Children's Mental Health

Last week the Times published the results of an investigation into children's mental health issues, with a specific focus on depression. If you're interested in these topics, the articles entitled Young and Desperate and Is my Child Depressed? are still currently available to read in full from the newpaper's website.

Anyone wishing to read further about children's mental health should really begin with a visit to the Young Minds website. The pages are packed with information in a variety of forms, such as reports, journal articles and more. As an example I'd recommend the Putting Participation into Practice report, although there's enough material here to keep anyone reading for a while.

A 2004 report from SureStart entitled What Works in Promoting Children's Mental Health is also worth a read, while the National Children's Bureau's Mental Health briefing gives a quick overview of the issues surrounding looked-after children, as well as containing a lengthy list of suggestions for further reading. Or if pages of bar graphs and pie charts are your thing, then the most recent survey of Mental Health of Children and Young People in Great Britain from the Office for National Statistics gives an incredibly detailed breakdown of the situation in the UK.