Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network
February 2010 Newsletter
SPN STUDY DAYS
FORTHCOMING STUDY DAYS
THINK FAMILY? NEW MODELS OF PRACTICE STUDY DAY 30 APRIL 2010 IN BIRMINGHAM
The next SPN study day will consider Thinking Family in troubled times. In the context of SCIE’s Think child, think parent, think family guidelines, the DCSF Think Family guidance and toolkit, and politicians’ desires to be the champion of ‘families’, what does this really mean and how do practitioners across the disciplines and service users and carers make sense of family-focussed practice?
We are looking for people who feel impassioned about mental health to get involved in shaping the event by being part of a virtual planning group and / or contributing to the day. If this might be you please contact Vicky Nicholls with your ideas. For more details of the event and to book a place click here
PREVIOUS STUDY DAYS
LIVING WITH PERSONALITY DISORDERS – HOW CAN WE SUPPORT BETTER PARENTING? NOVEMBER 2009
The full report from this thought provoking and interactive study day in London and the one that preceded it in Leeds (March 2009) will soon be available online www.pmhcwn.org.uk This will include write-ups of the inspirational sessions run by women and men from around the country who have survived the traumatic experiences in childhood that often lie behind diagnoses of personality disorders, and gone on to find creative pathways to better living. Personal details have been removed wherever requested to avoid identification of stories.
PUBLIC POLICY, CONSULTATIONS AND GUIDANCE DCSF
GOVERNMENT’S FULL RESPONSE TO INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF CAMHS (CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES) REPORT CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN MIND’ - PUBLISHED 7TH JAN 2010
In January the government finally published its full response to the CAMHS Review, an independent review which it commissioned in 2007. The Review represented an opportunity to look at how services were meeting the education, health and social needs of children and young people at risk of, and experiencing, mental health problems, and to see how universal and specialist services might be improved for children and young people with mental health needs and their families.
The Review’s final report Children and Young People in Mind was published in October 2008. It found that local services have made significant progress in recent years, but that more needed to be done to improve the consistency, accessibility and suitability of services. The Review contained 20 recommendations for Government.
Its comments included that not all problems are the responsibility of children’s services and that: ‘there is also continuing stigma surrounding mental health, and a negative attitude towards some children and young people that reduces the likelihood of all our children and young people having strong mental health and psychological well-being’ (Children and Young People in Mind, 2008, p9). The PMHCW Network welcomed the findings of the Review and the subsequent establishment of the independent National Advisory Council for children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, with its role of holding the government to account for its role in progressing the Review’s recommendations.
The Government’s response, imaginatively titled Keeping Children and Young People in Mind, has received a mixed reception. It runs through the different services with which children and young people might have contact, from universal services such as GPs and schools, through in principal universal services such as Children’s Centres, through to specialist services including CAMHS, and provides a ‘reassertion of existing DH and DCSF expectations and a clarification of what good services already deliver’. The supporting slide set offers a helpful summary of the response including a visual map of governance and inter-service relationships relating to supporting children and young people, on which children’s services are expected to build their 2010-11 workplans.
Included in the response is reference to the Government’s support for improved mental health services via the impending deadline for all Trusts to provide age-appropriate accommodation for young people needing specialist mental health support, which is a vitally important development but which came about via sustained campaigning by people dedicated to the rights and needs of children and young people under 18 for inclusion under the 2007 Mental Health Act.
Other organisations have voiced dismay at the timing and scope of the response, and it was disappointing to see a lack of new ideas or funding to take forward the Review’s recommendations, most of the many initiatives referred to in the response being existing programmes such as Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) which only runs until April 2011.
The summary document and full response can be viewed here.
VIEWS OF THE CAMHS RESPONSE FROM THE SECTOR
Organisations in the children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing sector were underwhelmed by the government’s response.
As reported in Children and Young People Now magazine, Young Minds expressed its concern over how long it had taken the government to produce its response and also said that the response contained nothing new but merely flagged up existing projects. The charity also criticised the lack of long-term vision. Sarah Brennan, Chief Executive of the charity said "These projects (TaMHS) are short-term. With funding ending in March 2011 and without a commitment from government to ensure their continuation, services are at risk of going backward."
Natasha Finlayson, Chief Executive of the Who Cares? Trust, called for specialist looked-after children professionals to be included in all child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) teams. She was quoted as saying, "We need specialist CAMHS teams with an in-depth understanding of the needs of children in care to develop a quicker, more responsive service, one that looks beyond obvious psychiatric symptoms to address the gnawing low self-esteem that saps the potential of so many young people in care.”
This recommendation was criticised as ‘utter folly’ by a child psychologist with experience of living in care in a letter to Children and Young People. Such intervention, he argued would help “stigmatise looked-after children so much more. The weight of negative labelling by mental health services has already been a disaster.”
SPN’s view is that the stigma and discrimination faced by children going into care is not to be underestimated but the recommendation to have more specialist CAMHS teams is one that reflects a desire for those children who are traumatised to have access to the sort of longer-term and reliable support that would strengthen them to face future transitions.
JAN 2010 PROMOTING THE EMOTIONAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE: GUIDANCE FOR CHILDREN'S TRUSTS PARTNERSHIPS, INCLUDING HOW TO DELIVER NI50
The guidance contains a detailed service specification (using evidence-based approaches) that sets out the core support and services for children, young people and families, representing a comprehensive, strategic approach to promoting emotional health.
SUPPORT FOR ALL – THE FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS GREEN PAPER
Launched on Wednesday 20 January 2010 and closing on Wednesday 21 April 2010 this Green Paper sets out a wide range of measures to support all families as they bring up their children and to help families cope with times of stress and difficulty.
The paper includes proposals to help prevent the breakdown of families, support the role of fathers and grandparents and introduce flexible working for parents.
The Green Paper has a specific section “More help for families who need it most”. The consultation asks 6 key questions and a series of consultation event is also planned.
Further information about this consultation can be found here
RESPONSES FROM THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES SECTOR TO SUPPORT FOR ALL;
In its response, the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) emphasised the importance of families being actively involved in the design, implementation and delivery of services offered to them. FPI’s Chief Executive Dr Katherine Rake, also said: "Services need to demonstrate they are thinking about a range of family members including mothers, fathers, carers, grandparents, siblings, pregnant women, babies, children, teenagers and young people.”
For statement and FPI’s briefing on the Green Paper visit here
Home- Start, a voluntary organisation which supports families in local communities welcomed the fact that the Green Paper addresses how to make it more acceptable for parents to seek help for their families. Home-Start’s response also emphasised the importance for families of support being non-stigmatising, the need for services to be joined-up and the crucial importance of early intervention.
NEW RESEARCH, REPORTS AND PUBLICATIONS
MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION EVALUATION OF CAPA APPROACH IN CAMHS
