'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast

Latest Episodes:

4: Cultural Differences in Tics and Tic Disorders - ‘In Conversation Tourettes Syndrome’ Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20929
We are delighted to bring you the fourth podcast in our series that focuses on Tourettes Syndrome. Dr. Seonaid Andersonwill be talking to leading players in the field, rising stars of research, clinicians, and experts by experience. In this podcast we speak to Dr. Tara Murphy, Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychologist and Clinical Psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Dr. Murphy currently co-leads the Tic Disorder Service and Paediatric Neuropsychology Service.
The focus of this podcast is on cultural differences in tics and tic disorders.
Tara begins by providing an overview of what tic disorders and Tourette’s syndrome are, before exploring the gender bias of Tourette’s syndrome and what other co-morbidities or co-occurring conditions can occur alongside it.
With a number of misunderstandings existing about this condition, Tara comments on the issue of swearing and Tourette’s syndrome, and discusses research into self-harm and suicidality in the Tourette’s syndrome community.
Tara then explores whether there are differences between cultures or countries in terms of the expression of Tourette’s syndrome and shares why she is interested in researching tics and Tourette’s syndrome in different cultures or countries.
Tara also comments on a recent paper entitled “Why Don’t Children in Uganda Have Tics? A mixed-methods study of beliefs, knowledge and attitudes of health professionals”. She then discusses why Tourette’s syndrome may be just as prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa or in certain communities but access to services and health care may make it appear under-represented.
Furthermore, Tara explores what we might be able to learn from countries or communities where tic impact seems low, what the importance is of the awareness and acceptance of tics in the community, as well as the impact of social factors.

Cultural Adaptations to Psychosocial Interventions for Refugee Families Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20871
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Alice Taylor, a clinical psychologist for CAMHS in Scotland, to discuss her co-authored CAMH review paper “Cultural adaptations to psychosocial interventions for families with refugee/asylum-seeker status in the United Kingdom – a systematic review” (doi.org/10.1111/camh.12547).
Alice begins by giving us with a brief overview of the paper and sharing insight into what they looked at in this review.
Alice provides some examples of cultural adaptations and explains how these differ from nonculturally adapted interventions, which are also known as treatment as usual.
Alice then explores this further by discussing the ways in which treatment as usual can act as a barrier to accessing quality mental health care for families with refugee and/or asylum-seeking status, before turning to explain how cultural adaptions could improve the situation.
Furthermore, Alice shares additional key takeaways from her review, comments on what the implications of her findings are for CAMH professionals, plus shares her message to policymakers based on her research.

Machine Learning: Predicting Early Outcomes of Antidepressants in Children Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20847
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Paul Croarkin of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota, and Dr. Arjun Athreya of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the same institution.
The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper ‘Evidence for machine learning guided early prediction of acute outcomes in the treatment of depressed children and adolescents with antidepressants’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13580).
Paul and Arjun set the scene by detailing what they looked at in this study, providing us with a summary of the paper, plus sharing insights into the methodology used for the research, before turning to the key findings.
In their paper, Paul and Arjun describe their work as representing a first step in establishing a symptom-based tool, and in this podcast, they detail what the next steps are, including how the tool could be used to measure a variety of other treatments. Paul and Arjun also comment on how this tool could be applied to extracting response trajectories to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Paul and Arjun then turn to the translational opportunities for their research, including how they envisage their research being translated and what the implications of their findings are for CAMH professionals.

Social Media Use in Adolescence: User Types and Mental Health Aug 23, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20792
In this podcast, we are joined by Lizzy Winstone, Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School, the University of Bristol.

The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP Advances paper ‘Adolescent social media user types and their mental health and well-being, results from a longitudinal survey of 13 to 14-year-olds in the United Kingdom’ (doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12071).
Lizzy sets the scene by detailing a summary of the paper and sharing insight into the methodology used for the research.
In previous studies, distinctions are made between active and passive social media. Lizzy explains why her paper suggests that this distinction may be too simplistic and comments on the four classes of social media users identified in her paper – high communicators, moderate communicators, broadcasters, and minimal users – including how each of these different groups behave.
Lizzy then highlights the key findings from the paper and provides further commentary on her finding that moderate social media screen time was beneficial to well-being, in comparison to no use at all.
Lizzy also discusses if there were any gender differences in her research, plus what the implications are of her findings overall for CAMH professionals.

Adventurous Play: A Prevention For Anxiety Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20778
For this podcast, in celebration of Playday (celebrated each year across the UK on the first Wednesday in August), we are joined by Professor Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology in the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Exeter. The focus of this podcast is on child mental health and the importance of adventurous play.
As Playday encourages families, communities, and organizations to consider how they can build better opportunities for all children to play, Helen sets the scene by giving a brief overview of why play is so critical for children and young people.
Helen talks to us about how the pandemic has affected children’s play, before turning to her research on adventurous play and why she sees adventurous play as an antidote to anxiety.
Helen also discusses her recently published data that shows a link between adventurous and outdoor play and children’s mental health, as well as explains why she suggests that adventurous play itself can mitigate the risk of anxiety and explores her hypothesis that adventurous play targets some of the specific cognitive behavioural factors associated with child anxiety.
Helen further comments on her research into parental attitudes, including what interventions and campaigns can help change parental attitudes to adventurous play for overinvolved or anxious parents, as well as discusses how avoidant children and inhibited children can be supported to become more adventurous.
Furthermore, Helen shares her message to educators, CAMH professionals, policymakers, and other stakeholders when it comes to facilitating children to play in ways that may better support their mental health.

