'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast

Latest Episodes:

430: Does debt increase suicide risk in teens? 'Mind the Kids' podcast Nov 04, 2026

Show notes

⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality in adolescents. Some listeners may find this content upsetting. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional or crisis service in your area.

Learn more at 'Understanding and Responding to Self-Harm: Latest Evidence and Clinical Practice'

Can debt and financial stress really affect a teenager's mental health? In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria — an academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry — sits down with researchers Nita de Neve-Enthoven and Susan Ravensbergen, PhD candidates in the Department of Psychiatry at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, to unpack their new study on debt, experienced financial scarcity, and their links to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality in adolescents at risk for psychopathology.

Drawing on data from the iBerry study — a landmark longitudinal cohort following over 1,000 adolescents for more than a decade — Nita and Susan reveal some striking findings: teens carrying debt were nearly twice as likely to report suicidality compared to their peers, yet debt showed no clear association with non-suicidal self-injury. Meanwhile, experienced financial scarcity (how young people subjectively feel about their financial situation) was linked to both NSSI and suicidality — even after controlling for household income.

The conversation explores:
- Why adolescent financial stress has been so understudied compared to adult populations
- How researchers partnered with Nibud (the Dutch National Institute for Family Finance Information) to measure both objective debt and subjective financial scarcity
- Why student loans — the most common type of debt in the study — still carried mental health risks, despite being socially "acceptable" debt
- The cost-of-living and youth unemployment pressures facing young people in the UK and the Netherlands today
- What these findings mean for clinicians, parents, and policymakers around financial literacy, debt prevention, and youth mental health screening
- Why simply asking "how are you doing financially?" could be a powerful, low-cost prevention tool

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Read the CAMH journal paper ‘Debts and experienced financial scarcity: associations with nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidality in adolescents at risk for psychopathology'
https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70065
Susan J. Ravensbergen, Nita G.M. de Neve-Enthoven, Diandra C. Bouter, Wilco W. van Dijk, Witte J.G. Hoogendijk, Nina H. Grootendorst-van Mil
First published: 22 January 2026

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#MindTheKids #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #YouthMentalHealth #SuicidePrevention #SelfHarmAwareness #FinancialWellbeing #MentalHealthResearch #ACAMH

429: Positive Memory Bias: How Teen Memory Shapes Mental Health - A 'Mind the Kids podcast Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

Why do mentally healthy teenagers tend to remember the good times more vividly than the bad — and what happens to that "positive memory bias" in young people at risk of depression, anxiety or PTSD?

In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria, academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry, University of Cambridge, talks with Alice Roe, a PhD candidate at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU), University of Cambridge.

They discuss Alice's new paper, 'Remembering the bad times: Autobiographical memory fluency, specificity, and fading affect bias in adolescents at clinical risk of affective disorder', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), which used a novel task called the Good Day-Bad Day task with 318 adolescents aged 16-18 to explore how memory shapes mental health risk.

In this conversation on autobiographical memory, adolescent mental health and cognitive risk markers for depression, anxiety and PTSD, Clara and Alice unpack:

What autobiographical memory actually is, and why it plays such a central role in identity, wellbeing and mental health during adolescence
The 'fading affect bias' — the well-documented tendency for positive memories to keep their emotional glow longer than negative ones — and why this may help protect our mental health
What the Good Day-Bad Day task involves, and why the researchers chose it over the traditional cued-word memory test
The key finding: teens at clinical risk of affective disorder didn't show more negative memories — they showed a reduced positive bias, recalling fewer good-day memories and holding onto more bad-day memories
Why the fading affect bias was still present but significantly weaker in the at-risk group, echoing prior findings in adults with depression
The surprising result that memory specificity — usually reduced in at-risk and clinical populations — showed no difference between groups in this community sample
What these findings could mean for future memory-based interventions, including whether positive memory recall can be trained or strengthened in therapeutic work
Why longitudinal research is needed to see whether these memory patterns can predict who goes on to develop a mental health problem

📄 Read the full paper: Roe, A., Gormley, S., Stephens, E., Mapleston, E., & Dalgleish, T. (2026). Remembering the bad times: Autobiographical memory fluency, specificity, and fading affect bias in adolescents at clinical risk of affective disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.70191

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#MindTheKids #ACAMH #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #AutobiographicalMemory #FadingAffectBias #MemorySpecificity #TeenMentalHealth #DepressionResearch #AnxietyResearch #PTSD #CognitivePsychology #JCPP #ChildPsychiatry #ClinicalPsychology

428: Adolescent Self-Diagnosis of Mental Health Issues: Clinicians' Perspectives - Mind the Kids podcast Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

What happens when young people diagnose their own mental health conditions? How are clinicians responding to a growing trend shaped by social media, online communities, and increasing mental health awareness?

