a Consultant Child & Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist across two NHS Foundation Trusts (Southern Health and Oxford Health) in two distinct but related adolescent mental health services: inpatient work at Bluebird House Secure Forensic Adolescent Psychiatric Unit and community work with Community Forensic CAMHS. In 2018, he developed the Southwest (North) Community Forensic CAMHS Team, and he is the Clinical Lead for the service. Ollie’s clinical interests include psychosis, emerging personality disorder, offending behaviours, and safeguarding. Ollie has also held leadership positions within the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and NHS England. He has undertaken research in child maltreatment recurrence and adolescent secure forensic psychiatric inpatient provision.
