A leading mental health charity is paving the way for improving
research-informed practice in schools, to support children & young people’s mental health & wellbeing
The Association of Child & Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) has recently launched an initiative aimed at teachers, to enable schools to access and put to use resources that can genuinely make a difference to the mental wellbeing and educational outcomes of young people.
ACAMH, a charitable membership organisation made up of a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians, practitioners and child mental health researchers, and publisher of the internationally acclaimed Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), Child and Adolescent Mental Health, and JCPP
Advances, has been sharing best evidence in order to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people for more than six decades.
In recognition of the rising mental health challenges faced by children and young people, ACAMH has kick-started its Mental Health in Schools initiative, with the aim of producing a series of webinars for teachers which disseminate research-informed, evidence-based knowledge and practice around current key issues in the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The first of this pilot series, known as ‘Ask the Expert’ aims to increase the knowledge of teachers and consists of 4 x 75-minute live webinars, with an expert guest speaker and hosted by Professor Barry Carpenter. The webinars have been developed in collaboration with the education charity, Coram Life Education. Topics are rooted in the new statutory relationships, sex and health
education (RSHE) curriculum, with Screen Time and Sleep delivered in the Autumn term of 2021 and Anxiety and Common Mental Health Conditions coming in Spring 2022.
The second of this pilot series, coined ‘Pedagogy in Practice’, is aimed at creating engaging resources for teachers relating to mental health teaching themes in the RSHE framework and is closely aligned to the Ask the Expert series. Pedagogy in Practice aims to stimulate innovative practice in teaching and learning to meet curriculum requirements and support mental health across the school. The pilot phase will include the development of two modules: Sleep and
A leading mental health charity is paving the way for improving
research-informed practice in schools, to support children & young
people’s mental health & wellbeing Anxiety, and will be developed in partnership with The Chartered College of Teaching during the first half of 2022.
Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE, OBE, D. Litt, PhD – ACAMH Board Member and Mental Health in Schools Advisory Group Chair said: “We are committed to helping improve the knowledge needed by Teachers to deliver the statutory Relationship, Sex & Health Education (RSHE) curriculum requirements, specifically in relation to subjects pertaining to mental wellbeing. We are also looking to build capacity for differentiating and personalizing content to meet individual,
as well as group needs”. He goes on to say: “Schools are an anchor institution in supporting young peoples’ mental wellbeing, we believe ACAMH and our partners Coram Life Education and The Chartered College of Teaching can truly make a difference by sharing the best evidence in a way that is accessible
and tailored to the needs of teaching professionals”.
ACAMH plans to develop a wider series of Ask the Expert & Pedagogy in Practice resources over the course of the next 18 months, incorporating up to ten of the most pertinent topics within the RSHE framework, such as Trauma, Self-Harm and Bereavement.
-ENDS
For more information, comment and images, please email Matt Kempen at:
matthew.kempen@acamh.org
About ACAMH
“Sharing best evidence, improving practice.”
Formed in 1956, ACAMH is a multidisciplinary membership organisation for the psychological needs of children and young people.
Over the years, the Association has maintained the tradition of multi-disciplinary membership, a diverse group of clinicians, practitioners and world-leading child mental health researchers, working across an array of child and adolescent mental health domains whose work reflects the keydevelopments which took place within child and adolescent mental health over the years; theories and practices which are still of relevance to today’s membership.
ACAMH is committed to advancing standards, disseminating knowledge and enhancing clinical practice to best meet the psychological needs of children, young people and all those involved in their care and development. It aims to achieve this through promoting best practice, providing training, publishing high-quality international journals and papers, and facilitating a strong network
of national and international professionals.
ACAMH publishes the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), internationally recognised to be the leading journal covering both child and adolescent psychology and psychiatry, with the highest quality clinically relevant research in psychology, psychiatry, and related disciplines; and
Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH), a high quality, peer-reviewed journal focused on child and adolescent mental health services research, which has articles for practitioners describing evidence-based clinical methods and clinically orientated research. In addition, JCPP Advances has recently launched, which is a high quality, high impact open access journal in the field of child
psychology and psychiatry and related disciplines.
ACAMH has a growing Branches network, each of which plays an important role within ACAMH. Run by volunteers they are the driving force behind our grassroots activity: in staging events, promoting the work of ACAMH, and providing insights at a local level. In recent years and following demand from professionals in other countries, our network and partnership initiative has grown to include
Malta, Egypt, India and Russia
Barry Carpenter Education 