In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Dr Clara Faria, Academic Clinical Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, speaks with Katie Cunningham-Rowe from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, about her qualitative study exploring clinicians' perspectives on adolescent self-diagnosis of mental health disorders.

Together they discuss the complex realities behind self-diagnosis in young people, including the influence of TikTok and online mental health communities, the role of identity formation during adolescence, and the potential benefits and risks of adopting diagnostic labels without formal assessment.

The conversation explores:

🔹 Why self-diagnosis has become increasingly common among adolescents
🔹 The impact of social media algorithms on mental health identities
🔹 How online communities can provide validation, belonging, and support
🔹 Concerns about misinformation and diagnostic accuracy
🔹 The relationship between self-diagnosis and help-seeking behaviour
🔹 Why clinicians view self-diagnosis as valuable therapeutic material
🔹 When diagnostic labels can become restrictive or central to identity
🔹 The importance of empathy, curiosity, and nuanced clinical practice
🔹 Future research on adolescent self-diagnosis and mental health care

Katie highlights that self-diagnosis is rarely a simple issue. While clinicians identified potential risks, they also recognised that young people often turn to diagnostic labels in an attempt to understand genuine distress, seek support, and make sense of their experiences.

This thoughtful discussion offers important insights for clinicians, researchers, educators, students, and anyone interested in adolescent mental health in the digital age.

📖 Read the paper:'Adolescent Self-Diagnosis of Mental Health Disorders: A Qualitative Study of Mental Health Clinicians' Perspectives'Katie Cunningham-Rowe, Lucy Foulkes
First published: 15 July 2026

Get a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW

#MindTheKids #MentalHealth #SelfDiagnosis #AdolescentMentalHealth #CAMHS #YouthMentalHealth #ChildPsychiatry #ClinicalPsychology #TikTokMentalHealth #MentalHealthResearch #ACAMH #KatieCunninghamRowe #ClaraFaria #PsychologyPodcast #ChildAndAdolescentMentalHealth

427: Weight Concerns: What 34,000 Teens Said - A 'Mind the Kids' podcast Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Why are so many teenagers worried about their weight — and why do so few know where to turn for support?

In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria, academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry, University of Cambridge, talks with Dr. Melissa Little, who recently completed her doctorate at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, and works clinically as a paediatric dietitian.

They discuss Dr. Little's new paper, 'Weight concern and desire for weight loss support in adolescents: Results from a large cross-sectional school survey', published in JCPP Advances, which analysed data from over 34,000 young people aged 11–18 taking part in the 2023 OxWell Student Survey.

In this conversation on adolescent mental health, body image and weight-related distress, Clara and Melissa unpack:
- Why 41% of adolescents report some level of weight concern — and why it isn't just girls: 1 in 4 boys are affected too
- Why gender-diverse young people have up to eight times higher odds of weight or shape concern than boys, according to the published findings
- Why weight concern doesn't reliably track with BMI — and what that means for who gets excluded from weight management services
- Why 1 in 3 young people want weight-related support, far beyond the capacity of current obesity and weight clinics
- The silos between mental health services and obesity/weight management services, and why disordered eating is too often used as an exclusion criterion rather than a reason to help
- How social media, the UK's under-16s social media ban, and "wild west" online weight-loss content are shaping teen body image
- Practical, non-stigmatising ways for parents, GPs, teachers and clinicians to talk about weight with young people — including why it's best to let them raise the topic first
- What anonymous, digital-first support (chat-based, app-based, or social-media-native) could look like for teens too ashamed to ask for help face-to-face

📄 Read the full paper: Little, M., Fazel, M., Jebb, S. A., Wane, S., OxWell Study Team, & Aveyard, P. (2026). Weight concern and desire for weight loss support in adolescents: Results from a large cross-sectional school survey. JCPP Advances, https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcv2.70124

Get a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW

#MindTheKids #ACAMH #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #WeightConcern #BodyImage #TeenMentalHealth #EatingDisorders #PaediatricObesity #YouthMentalHealth #OxWellSurvey #CAMHS #ChildPsychiatry #JCPPAdvances

426: Is language disorder linked to law breaking? - 'Mind the Kids' podcast Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

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Is developmental language disorder linked to law breaking?

