This book focuses on the social and intersectional determinants of mental health among youth. The innovative and cutting edge text arises out of multidisciplinary fields of academic, researchers, policy makers, practitioners, artists, and youth. Contributions from Canada, Germany, Portugal, South Korea, Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, and Jamaica addresses the complexities and the opportunities for youth across contexts. Each chapter entails an introduction to the topic, literature review and research findings, discussion, and implications in regard to research, policy, and practice. A unique aspect of the book is the inclusion of a critical response to each chapter’s content from diverse stakeholders (such as policy makers, front line workers, practitioners, community activists, artists and youth).The book is a critical and current contribution to exploring youth mental health and, specifically, the ways in which youth learn, live, and resist in a world around them. Topics examined include youth social engagement, civic integration, and political participation at multiple local, regional, and transnational levels.

This forceful reference synthesizes international and intersectionality perspectives for a comprehensive examination of the human rights of youth to safety and well-being. Organized around key themes of young people's lives in context, mental health, hope, power, and resilience, it describes complex stressors related to gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and immigration experience and status. Discrimination, sexual abuse, survivor guilt, and other widespread issues are discussed in terms of personal potential versus societal barriers when identity and autonomy are at their most critical stage. The book links theory and data to practice, policy, and pedagogy, not only in examining problems and recommending solutions, but also in acknowledging issues that are just beginning to be identified. Included in the coverage: The silent shadow of precarious status youth. Youth experiences of cultural identity and migration: a systems perspective. The role of worries in mental health and well-being in adolescence. Mothers' armoring of their adolescent daughters living with facial difference. What a critical course on madness can offer university students with mental health histories and concerns. Teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) to refugees: trauma and resilience. Today's Youth Mental Health challenges sociologists, clinical psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists to better understand their young clients' development, and to promote innovative ideas for their empowerment.

This unique volume brings together the main findings from the Nuffield Foundation's Changing Adolescence Programme and explores how social change may affect young people's behaviour, mental health and transitions toward adulthood.

Adolescence is a period of rapid growth, maturing individuality, vulnerabilities and fortitude. Fortunately, most youths go through this period of life in a healthy way, but some do not. Adolescent Mental Health: Prevention and Intervention is a concise and accessible overview of our current knowledge on effective treatment and prevention programs for youths who have developed, or are at risk of developing, mental health problems. Ogden and Hagen’s introduction to "what works" in the promotion of adolescent mental health addresses some of the most common mental health problems among young people, and how these problems might be prevented or ameliorated through professional and systematic efforts. The volume illustrates contemporary and empirically supported interventions and prevention efforts through a series of case studies, and covers some of the most prevalent mental health conditions affecting today’s youth; externalizing, internalizing and drug use problems. Within an ecological and transactional framework, the book discusses how psychopathologies may develop and the risks and protective factors associated with these. The problem-oriented perspective on risk and mental health problems is combined with a focus on social competence and other protective factors. Adolescent Mental Health: Prevention and Intervention will be essential reading for students and practitioners in the fields of child welfare and mental health services, and any professionals working with adolescents at risk of developing mental health problems.

Young people experience one of the highest rates of mental health problems of any group, but make the least use of the support available to them. To reach young people in distress, we need to understand what this digital generation want from mental health professionals and services. Based on interviews with nearly 400 young people, this book offers a vision of youth mental health issues and services through the eyes of young people themselves. It offers professionals important insights into the meaning of identity and agency for this generation and explores how these issues play out in young people’s expectations of mental health support. It shows how, despite young people’s immersion in digital technology, genuine and trusting relationships remain a key ingredient in their priorities for support. It considers what access to mental health support means for a generation who have grown up with the immediacy enabled by digital technology. Young people’s accounts also provide crucial insights into how they are using digital resources to manage their own mental health – in ways often not appreciated by professionals who design internet interventions. What Young People Want From Mental Health Services offers clear guidance to counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, youth workers, social workers, service providers and policymakers about how to work with youth and design their services so they are a better match for young people today. It contributes to a growing movement calling for a ‘Youth Informed Approach’ to mental health to address the needs of young people.

Technology and Adolescent Health: In Schools and Beyond discusses how today's adolescents are digital natives, using technology at home and in school to access information, for entertainment, to socialize and do schoolwork. This book summarizes research on how technology use impacts adolescent mental health, sleep, physical activity and eating habits. In addition, it identifies monitoring and screening technology-based tools for use with adolescents.

On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.