Mental health problems in childhood Flashcards
What has increasing focus been placed on regarding mental health in recent years?
Concept of strengthening resilience to actively try to PREVENT mental illness rather than intervening purely at treatment stage
How can we determine a child’s mental health?
Judge different aspects of their behaviours and circumstances i.e. developmental stage and whether that seems to match their chronological age, and their life circumstances e.g. whether they have a stable family
What is important to realise about development and the concept of “delayed” development?
Development is a multidimensional process and while milestone stages do exist they vary considerably between individuals simply as a function of individual differences
Children and adolescents are in a state of constant change, so very little about their development is actually predictable - thus the idea of delayed development has been discarded
What are 3 factors which can have an influence on child mental health problems?
Trauma - where a child has a stable and supportive environment trauma is unlikely to lead to a problem but when it does problems are often transient and responsive to intervention
Parenting - a particularly significant influence, and also one of the hardest to change - issues can range from mild emotional dysregulation to insecure attachment, abuse and neglect problems
Social adversities - not often a cause of mental health problems in children but can influence the other factors which do have more of a direct role, inc. parent mental health
What do we talk about with respect to mental health problems in children?
Resilience i.e. protective factors
Risk - vulnerability factors
Not simply opposites - there are more dynamic interactions involved and we have to try to strengthen resilience factors while minimising risk factors
What are 6 resilience factors?
Individual predisposition/temperament - can’t use “personality” until post-18 due to dispositional changes that occur until that point; child may be predisposed to a more relaxed temperament which confers some protection
Attachment to caregiver - security and stability of this attachment
Family and social stability - often related to the attachment factor, a more stable home environment is evidently protective; even in unstable environments e.g. in care, we can make conscious efforts to strengthen this resilience factor
Educational achievement - social and academic sides to this e.g. developing social skills to live independently
Friendships - inference of being valued by others
Coping strategies
What are 7 examples of risk factors?
Individual attributes Exposure to violence Abuse/neglect Acute stressors Chronic adversities Family conflict Parental mental illness and substance abuse
How can ecological frameworks prove useful in designing and implementing resilience interventions to strengthen resilience factors?
Place a child in the framework both theoretically and practically:
THEORETICALLY - Assess child at the different levels i.e. individual factors, family and peers, school etc, and through this we get a better idea of potential causes for mental health risk factors and possible diagnosable problems
PRACTICALLY - implement strategies at any and all relevant levels to increase protective behaviours and decrease risk factors (relies on strong teamwork between all professionals involved)
How can mental health problems in childhood and early life be defined?
A set of relatively enduring behaviours that cause distress to the child/others, and that substantially interfere with the child’s personal functions
What are the 4 different types of mental health disorders a child can experience?
EMOTIONAL - Internalised disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders etc, often they have more environmental than genetic causes but symptoms can extend beyond simply emotional
BEHAVIOURAL - Can be mild, but it is when problems become more severe and prolonged that we have to question the presence of underlying disorders (be wary of risk of pathologizing a temper tantrum!)
DEVELOPMENTAL - Autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities, all have a genetic cause and more impact on life into later years
PSYCHOTIC - schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and drug-induced psychosis
What are symptoms of anxiety disorders like?
Can be affective, cognitive or physical - see physical in younger children who struggle to articulate thoughts and emotions
What can interventions for anxiety disorders be like?
Behavioural e.g. in-vivo exposure and desensitisation for phobias, cognitive-behavioural to focus on unhelpful cognitive distortions and behaviours and development of coping strategies
Can also focus more on dealing with underlying trauma e.g. therapy to reframe experiences emotionally in patients with PTSD
What is ADHD commonly associated with?
Behavioural problems, learning difficulties, difficulties with socialising and relationships, developmental delays e.g. language
What are the 4 possible types of intervention for ADHD
Educational - first option to try; children with ADHD are commonly dismissed as simply having bad memory for example, but they actually struggle to incorporate more than simple phrases/tasks at once so it is more to do with attentional capacity; educational environment needs to be adapted for these children e.g. break tasks down into smaller and more manageable parts
Psychological
Parenting strategies
Medication - controversial and should never be the first option tried
What is the common triad of symptoms in any autism diagnosis?
Social impairment - lack understanding of social cues and abstract concepts, struggle to read emotions and understanding empathy
Communication impairment
Restricted and repetitive activities and interests - development of functionless routines (least common symptom)