In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour (Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (Professor of Psychology at the University of York) flip the format — Umar takes the guest seat to discuss his own new paper on developmental language disorder (DLD) and youth offending.

They dig into 'Developmental Language Disorder and Offending: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study with Linked Education and Crime Data', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, by Megan Frith, Hannah Hobson, Jo Hutchinson, Anna Leyland, Nathan Hughes and Umar Toseeb. The study used the ALSPAC birth cohort (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), linking childhood language assessments at ages 7-9 with school records and police crime data on offences committed between ages 13 and 29.

In this conversation on developmental language disorder, special educational needs, school exclusion and the youth justice system, Jane and Umar unpack:
- What developmental language disorder (DLD) actually is — a "hidden disability" affecting 7-9% of children (roughly two per classroom) — and how it differs from normal language delay or being a "late talker"
- Why DLD is diagnosed in the absence of autism, sensory impairment or physical causes, and how it overlaps with (but isn't the same as) social communication difficulties
- The headline finding: young people with DLD are significantly more likely (74% higher odds) to have a recorded offence — arrested, cautioned or charged — than those without DLD
- Why school suspension is a key mediator linking DLD to offending, supporting a "school-to-prison pipeline" hypothesis
- Why being formally identified with special educational needs (SEN) at school did not reduce the risk of offending
- Why DLD did not affect how young people were treated once in the justice system — no difference in caution vs. charge, or in reoffending rates
- The idea that "behaviour is communication" — how unrecognised language difficulties in the classroom can be misread as defiance, disengagement or bad behaviour
- Why awareness of DLD lags far behind autism, ADHD and dyslexia, and what that means for police, teachers, and the "appropriate adult" safeguarding system
- Practical implications for schools considering suspension as a response to persistent disruptive behaviour

📄 Read the full paper: Frith, M. L., Hobson, H., Hutchinson, J., Leyland, A. F., Hughes, N., & Toseeb, U. (2026). Developmental Language Disorder and Offending: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study with Linked Education and Crime Data. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.70182

#MindTheKids #ACAMH #DLD #DevelopmentalLanguageDisorder #SEN #SpecialEducationalNeeds #SchoolExclusion #YouthJustice #YouthOffending #SpeechAndLanguageTherapy #ChildPsychology #EducationalPsychology #JCPP #ALSPAC #SchoolToPrisonPipeline

425: Rates of Anxiety: Is It Time to Press the Panic Button? 'Mind the Kids' podcast Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

📅 Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton is hosting an ACAMH webinar, 'Helping Anxious Parents Raise Confident Children: Preventing the Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety', on 17 November 2026 at 2pm UK time.

📷 Follow Fearless Labs on Instagram for practical, evidence-based tips for parents and professionals: @fearless.labs

In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour (Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (Professor of Psychology at the University of York) sift through the data, dilemmas and debates around childhood anxiety disorders — before bringing in special guest Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sussex and Director of Fearless Labs.

Drawing on Tamsin Ford's influential editorial, 'Why I am now convinced that emotional disorders are increasingly common among young people in many countries', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jane and Umar open by questioning society's mixed messaging around anxiety, before Sam joins to unpack the evidence on prevention, parenting and treatment.

In this conversation on childhood anxiety, parenting and prevention, mental health literacy, and digital interventions, the trio unpack:
- Why distinguishing "I'm anxious about this" from "I have an anxiety disorder" matters — and why avoidance, not anxiety itself, is often the real problem
- The latest UK prevalence data: around 3.9% of 5-10 year-olds and 13.1% of 17-19 year-olds have a diagnosable anxiety disorder, according to the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey
- Why it's genuinely difficult to know if anxiety disorders are truly increasing, given changing questionnaires and growing openness about mental health — and the "dark side" of destigmatisation flagged by researcher Lucy Foulkes
- Why anxiety is an adaptive personality trait that evolution needed — and what determines whether it tips over into a disorder
- Sam's "Three L's" framework for parents: Love, Limits, and Little -Pushes — and why good behaviour management matters just as much for anxious kids as for behaviourally-challenged ones
- Why universal, whole-classroom anxiety and mindfulness programmes (including findings from the MYRIAD trial) show weak or even harmful effects — and why targeted, opt-in approaches may work better
- How the school environment itself — nutrition, exercise, relationships — functions as a passive mental health intervention
- Evidence from a randomised controlled trial of over 1,800 families showing that a scalable, unsupported digital parenting course, Parenting with Anxiety, produced real reductions in child anxiety symptoms with no reported harms
- Why an app being popular or "feeling helpful" doesn't mean it's evidence-based — and why unregulated mental health apps could do more harm than good

