This book provides a model which offers guidance on effective and appropriate therapeutic interventions and services for vulnerable children and young people (commonly children who have experienced trauma, abuse, domestic violence or neglect). By addressing practice, theory and policy, the book enables professionals working with vulnerable children to choose the right intervention for each individual child. Contributors examine best practice across the UK, the US and Europe and compile the findings in a way that can be incorporated into everyday practice. Mental Health Interventions and Services for Vulnerable Children and Young People will be an invaluable tool for those working with vulnerable children and young people including child mental health and welfare professionals and agencies, as well as social workers, policy makers and academics teaching or studying child mental health.

More than half of children either in foster care, or adopted from care in the developed world, have a measurable need for mental health services, while up to one quarter present with complex and severe trauma- and attachment-related psychological disorders. This book outlines how services can effectively detect, prevent, and treat mental health difficulties in this vulnerable population. Responding to increasing evidence that standard child and adolescent mental health services are poorly matched to the mental health service needs of children and young people who have been in foster care, this book provides expert guidance on the design of specialised services. The first part provides an overview of these children’s mental health needs, their use of mental health services and what is known about the effectiveness of mental health interventions provided to them. The second part presents some recent innovations in mental health service delivery, concentrating on advances in clinical and developmental assessment and treatment. The final part confronts the challenges for delivering effective mental health services in this area. This is the definitive international reference for the design of specialised mental health services for children and young people in care and those adopted from care. It is invaluable reading for health and social care professionals working with this population and academics with an interest in child and adolescent mental health from a range of disciplines, including social work, nursing and psychology.

More than half of children either in foster care, or adopted from care in the developed world, have a measurable need for mental health services, while up to one quarter present with complex and severe trauma- and attachment-related psychological disorders. This book outlines how services can effectively detect, prevent, and treat mental health difficulties in this vulnerable population. Responding to increasing evidence that standard child and adolescent mental health services are poorly matched to the mental health service needs of children and young people who have been in foster care, this book provides expert guidance on the design of specialised services. The first part provides an overview of these children’s mental health needs, their use of mental health services and what is known about the effectiveness of mental health interventions provided to them. The second part presents some recent innovations in mental health service delivery, concentrating on advances in clinical and developmental assessment and treatment. The final part confronts the challenges for delivering effective mental health services in this area. This is the definitive international reference for the design of specialised mental health services for children and young people in care and those adopted from care. It is invaluable reading for health and social care professionals working with this population and academics with an interest in child and adolescent mental health from a range of disciplines, including social work, nursing and psychology.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This outstanding textbook presents innovative interventions for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Community Treatment for Youth is designed to fill a gap between the knowledge base and clinical practice through its presentation of theory, practice parameters, training requirements, and research evidence. Featuring community-based and state-of-the-art services for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, this volume describes each intervention in depth, along with the supporting evidence for its utility. Most chapters present a single intervention as an alternative to institutional care. Shared characteristics of these interventions include delivery of services in the community (homes, schools, and neighborhoods) provided largely by parents and paraprofessional staff. The interventions are appropriate to use in any of the child human services sectors and have been developed in the field with real-world child and family clients. In addition, they offer a reduced cost in comparison to institutional care. Several chapters address diagnostic-specific psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatments, which are likely to be provided as adjunctive treatment in a clinical setting. Designed to update professionals in the field about effective services, Community Treatment for Youth will serve as a resource for academics, policymakers, practitioners, consumers, and researchers.

Fiona Smith, Adviser in Children's and Young People's Nursing, Royal College of Nursing, UK --

Also included are case examples, reflective activities and practical exercises to underpin theory and knowledge.