Blog
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Annual Review of ACEs research
It is now over 20 years since the publication of the seminal research by Fellitti and colleagues (Fellitti et al 1998) ‘The Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.’
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Cultural Formulation: When Does It Become Stereotyping?
Cultural formulation can help clinicians understand how culture shapes distress, help-seeking and experiences of illness. However, when cultural knowledge replaces curiosity about the individual, it can become the very stereotyping it is intended to prevent.
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Nature and Mental Health: Benefits of Nature for Inpatient Care
At Marlborough House, an adolescent unit in Swindon, we have been working with nature to improve young people’s wellbeing. Nature-based approaches are increasingly recognised as valuable within CAMHS, including inpatient settings, and Marlborough House has contributed to this growing evidence. In this blog, Dr Gillian Combe, Dr. Liz Challis, and Dr. Catriona Mellor reflect on their work at Marlborough House and explore the growing role of nature and mental health within inpatient care.
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Nutritional Risk Beyond Weight in Autistic Children
Some autistic children eat a very narrow diet for years while their weight and growth stay on track. Because the numbers look reassuring, the nutritional risk underneath can go unnoticed. A stable weight measures whether a child has enough energy. It says little about whether the diet holds everything a body needs, and that gap is where serious harm can build unseen.
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Using Assessment to Build Better Case Conceptualisations
Case conceptualisation is central to psychological practice. It helps clinicians organise information, understand how a person’s difficulties may have developed and been maintained, and decide what treatment would be adequate. However, conceptualisations can become overly intuitive, static, or disconnected from both assessment evidence and treatment research. Christon, McLeod, and Jensen-Doss (2015) propose a science-informed approach designed to connect evidence-based assessment with evidence-based treatment.
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ADHD in the classroom: Why everyday interactions matter
A child with ADHD may collect corrections all day, small ones, one after another, until something starts to give. Long before the symptoms themselves cause lasting harm, a child can quietly conclude that school is not a place they are good at. Drawing on research discussed during a webinar by clinical psychologist Erin Schoenfelder Gonzalez, this article explores how the cumulative experience of everyday classroom interactions may shape a child’s confidence, relationships and sense of belonging at school.
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Beyond the Safety Plan in Suicide Care
Suicide care often reaches only as far as the acute moment. Nonetheless, the tools built for that moment may do little to identify or address what brought the person there. Professor David Jobes, speaking at a conference on brief interventions for young people and families, made the case that steadying a crisis and treating its cause are different tasks, and that aiming at the suffering itself is the harder and more neglected part.
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Irritability and Later Depression and Self-Harm in Adolescence
Irritability is common in early childhood and for many children, it reduces over time as they develop better frustration tolerance, language, emotional regulation, and social understanding. However, when irritability remains high across early childhood, it may signal increased vulnerability to later mental health difficulties.
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Keeping Families in the Room during a Crisis
In crisis care for a young person, the parent or carer might be hard to place. The carer carries the risk around the clock, yet often stands outside the formal care the young person receives, and is sometimes treated as part of the problem. Professor Pooja Saini, speaking at a conference on brief interventions for young people and families, described crisis care from two sides at once: families on the edge, and the staff meeting them while close to breaking point. One question stayed afterward: what it would take to keep the carer inside the room instead of at its edge.
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Why Depression May Look Different in Young People with ADHD
Depression commonly co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). When this combination occurs is associated with greater clinical complexity and poorer outcomes. Yet depression in young people with ADHD may not always be straightforward to recognise, some symptoms of depression overlap with ADHD, some may be expressed through irritability, sleep problems, or behavioural difficulties, and young people with ADHD may not always report depressive symptoms in the same way as their parents.
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