#MindTheKids #ACAMH #ChildAnxiety #AnxietyDisorder #ParentingSupport #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #DigitalMentalHealth #FromTimidToTiger #FearlessLabs #EvidenceBasedParenting #ChildPsychology #JCPP #MentalHealthAwareness

424: Parenting Intervention: Finding the Goldilocks Zone. A 'Mind the Kids' podcast Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

This episode of the Mind the Kids podcast is called "Parenting Intervention: Finding the Goldilocks Zone." Hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour, honorary consultant clinical psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb, Professor of Psychology at the University of York specialising in children and young people's mental health and special educational needs, are joined by a trio of experts: Julia Ruggiero, advanced PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon, Dr. Xiaolan Liao from the University of Oklahoma, and Professor Elizabeth Skowron from Penn State University.

The guests are co-authors of "Effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Dosage on Child and Parent Outcomes: Differentiating Child-Directed Interaction and Parent-Directed Interaction Session Impacts in Child Welfare-Involved Families," published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP). Drawing on a sample of 204 child welfare-involved families, the study examines how the dosage of the two phases of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) — child-directed interaction (CDI), which builds warmth and relationship quality, and parent-directed interaction (PDI), which teaches safe, effective discipline and limit-setting — shapes parenting skills and child behaviour outcomes.

The conversation explores:
- What Parent-Child Interaction Therapy actually looks like in the room, including the therapist "in the parent's ear" coaching model
- Why the relationship-building CDI phase and the limit-setting PDI phase teach parents distinct skills, and how the two phases interact with each other
- The evidence base for PCIT with child welfare-involved families, including striking three-year re-abuse rates and cost-effectiveness data
- Why the study's key finding — that dosage in one phase interacts with dosage in the other — challenges the assumption that "more sessions" always means "better outcomes"
- Barriers to engagement facing families experiencing deprivation, and practical strategies (transport, childcare, food, community-based delivery) that improve treatment completion
- How the core principles of PCIT, connection before correction, might translate differently across developmental stages, from preschoolers to teenagers
- Why caution is needed before drawing strong causal conclusions from dose-response data that wasn't itself randomised

This episode is essential listening for clinical psychologists, child welfare practitioners, family therapists, researchers, and policymakers interested in evidence-based parenting interventions, child welfare services, and how treatment dosage and sequencing affect outcomes for vulnerable families.

📄 Read the full paper, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry: 'Effects of parent–child interaction therapy dosage on child and parent outcomes: differentiating child-directed interaction and parent-directed interaction session impacts in child welfare-involved families'
Xiaolan Liao, Julia P. Ruggiero, David E. Bard, Adon F. G. Rosen, Elizabeth A. Skowron
First published: 03 February 2026 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70106

Mind the Kids is brought to you by ACAMH (Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health), translating the latest child and adolescent mental health research into evidence-based conversation.

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#MindTheKids #ParentChildInteractionTherapy #PCIT #ChildWelfare #EvidenceBasedParenting #ChildMentalHealth #ParentingSupport #ACAMH #MentalHealthResearch

423: Problem eating in a community sample, the thin end of a wedge. A 'Mind The Kids' Podcast Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

This episode of the Mind the Kids podcast is called "Problem Eating in a Community Sample: The Thin End of a Wedge." Hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour, honorary consultant clinical psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb, Professor of Psychology at the University of York specialising in children and young people's mental health and special educational needs, are joined by Dr. Clara Faria from the University of Cambridge to discuss eating difficulties and eating disorders in young people.

