Blog

ACAMH’s blogs bring together timely, evidence-based insights on child and adolescent mental health, written by leading researchers, clinicians, and those with lived experience. They are designed to translate cutting-edge research into accessible, practical guidance that supports better outcomes for children, young people, and families.

  • Hannah Lewis

    AI use within early research careers: help or hindrance?

    The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various disciplines has increased significantly over the past few years, and research is no different. As AI continues to become embedded within many platforms used in academia, it represents a significant consideration for the next generation of researchers.

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  • DBTA adolescent girl staring into the distance

    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Adolescents: Evidence, Applications, and Emerging Considerations

    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) is a developmentally adapted, evidence-based intervention for young people experiencing emotion dysregulation, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. In recent years, a growing body of evidence such as randomised trials and meta-analyses have suggested DBT-A’s effectiveness across outpatient, inpatient, and community settings (Mehlum et al., 2014; McCauley et al., 2018; Kothgassner et al., 2021; Syversen et al., 2024).

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  • maggie snowling

    Professor Maggie Snowling on rethinking reading disorders

    We caught up with Prof. Maggie Snowling, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Oxford and Research Fellow at St John’s College, to discuss her career, and more.

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  • happy smiling black woman working on laptop

    Print on Demand has arrived for the JCPP and the CAMH journal

    As of 1 January 2026, as part of our renewed publishing agreement with Wiley and our continued commitment to sustainability, ACAMH will no longer offer printed versions of our journals — the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP) and Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal. For those who prefer print copies, both JCPP and CAMH will be available through Wiley’s Member Direct Print on Demand (POD) service.

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  • Reading child and parent

    Rethinking Reading Disorders: Language Foundations, Risk Pathways, and Protective Factors

    Understanding how children learn to read requires a comprehensive understanding of language, phonology, cognition, and environmental factors. While phonological processing deficits have long been considered central to dyslexia (Snowling, 2000; Vellutino et al., 2004), growing evidence suggests that reading difficulties can emerge from multiple developmental pathways, influence by a diverse combination of risk and protective factors (Hulme & Snowling, 2016; Catts et al., 2017). These individual differences underscore why some children struggle primarily with decoding, others with comprehension, and many with both.

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  • Mark Weist

    School mental health, with Professor Mark D Weist

    We caught up with the presenter – Professor Mark D Weist, Professor in the School of Community Health Sciences at the University of South Carolina and Director of the South Carolina School Behavioral Health Academy – to talk about the topic itself, his career, and his hopes for the event.

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  • year of learning icon

    2025: A Year of Shared Learning (get your FREE ebook)

    FREE ebook! In 2025, we ran a rich programme of webinars that brought together leading international experts to share evidence-based, practice-focused insights on key topics such as school mental health, autism and co-occurring conditions, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, and trauma-informed care.

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  • Erin Schoenfelder Gonzalez

    Mastering meltdowns and big feelings with Associate Professor Erin Gonzalez

    We caught up with the presenter – Associate Professor Dr. Erin Gonzalez, a clinical psychologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital – about the topic itself, her career, and her hopes for the event.

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  • helen minnis and Gajwani

    Beyond ACEs: When Trauma-Informed Care Misses Neurodivergent Children

    Trauma-informed care often overlooks neurodivergence, leading to missed diagnoses and support, as in James’ story. Research shows trauma, neurodevelopmental conditions and adversity frequently co-occur, with “double jeopardy” when both are present. Services must move beyond silos to holistic, person-centred assessment that recognises each child’s unique “make and model.”. Blog by Professor Helen Minnis (pic) and Dr. Ruchika Gajwani.

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  • children in school playground

    Promoting Mental Health in Schools: Evidence-Based Strategies for a Stepped, Collaborative Approach

    Recent research has highlighted the advantages of comprehensive school mental health (SMH) systems, particularly those organised around Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). MTSS provides a coherent structure integrating prevention, early intervention and intensive support to meet diverse student needs (Barrett et al., 2018) acknowledging the interdependence of academic outcomes, mental health and social-emotional development.

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