Early Trauma and the Importance of Early Relationships Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20737
In this podcast, we are joined by Sally Hogg, Deputy CEO at the Parent Infant Foundation, to discuss early trauma and the importance of early relationships.
To set the scene, Sally starts by providing details about the 1001 days movement, which she coordinates, and details what it is about the first 1001 days of a child’s life that is so critical.
Sally discusses the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on mental and physical health and explores why we should be especially concerned about adversity that occurs early in a child’s life.
Sally talks about how early trauma impacts emotional, behavioural, cognitive, and social functioning, as well as tells us more about the importance of nurturing parent/infant relationships, and how its presence can help a child to be more resilient to negative events.
Sally then discusses how the relationship between babies and their parents can be strengthened, what her message is to CAMH professionals in terms of the role they can play, and her message to policymakers in terms of what they should be doing.
Furthermore, Sally shares her tips on how to reach those parents where there is disorganised attachment, who don’t access services, and how to signpost those families to services.

Transmission of Experiences of Racism, Anxiety, and Depression in Families Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20683
In this podcast we are joined by student researchers Hannah Abdalla, Malaika Okundi, and Carl Simela. All three have been working on TRADE, which stands for Transmission of experiences of Racism, Anxiety, and Depression in families. TRADE is a collaboration between researchers at the Center for Mental Health and King’s College London.
To set the scene, Hannah, Malaika and Carl provide insight into what TRADE is, how they gathered their data, and what the aims of the project were.
Hannah, Malaika, and Carl then share what drew them personally to this research project and why they think that there has been so little focus until now on the UK experience, in terms of the transmission of experiences of racism, anxiety, and depression in families.
Having met with parents and teenagers to talk through their experiences, during their research, Hannah, Malaika and Carl share their key findings, comment on what stood out to them, plus share what their expectations were when they started the project and whether these expectations were met.
Hannah, Malaika and Carl then discuss the importance of this research and what they have learned from the project, and from each other.
Furthermore, Hannah, Malaika and Carl share their advice to students embarking on their first research project, and comment on what makes them hopeful for the future.

How to Communicate With Children Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20650
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Rolland, a Harvard faculty member and author of The Art of Talking With Children, published by HarperCollins, to discuss how we communicate with children.
To set the scene, Rebecca begins by talking about what inspired the book, The Art of Talking With Children, and discusses in what ways she feels that digital media has impacted the way we communicate across and between generations, and also in particular its impact on the mental health of young people.
Rebecca touches upon the impact of the pandemic in terms of communication skills, before commenting on the importance of conversation, in particular daily conversation with kids, in supporting their deeper learning, to reduce conflict, to build their empathy, confidence, and creativity.
Rebecca talks about how to know if what we say to children is helpful, details what a quality conversation with children and young people looks like, and shares tips on how to adapt our conversations to help build empathy and confidence depending on a person’s developmental age.
Rebecca then discusses whether we should adapt our conversations depending on the role we play for a child, for example as a parent or as a teacher, and comments on how we can help children and young people to have quality conversations with their classmates and their teachers.
Furthermore, Rebecca shares her tips for CAMH professionals when conversing with children and recommends rituals and routines that help to bring quality conversations to everyday life.

Youth Substance Use and Co-occurring Mental Health Concerns Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20553
For this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Jillian Halladay, registered nurse, clinical epidemiologist, and winner of ACAMH’s Research Trainee of the Year Award 2021.
Jillian begins by commenting on what it meant to her to have received the ACAMH Research Trainee of the Year Award in 2021, before providing us with an insight into her research examining the co-occurrence of substance use in youth in general and in acute clinical settings.
As principal investigator with the CAMP study, which sought to determine the feasibility of administering a standardized mental health and substance use assessment amongst youth admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit, Jillian tells us more about the study, its findings, and whether she envisions the standardisation being rolled out.
Having published several papers on student mental health and substance use, Jillian also discusses the importance of schools and teachers on youth mental health and substance use, plus provides insight into what types of schools had high co-occurrence of mental health and drug use based on her research.
Jillian then comments on her involvement in the development, implementation, and evaluation of a mental health literacy program for post-secondary staff, faculty, and graduate teaching assistants called Professor Hippo-on-Campus, plus discusses other recent research projects that she has been involved in.
Furthermore, with Jillian’s clinical and research roles being grounded in identifying, contributing to, and utilizing the best available evidence to improve the lives of youth, Jillian discusses how to go about translating evidence-based research into practice to really make a difference to young people.

Supporting Child Refugees in Educational Settings Jun 24, 2022

Show notes

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20530
For this podcast, for Refugee Week, we are joined by Dr. Tina Rae, Consultant Educational and Child Psychologist and ACAMH Board Member.
The focus of this podcast is on child refugees and how best to support them within educational settings.
Tina talks to us about trauma and mental health as it relates to child and adolescent refugees and sets the scene by detailing what tends to happen in terms of initial entry into schooling, and education, when it comes to child and adolescent refugees.
Tina then discusses if schools do, or should, play a role in assessing and providing for the mental health needs of child and adolescent refugees and explores what more can be done to give staff training in this area.
Tina shares her advice and tips for teachers and teaching assistants who have pupils who are refugees, comments on what they can do to help these students settle into school life, plus talks about what other children at the school can do, or be encouraged to do, to help ease the process for their peers.
Furthermore, Tina also shares tips for educational psychologists who are working with children who are refugees and explores what we have learnt from the research in terms of need and best practice regarding the mental wellbeing of child and adolescent refugees within the context of educational settings.

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