Dr. Faria is the lead author of "The Prevalence of Eating Difficulties in Children and Young People in England: A Large, Cross-Sectional School Survey," published in JCPP Advances, one of ACAMH's journals. Drawing on 2023 data from the OxWell Student Survey — a large school-based survey led by Professor Mina Fazel — the study found that eating difficulties are common among secondary school students, with a weighted prevalence of 62.5% reporting at least one type of eating difficulty. Using the DAWBA screening items, the most endorsed difficulty was believing you were fat when others said you were thin (47.3%), while the least endorsed, but still striking, was self-induced vomiting (17.7%).

The conversation explores:
- The difference between disordered eating, problem eating, and clinically diagnosable eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder), OSFED, and binge eating disorder
- What the evidence says about the transition from disordered eating to a diagnosable eating disorder, including longitudinal and twin-study findings on body dissatisfaction and gender differences in risk
- Whether eating disorders sit within an internalising or externalising framework, and why binge eating disorder may not fit neatly into either
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on eating difficulties, body image, and screen time among young people
- What schools and clinicians can learn from family-based treatment and non-judgmental approaches such as the Body Project when supporting young people with problematic eating

This episode is essential listening for child and adolescent psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, researchers, educators, and school staff interested in youth mental health, eating disorders, body image, and evidence-based approaches to supporting young people with problem eating.

📄 Read the full paper, published in JCPP Advances: The prevalence of eating difficulties in children and young people in England: A large, cross-sectional school survey
Clara Faria, The OxWell Study Team, Mina Fazel, Emma Soneson, Tamsin J. Ford, Simon White
https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.70111

Get a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW

#MindTheKids #EatingDisorders #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #BodyImage #YouthMentalHealth #EatingDisorderAwareness #ACAMH #MentalHealthResearch

422: Diagnosed; The Teenage Brain Experience. An 'Inside the Teen Brain' podcast Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Watch the interview on ACAMH Learn at https://bit.ly/Diagnosed-Experience and get a free CPD/CME certificate by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW

In this episode of Inside the Teen Brain, Dr. Jane Gilmour speaks with Rayne Huggins about the experience of being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Drawing on personal lived experience, Rayne reflects on what a diagnosis can mean for a young person and explores the pros and cons of receiving one. Together, they consider how a diagnosis can shape not only how a person understands themselves, but also their sense of identity and connection to a wider community. Honest and thought-provoking, the conversation offers a valuable first-hand perspective on living with Tourette syndrome and what diagnosis can come to represent.

Learning Objectives
A. To understand what it means to be diagnosed with tourette syndrome.
B. To explore pros and cons of attaining a diagnosis of tourette syndrome.
C. To explore how this may shape identity and community

Get a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW

421: Poverty, Policy, and Politics. A Mind the Kids podcast Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

How does research actually change government policy? In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr Jane Gilmour (UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (University of York) sit down with Baroness Ruth Lister — Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University, Fellow of the British Academy, and a Labour peer in the House of Lords — to unpack how evidence, political will and public appetite combine (or collide) to shape social policy for children living in poverty.

This conversation goes behind the headlines of the UK's child poverty strategy, including the abolition of the two-child benefit limit from April 2026 — a change expected to be the single biggest reduction in child poverty any UK government has delivered at a stroke, after CPAG research linked the policy to roughly 109 children entering poverty every day.

In this episode we cover:
– How the House of Lords scrutinises legislation, and Baroness Lister's role as a backbench "critical friend"
– Why politicians cherry-pick evidence — and when evidence gets overridden by ideology or public appetite
– The real story behind scrapping the two-child benefit limit, and why the benefit cap remains in place despite similar evidence of harm
– Why UK child poverty sits at 27% (down from around 30% following a measurement change) and what's really driving it — frozen benefits, insecure work, and rising housing costs
– The civil service vs. ministers vs. MPs: who academics should really be talking to for policy impact
– Why "child poverty," not "family poverty," was the deliberately chosen framing that built public support
– The power of lived experience in policymaking, including the Changing Realities project and the Timms PIP review
– Interpersonal relationships and community interventions as a positive, low-cost buffer against the harms of poverty
– Why child poverty is a mental health issue — and how squeezed welfare budgets often resurface as pressure on CAMHS and schools

Whether you're a researcher trying to translate evidence into real-world impact, a clinician working with families affected by poverty, or simply want to understand how policy really gets made in Westminster, this episode is essential listening.

Mind the Kids is brought to you by ACAMH (Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health), translating the latest child and adolescent mental health research into evidence-based conversation.

🔔 Subscribe for more conversations on child development, social policy, and the evidence shaping child and adolescent mental health.

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