Child Mental Health

I worked in CAMHS in the 90's as well TriciaF. I was part of a diverse and dedicated team of nurses, psychiatrists and specialist practitioners. The psychiatrist who supervised my work specialised in what we called 'naughty boys' and he diagnosed as having ADHD or attachment difficulties.

I learned huge amount whilst working on the unit, not least how to engage resistant parents, how not to criticise loving parents who were struggling and also that some children are easier to parent than others. Our local unit is still effective. The grand children of close friends are both in treatment there. One for an anxiety disorder, the other for an eating disorder. Nope, they haven't been emotionally or otherwise abused. I suspect the anxiety disorder is party down to genetics and the eating disorder triggered in part by sharing life with a suicidal sibling.

I'm a fan of peer group support and worked with parenting groups as well as children's groups, both groups much more likely to engage with work towards change than they would have done if individual work had been the only thing on offer.

It's expensive to offer proper psycho type therapies but so is prison, adult mental health needs etc etc. We really should invest more in our children.