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Dear sarah
Today we launch a new resource to support the mental health of LGBTQI+ young people which includes advice and guidance around a range of topics which might impact on their mental health. The resource includes sign-posting to a range of support at a time when access to support and safe spaces may have been limited.
Our schools team have also updated our popular #SelfCareSummer booklets for primary and secondary aged children and young people so that they can be used all year round and ahead of the upcoming festive break. In addition, you can watch our recent seminar on A whole school and FE college approach to staff wellbeing and download the spring term mental health calendar from Mentally Healthy Schools. We also have Professor Paul Ramchandani's recent Transformation Seminar Can we make prevention in mental health really work? available for you to watch online.
Our colleagues over at the UK Trauma Council have released their latest Research Roundup and released new advice and resources to help support refugee and asylum seeking children who may have experienced trauma.
Other research from across the Centre includes a report on how policy and practice can better support relationships of care-experienced people and how young people with care-experience and their foster carers can make sense of fostering relationships.
To keep informed of new research, resources and learning opportunities as they are announced, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.
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LGBTQI+ mental health: a resource to support the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex young people
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Research has shown that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTQI+) young people are over two-and-a-half times more likely to have a mental health problem as those who identify as heterosexual. Being LGBTQI+ does not mean that a young people will have a mental health problem - the majority do not and many LGBTQI+ young people do not, and many feel they can cope with the ups and downs of everyday life. However, identifying as part of the LGBTQI+ community can lead to unique challenges in growing up and as an adult including fears about coming out, worries about being accepted by friends and family, and the impact of prejudice and discrimination.
Our new resource, LGBTQI+ mental health, explores some important topics in relation to being a member of the LGBTQI+ community. It provides advice for LGBTQI+ young people on where to go to get additional support for mental health problems should they arise.
This resource was created by Anna Freud Centre staff following a survey of and workshops with LGBTQI+ young people including Young Champions from the Anna Freud Centre. Our LGBTQI+, Anti-Racism and Accessibility Working Groups also reviewed the resource. You can view an infographic of this process here.
Download LGBTQI+ mental health
Share on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
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We've updated our self-care resources
for children and young people
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Following requests from schools and colleges, we have updated our popular #SelfCareSummer booklets to make them less seasonal so that they can be used throughout the year.
Our My self-care plan booklet is aimed at children in primary schools and includes updated activities designed to help them look after their mental health and wellbeing while enjoying themselves.
Our Creating a self-care plan booklet is aimed at young people in secondary schools and colleges to help them create their own self-care plan based on our popular self-care webpage which features over 92 strategies which young people have told us they have found helpful.
Both booklets also sign-post children, young people and their families to additional support if they need it.
Download My self-care plan (primary)
Download Creating a self-care plan (secondary)
View our self-care webpages
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Spring term mental health calendar
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Mentally Healthy Schools has created a mental health calendar for next term to help schools and colleges plan in activities ahead of time.
The calendar covers awareness days and themes throughout the 2022 spring term, including Children’s Mental Health Week, Safer Internet Day and secondary school offer day.
For each date, the calendar highlights key themes linked to the RSHE curriculum and other UK curricula; as well as suggested activities and free resources to help students and staff mark the dates and explore related mental health topics.
Download the calendar
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Watch our free 5 Steps seminar: a whole school and
FE college approach to supporting staff wellbeing
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This seminar was delivered on 23 rd November 2021. Chaired by Director of our Schools Division, Jaime Smith, we were joined by Roisin McEvoy, Head of Training and National Programmes at the Centre, Nick Tait, Programme Manager of our Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC), and Pardeep Anning, Assistant Headteacher and Inclusion Leader at Grovelands Primary School.
This seminar explores examples of good practice, as well as how to address, measure and monitor staff wellbeing. The panel also reflect on the importance of staff CPD and training.
For more information about the free 5 Steps Framework including access to previous seminar, please visit 5 steps. |
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Announcing a new free seminar series aspiring to
close the gap between research and practice
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The series will launch with ‘The tortoise and the hare: learning from both rapid response and ongoing research about the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mental health’ on 26th January (5:30 – 7pm) online.
Speakers joining forces in this seminar will present their recent findings on the impact of the pandemic on child and youth mental health drawn from diverse research approaches. We are delighted that speakers include Dr Ola Demkowicz from the University of Manchester, Dr Emma Ashworth from Liverpool John Moores University and Dr Rosie Mansfield from UCL.
A panel from outside the research community will discuss the implications of these findings for policy and practice.
Register now to join us
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Roundtable report: how can policy and practice do better in supporting relationships for care-experienced people?
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Children and adults who have spent time in the care system frequently experienced fragmented or inconsistent relationships but there is little policy work that has specifically focused on how to improve these experiences.
This new report summarises the findings of a collaborative roundtable event between UCL and Coram BAAF on developing and maintaining relationships for care-experienced people and children living in care. This roundtable was organised by Eva A Sprecher, a PhD student member of the Anna Freud Centre's Child Attachments and Psychological Therapies Research Unit, on a policy engagement and impact Fellowship awarded by UCL. The roundtable was held in July 2021 and brought together the voices of care-experienced people, academics, policy makers, and practitioners working in children’s social care.
