Prevention and Intervention: supporting our children’s mental health and psychological wellbeing

Its focus was on one of the society's policy priorities - prevention and intervention: supporting children's mental health and psychological wellbeing - and it featured six excellent speakers providing their expert views on a wide range of issues.

First up was Dr Vivian Hill, a practising Educational Psychologist and programme director of the Institute of Education's doctoral training programme for educational psychologists.

Vivian outlined how extreme austerity, alongside a significant fall in the number in educational psychologists, together with increased demand had created additional mental health needs for children, and that there was a clear association between poverty and deprivation and the state of children's mental health. Vivian concluded with a plea for a return to free Educational Psychology services for schools.

Miranda Wolpert MBE, Professor of Evidence Based Practice & Research; Director of Evidence Based Practice Unit; and Director of the Child Outcomes Research Consortium highlighted the link between austerity and poverty to children's mental health, noting that the chronic underfunding of services means children don't get the appropriate help they need and deserve.

She also stated that while evidence about what works is patchy, and evidence for implementation is complex (with prediction another area of complexity), one thing is certain – that a one size fits all approach simply won't work.

Dr Nihara Krause is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in adolescent and adult mental health, a university lecturer, and founder and CEO of stem4 a teenage mental health charity which focuses on early awareness and intervention in schools and colleges.

Nihara talked about the how poor mental health is associated with academic decline, and advocated for whole school early intervention approaches, highlighting the fact that 100% of the children and young people that she had worked with wanted more learning on mental health as well as the importance of working with parents and carers.

Paul Fitcher head of year 13 and pastoral lead for a large secondary schools for boys described the work his school had undertaken to equip students with skills related to good mental health and wellbeing, including encouraging the boys to engage in sports and build large social networks.

He pointed out that there was buy in from senior management, but also warned that teachers were hard pressed to give the time students needed due to the lack of appropriate provision, which had resulted in early burn out for some teachers.

Emma Lewis, headteacher, and Nana Kennedy, assistant head of inclusion, spoke about their work in supporting children with complex needs in a local primary school.

They talked about a number of evidence-based interventions to help the children, including PATHS and the Place2Be. Evidence based problem solving was integrated into the curriculum and learning - helping children to regulate their emotions, with simple tools such as: Stop, Think, Tell.

There was also a wide range of MPs, Lords and external stakeholders in the audience, and questions and observations came thick and fast - for example, Lord Stirling highlighted the needs of children with ASD and the work of educational psychologists in this area.

Nicola Gale, the society's President commented that:

"It was inspiring to see psychology so prominently highlighted within the parliamentary estate.

Particularly it was important for our audience to hear about the very positive impact of psychological research and practice on the lives of children, their families and communities.

The society is keen to see significant investment in increased support from applied psychologists, to ensure there's a full understanding of children and young people's needs and evidence based interventions are available to all schools."

In addition, Dr Lisa Cameron MP, who chairs the APPG, said she was very pleased with the event, particularly the engagement between speakers and the attendee's questions, and the way psychology and evidence based interventions can have a positive impact on the lives of children who need support. 

I for one am looking forward to the next APPG. This takes place on 13 June on the topic of 'Internet Trolling'.

- Nigel Atter, May 2018