Linkage of routinely collected data from public services has the potential to improve how local health, education and social care are delivered to children. All mental health services, hospital-based child health services, schools and child protection services which serve the same local area could be more efficient if the design, monitoring, targeting and integration of services were based on data. Health services need evidence from the populations that they serve to plan care and know whether they are meeting children's needs, duplicating effort or allowing some children to fall through the net. In this paper, we describe how the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) programme has joined up data from health, education and social services for children living in four local authorities in South London to create two datasets: one linking hospital to children's mental health services and the second linking mental health data to education data. We describe these resources, give examples of how they are being used to improve services and discuss what is needed to implement this approach more widely across the UK. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
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The intriguing evolution of health policy in recent years has implications for all parts of the health system. With the UK falling behind most high-income countries on many measures of child health1 and growing evidence of a worrying health gap between UK children in deprived and affluent areas,2 paediatricians and others working in child health will want to remain abreast of the broader policy backdrop even where child health has not been privileged in policymaking. While the 2012 Health and Social Care Act reinforced the fragmentation of the service through multiple providers in competition with one another, subsequent policy promises local collaboration and joint working. This article traces this evolution and asks what it means.
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The publication includes advice on: encouraging a healthy pregnancy; the importance of newborn screening and vaccination; encouraging secure attachment; promoting breastfeeding; improving maternal mental health; healthy child programme; health and development reviews
Young people in Rochdale can now get easier access to health advice thanks to a new text-messaging service.
Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale (HMR) School Nursing Service, part of Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, will be launching the ChatHealth service for young people aged 11 to 19 years on 23 May.
Those who attend school in Heywood, Middleton or Rochdale, or live in the borough, can access the service by texting their concern or question to 07507330382.
ChatHealth is an award-winning initiative, developed by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which is available Monday to Friday from 9am to 4:30pm, throughout the year excluding bank holidays.
This Commons Library briefing discusses the debate around raising the age of criminal responsibility - the age below which a child is deemed not to have the capacity to commit a crime.
Here is one landmark publication that every paediatrician must have read: the Nuffield Trust's briefing on new models of care for child health.1 The Nuffield Trust has a long track record of commissioning research on how to improve the health system in the UK. The document lists current dilemmas in delivering paediatric care, makes the case for a fundamental change in how this is delivered and critically appraises 12 novel models of paediatric care. As a community of paediatricians we need to respond to the challenge..........To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Hallucinations (erroneous percepts in the absence of identifiable stimuli) are a key feature of psychotic states, but they have long been known to present in children with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders. Recent epidemiological studies of child populations found surprisingly high rates (about 10%) of hallucinatory experiences. These hallucinatory phenomena are most likely to occur in the absence of psychiatric disorder and are usually simpler, less elaborate and less distressing than those observed in children with psychiatric disorders. This article details the clinical assessment of hallucinations in children and adolescents, taking into account developmental considerations and paediatric organic associations. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
On Tuesday 15 November, the Communications Committee inquiry into children and the internet examines issues surrounding mental health, as well as the suitability of material online. The Committee puts questions to mental health experts, as well as content monitoring bodies the Advertising Standards Agency and the British Board of Film Classification.
Feeding and eating disorders (FEDs) are serious mental health disorders that cause impairments in physical health, development, cognition and psychosocial function and can go undetected for months or years. They are characterised by disturbed eating behaviour associated with concerns about weight and shape or by disinterest in food, phobic avoidance or avoidance due to sensory aspects of food. Restrictive forms of FEDs lead to significant weight loss requiring intervention. Without specific knowledge of these conditions, they can evade detection, delaying time to diagnosis and treatment and potentially influencing outcome. This review article focuses on the key factors involved in the psychiatric assessment and treatment of four feeding or eating disorders (EDs): anorexia nervosa, avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Stefan Brugger on a recent study that looks at the role of vulnerability & resilience in relation to mental health & bullying in childhood #AntiBullyingWeek
Open access. The population of mixed ethnicity individuals in the UK is growing. Despite this demographic trend, little is known about mixed ethnicity children and their problem behaviours. We examine trajectories of behavioural problems among non-mixed and mixed ethnicity children from early to middle childhood using nationally representative cohort data in the UK.
The article reports on the response of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy to proposals set out by the government for improving healthcare for children and young people in England in a Green Paper that focuses on mental healthcare in schools and colleges.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
The Education Committee's report on the mental health and well-being of looked-after children notes that a significant number of local authorities and health services are failing to identify mental health issues when children enter care.
Parents are more likely to use mobile technology to calm children with behaviour difficulties, a new study In the Journal of the American Medical Association for Paediatrics has shown.
Children with social and emotional difficulties are more likely to be given mobile devices, such as iPads, to calm them down, according to the study of 144 children aged 15 to 36 months in low-income families. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details