With 1 in 5 (20.3%) children and young people aged 8 to 25 years having a probable mental health disorder (NHS Digital, 2023), Children’s Mental Health Week (3 – 9 February 2025) serves as a fantastic opportunity to look further at how we can empower, equip, and give a voice to children and young people, as well as encourage positive change with regards to their mental health and well-being.
This year, the children’s mental health charity, Place2Be, has chosen the theme ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’ in partnership with Here4You, supported by The Walt Disney Company. This theme focuses on the importance of self-awareness and expressing emotions (Place2Be, 2024).
By focusing on ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’, alongside our vision of ‘Sharing best evidence, improving practice’, and our mission to ‘Improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 0-25’, we encourage you to focus on how we, as a society, can help encourage children and young people to feel empowered in sharing their experiences in order to improve children’s and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
With this in mind, do explore the learning opportunities available on our website, and do share with your networks and colleagues. We have gathered a range of FREE learning resources from leading academics, clinicians, and researchers to raise awareness of child and adolescent mental health issues.
Resources
ACAMH Learn
- ‘Using Mindfulness Actively – The ‘Head, Hand, Heart’ approach‘ with Lucy Beney
- ‘Anxiety disorders in children: Top tips as a Friend‘ with Dr. Amina Al-Yassin
- ‘Inside the Teen Brain – Just be Yourself’ with Dr. Jane Gilmour and Professor Deborah Christie
- ‘Inside the Teen Brain – A State of Independence‘ with Dr. Jane Gilmour and Isabella Plows
Podcasts
- ‘Bridging the Child Mental Health Care Gap in LMICs: RESEED and Task-shifted, Teacher-led Care‘ with Dr. Christina Cruz, Dr. Michael Matergia, and Priscilla Giri
- ‘RESHAPE Study: Key Takeaways on Young Peoples’ Lockdown Experiences’ with Professor Tamsin Ford and Lauren Cross
- ‘Dramatherapy Interventions to Alleviate Emotional Distress and Support Wellbeing‘ with Eleanor Keiller
- ‘Friendships and Mental Health: Insights from the OxWell Student Survey‘ with Tanya Manchanda
Video Abstracts
- ‘RESEED – the perceived impact of an enhanced usual care model of a novel, teacher-led, task-shifting initiative for child mental health‘ with Setareh Ekhteraei and Choden Dukpa
- ‘The multifaceted consequences and economic costs of child anxiety problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis‘ with Mara Violato and Jack Pollard
- ‘Young people’s online communication and its association with mental well-being‘ with Rebecca Anthony
- ‘A randomised controlled feasibility trial of Behavioural Activation as a treatment for young people with depression‘ with Dr. Charlotte Kitchen
Articles
- ‘Breaking the Silence: A different way to work alongside young people in practice and research‘ with Jaspar Khawaja and Dr. Chris Bagley
- ‘The Emotional Toll of Insider Qualitative Research‘ with Tavgah Jafar
- ‘Boreout in Early Career Researchers: Recognising and Addressing the Hidden Workplace Challenge‘ with Eliza Hamdorf
- ‘University Students and Imposterism: Its Relationship with Happiness, Self-Efficacy, and Perfectionism‘ with Pauline Thibaut
- ‘Loneliness and Early Career Researchers: An Evidence-Based Perspective‘ with Pauline Thibaut