Content area
Full Text
Abstract
The emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people is of fundamental importance. Unmet mental health needs during childhood lead to difficulties in adolescence and problems in adulthood. The need to develop comprehensive prevention, early recognition and timely intervention services is essential. Despite this, many mental health problems go unnoticed or are only treated when advanced. Late intervention can often be associated with severe impairments for children and young people as well as their families. This article aims to improve nurses' understanding of children's emotional wellbeing and mental health, and identifies some of the risk and protective factors that combine to produce positive or negative outcomes. Individual and family-based psychological treatments that are available to support children are summarised. The learning activities offer nurses helpful interpersonal and practical strategies to promote emotional wellbeing and mental health in children.
Keywords
Children and adolescents, mental health, psychological therapies, talking therapies
Aims and intended learning outcomes
This article aims to increase nurses' knowledge and understanding of mental health problems in children and adolescents and so improve their health and wellbeing in later life. After reading the article and completing the time out activities you should be able to:
* Identify the links between emotional health and wellbeing and positive and negative outcomes for children and adolescents.
* Discuss the relationship between mental health disorders of childhood and adolescence, and physical and mental health disorders of adulthood.
* Describe the role of talking therapies in improving outcomes for children and adolescents with mental health problems.
Introduction
International research shows that untreated mental health problems in young people lead to a range of poor outcomes, including poor educational attainment, family dysfunction, poor physical health, crime and antisocial behaviour (Rutter and Smith 1995). Children's emotional wellbeing should be prioritised to prevent poor outcomes and problems in later life. Approximately 10% of children aged 5-16 years have a recognisable mental disorder and about one million children and young people in England (three children in a typical secondary school class) will have a clinically significant mental health problem (Green et al 2005).
Early intervention is key to prevent problems in later life and children's mental health should form an important part of the health sector's work to reduce health inequalities....