Welcome to the webinar: Supporting children and young people s mental heath and wellbeing Thursday, 12 th October 2017 #RCSLTwebinar
Chair of webinar: Dominique Lowenthal Head of professional development, RCSLT Presenters: Paula Lavis Strategic Lead, Children and Young People s Mental Health Coalition Melanie Cross Consultant SLT and RCSLT Adviser
Welcome Dominique Lowenthal Head of Professional Development, RCSLT
Housekeeping A note on terminology in this webinar we will be using communication needs as shorthand for all speech, language and communication needs Send in chat messages at any time by using the Chat button Send in questions by using the Q&A button This event is being recorded. See here for recordings: www.rcslt.org/news/webinars/rcslt_webinars Your feedback is incredibly important to us help us improve our webinars! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/rcsltwebinars Kaleigh Maietta is on hand to help! Join in on Twitter using hashtag #RCSLTWebinar
Aims and objectives Have an increased awareness of the importance of supporting children and young people s mental health and wellbeing Be familiar with the work of the Children and Young People s Mental Health Coalition Understand the link between communication needs and mental health problems, and the role of speech and language therapists to support children and young people s mental health and wellbeing Understand the terminology that is used e.g. social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) Be aware of the RCSLT resources that are available for those supporting children and young people s mental health and wellbeing
Paula Lavis Strategic Lead, Children & Young People s Mental Health Coalition
Supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing Paula Lavis Strategic Lead, Children & Young People s Mental Health Coalition
Prevalence of children and young people s mental health
Emotional problems - young women Millennium Cohort Study found: Rates similar in male/female until age 11 (12%) 14 years rate in girls increased to 18% (parents report) (boys 12%) 14 years rate in girls 24% (self report) (boys 9%) Self reported symptoms not diagnosis
High risk groups 36% of children and young people with a learning disability also have mental health problems (Emerson & Hatton, 2007) About 60% of children and young people in care have a mental disorder (NICE, 2010) 71% of children with autism have a mental health problem (NAS, 2010) 54% with developmental language disorder have behavioural and emotional problems (Maggio, et al., 2014)
Risk Factors for Mental Health Problems Protective Factors Risk Factors Support Networks, Good Housing Within the environment Poverty, Poor Housing Secure Attachment, Good & Sensitive Parenting Personality and Temperament Within the family Within the Child Abuse, Family Conflict, Parental Mental Health Problems, Parental stress Genetic factors, Personality and Temperament, stress, learning, disabilities.
Causes No single cause The more risk factors, the greater the risk Poverty - links with austerity Impact of speech and language problems
Why early intervention is key Root mental health problems often in childhood, and mental disorders often first emerge in teenage years 75% of adult mental health problems begin before the age of 24, and 50% by the age of 14 Missing out on childhood Poor outcomes in adulthood But cuts to services early intervention and CAMHS
Whole system approach Only about 25% access mental health services Even with the additional 1.4 bn for CAMHS (England) only go up to 35% More of the same is not an option Need a whole system approach upstream interventions Everyone taking responsibility and working together
What young people want but do they get it? Easier access to mental health support Access within schools but also in the community Learning how to look after their own mental health Teachers to have some knowledge of mental health and wellbeing Improve transitions to adult services Listening to and acting on what children and young people say Reduce stigma
Children and Young People s Mental Health Coalition (CYPMHC) Work with over 140 organisations to campaign and influence policy, with and on behalf of children and young people in relation to their mental health and wellbeing Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation
Steering Group Members
What We Do Strong unified voice telling Government national and local - when things aren t working Give a voice to smaller as well as larger organisations Act as a critical friend work with Government Don t represent any particular organisation, approach or professional body Collate views from wide range of stakeholders including young people Solution focused evidence based and values based
Our Priorities Whole System Approach prevention specialist provision Children and young people s mental health system for all children and young people, aged 0-25 Role of educational settings in supporting mental health Any educational setting pre-school to university Inequalities Variation in provision Vulnerable groups e.g. children and young people with learning disabilities and mental health problems
Useful Resources Public Health England & Children & Young People s Mental Health Coalition s briefing on the Whole School Approach http://bit.ly/18oboad Children & Young People s Mental Health Coalition Resilience and Results http://bit.ly/2elmslx MindEd free elearning resource https://www.minded.org.uk/ Values Based Commission http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/valuesbased%20full%20report.pdf
Melanie Cross Consultant speech and language therapist and RCSLT Adviser
Supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing Melanie Cross Adviser to RCSLT on Child Mental Health
This webinar is about children and young people who have: Medical mental health diagnoses Problems with social, emotional functioning and wellbeing Special educational need (England), Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH)
Good communication skills are a protective factor as regards resilience and mental health And speech, language and communication needs and poor social relationships are risk factors for social, emotional and mental health (Public Health England 2016).
BUT communication needs are often unidentified or misdiagnosed in children and young people who have social, emotional and mental health needs In one meta-analysis, 81% of children with social, emotional and mental health needs had undetected communication needs (Hollo et al, 2014)
Impact of unidentified communication needs Children and young people are misunderstood and their communication needs are not supported Interventions for behaviour or mental health needs are less likely to be effective (Cohen et al 2013)
Why do social, emotional and mental health needs and communication needs often go together? Children with communication needs may be rejected by their peers, which could result in subsequent social, emotional and mental health needs Some children have neurodevelopmental difficulties which impact on the development of their communication and emotional skills, so there is co morbidity of social, emotional and mental health needs and communication needs And some experience a variety of factors common in areas of social deprivation which impact negatively on both the development of communication and social and emotional skills (Stringer and Clegg 2006)
NB Behaviour is communication The observable behaviour Why it happens. One reason (often undetected), communication needs Being in a communication unfriendly/hostile environment is very stressful This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Speech and language therapists work in collaboration to: Identify and assess communication needs Help develop communication friendly environments Differentiate resources/interventions And help others communicate with those who have communication needs in an effective way Help develop a child or young person s communication and interaction skills Train others about speech, language and communication needs and its impact Research effective interventions
Supporting children and young people s mental health and wellbeing: a case study Emma is now 10, a looked after child who was often physically and verbally aggressive. She: had very poor social communication skills couldn t recognise or respond to the communications of others had extreme difficulties recognising and managing her emotions could not make or keep friends had regular exclusions from school
continued Aged seven, she was referred to speech and language therapy services by her social worker. Following work with the speech and language therapist: Emma s social communication and interaction skills with other children greatly improved, as did her ability to build new relationships as well as maintain the ones she had formed. She got better at managing her emotions when things did not go as she would like, and also at recognising what information was appropriate to speak about, depending on her audience (i.e. recognising private versus public subject matters). She learned phrases to use to negotiate and compromise. She has continued in mainstream education.
How SLTs support at a universal/targeted level Differentiate behavioural interventions; simplify language, teach relevant vocabulary and add visual support e.g. Listen think about the other person s point of view, think of ways to solve the problem think of the consequences of your solutions Think about feelings Aim for win win Model/use video to help develop attuned and positive interactions
RCSLT resources Factsheets on: social, emotional mental health looked after children safeguarding https://www.rcslt.org/speech_and_language_therapy/slts_factsheets Clinical excellence networks (CENs) https://www.rcslt.org/members/professional_networks/cens/subject Social, emotional and mental health clinical webpages https://www.rcslt.org/clinical_resources/semh/overview (Some pages accessible to RCSLT Members only)
Social, emotional and mental health clinical webpages https://www.rcslt.org/clinical_resources/semh/overview RCSLT Members Non-member available pages
Any Questions?