Patterns of service provision in child and adolescent mental health care in Australia.

Standard description of local care provision is essential for evidence-informed planning. This study aimed to map and compare the availability and diversity of current mental health service provision for children and adolescents in Australia. We used a standardised service classification instrument, the Description and Evaluation of Services and DirectoriEs (DESDE) tool, to describe service availability in eight urban and two rural health districts in Australia.

Criminal and financial penalties for clinicians in the ACT Mental Health Act weigh more heavily on senior doctors.

Objective: We sought to assess the attitudes of ACT public psychiatry doctors towards the financial and criminal penalties in the ACT Mental Health Act 2015.

Method: Baseline attitude was surveyed with an 11-item 5-point Likert scale. Education was then provided about the offences outlined in the Act and the associated penalties.

Anxiety-related disorders: An overview.

Anxiety-related disorders are common in the child and adolescent population. They cause significant distress, which can affect social, emotional, family and academic functioning. They frequently present in general paediatric and primary care settings.

Achieving Service Change Through the Implementation of a Trauma-Informed Care Training Program Within a Mental Health Service.

As evidence continues to accumulate for the association between childhood trauma and long-term adverse outcomes, Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) approaches are emerging as fundamental to contemporary mental health services. To evaluate a workshop designed to influence mental health practitioners in TIC principles and practices. Nursing, medical and allied health professionals completed pre and post measures of confidence, awareness and attitudes towards TIC practice.

What predicts poor mother-infant interaction in schizophrenia?

Background: Poor clinician-rated parenting outcome and observed interactive deficits in mothers with schizophrenia admitted to a psychiatric mother and baby unit (MBU) reflect continuing concerns over the parenting capacity of this group. However, little is known about whether interaction deficits are accounted for by severity of illness or adverse social circumstances typically experienced by these mothers.

Method: Thirty-eight women with severe perinatal illness (schizophrenia n=13; affective disorders n=25) and their infants were observed in play interaction a week prior to MBU discharge.

The mental health of looked after children: matching response to need.

Previous research has established high rates of mental health need in looked after children. The study described in this paper aimed to explore in more depth the mental health problems of looked after children and to examine the service response to those needs in two English local authorities. The study utilised a purposive sample of 80 looked after children which was biased towards those with high needs but which reflected the characteristics of looked after children in the two areas with regard to age, gender and type of placement.

Working on the interface: identifying professional responses to families with mental health and child-care needs.

The gaps between mental health and child-care services constitute a recognised barrier to providing effective services to families where parents have mental health problems. Recent guidance exhorts professionals to coordinate and collaborate more consistently in this area of work. The present study aimed to identify the barriers to inter-professional collaboration through a survey of 500 health and social care professionals.