This report summarises the findings of this discussion that sought to identify areas of strength and places for development in current provision for the relational needs of children in care and care-experienced people. The findings also highlight potential solutions to better support the relational lives of care-experienced people. This report has been submitted to the ongoing Independent review of children’s social care as part of its call for evidence and ideas.
“When we build policies in children’s social care, we want them to reflect what our ambitions are for a 30-, 50-, 70- or 90-year-old care-experienced person’s future.”
Read the roundtable report
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International MBT Congress
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Join us from 19th-20th January to explore the use of mentalisation-based treatment (MBT) in your work with children aged 5-12 who have experienced trauma stemming from physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. Discover techniques to help children internalise and externalise traumatic responses and work through themes including grief and loneliness.
This course is aimed at practitioners with basic knowledge of MBT work with children and families.
Learn more and book here.
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Watch Paul Ramchandani's Can we make prevention in mental health really work? Transformation Seminar
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The case for prevention and early intervention in mental health is well established and the potential benefits in health and economic terms are frequently stated. Yet, progress in the widespread implementation of effective prevention is slow and challenging.
In this talk Professor Paul Ramchandani discusses some of the hard truths and challenges we face if we are to make prevention a reality. Including, but going well beyond the Child and Adolescent Mental Health system.
Watch on YouTube
Watch previous Transformation Seminars |
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New UK Trauma Council Research Roundup
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The latest roundup provides short, easy-to-read summaries of ten research studies from the field of trauma and childhood published in the second quarter of 2021.
Read the Q2|2021 Research Roundup
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Traumatic bereavement training
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The UK Trauma Council are delighted to offer further dates in the new year for our traumatic bereavement training.
For practitioners:
- Two half days on the 10th & 17th January 2022
- Two half days on the 21st & 28th February 2022
For education settings:
- 9:30-15:30, 7th March 2022
- 9:30-15:30, 25th April 2022
The number of delegates is intentionally limited in both courses to ensure that there is time and space for discussions and scope to tailor the content to the specific needs of the group.
Book your place here
Traumatic bereavement may be easily missed or misunderstood, meaning that children’s difficulties are not recognised, even by experienced practitioners. It is vital that these children are identified and given appropriate help and support.
This evidence-based course has been developed by experts from the UK Trauma Council and are delivered by the Clinical Co-Lead for the Council’s free Traumatic Bereavement resource portfolio.
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How to support refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people who have experienced trauma
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A brief summary of some of the traumatic experiences refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people may experience and a curated list of resources that might help you as you provide support. Written by Dr Sarah Davidson, UK Trauma Council member and Head of Psychosocial & Mental Health at British Red Cross.
Read more and access resources
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No typical care story: what do know about relationships in foster care?
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Around 70,000 children in the UK currently live in long-term placements with foster carers and often successful fostering is thought to depend on the relationships between carers and the children they look after. But how can we support these relationships without understanding how children living in care and foster carers experience these relationships?
This new study published in the journal Adoption and Fostering looks at how young people with care-experience and foster carers make sense of fostering relationships. The paper then explores how these findings might affect the way we work with young people living in foster care or with foster carers.
“The findings suggest there was no ‘one size fits all’ relationship that was viewed as universally preferable. It is important that in social work support, primacy is not placed on one model of fostering relationships as a gold standard, but rather that an individualised understanding of a particular relationship is developed to fashion effective support. Furthermore, children’s social care workers should consider the diverse experiences and expectations of fostering relationships, as outlined in this study, to inform practices in the context of placement matching and planning.”
’This paper was co-written by Eva A Sprecher, a PhD student, supervised by Professor Nick Midgley and Dr Michelle Sleed, from the Anna Freud’s Child Attachments and Psychological Therapies Research Unit. The paper was also co-authored by two experts by lived-experience, one care-experienced young person Ikesha Tuitt, and one foster carer Debbie Hill.
Read the research article
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Story Stems Assessment Profile training
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Gain insight into children's perceptions and expectations of family roles, attachments and relationships using a non-intrusive approach with our Story Stems Assessment Profile (SSAP) training on 17th, 24th, 25th January and 4th February.
As part of SSAP, children are presented with the beginning of a story depicting everyday scenarios with an inherent dilemma, then asked to "show and tell" what happens next using props. It has proven to be a valuable tool for discerning children's mental representations in both clinical and research settings.
Learn more and book here.
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AFC Crisis Messenger service and posters
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The AFC Crisis Messenger text service is a free, confidential, 24/7 text message support service for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed or is struggling to cope. The service is staffed by trained volunteers who will work with you to take your next steps towards feeling better.
We can help with issues such as anxiety, worry, panic attacks, bullying and depression and are here to talk at any time of day or night.
If you need support, you can text AFC to 85258.
Download the school and college staff poster
Download the parents and carers poster
Download the primary pupils poster
Download the secondary students poster
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