Abstract

This comprehensive guide provides overviews of the key psychological processes affecting mental health, such as development, attachment, emotion regulation and attention, and draws out the implications for preventive measures and promotion of emotional well-being. The authors, from a range of professional disciplines, emphasise the importance of early intervention and prevention, exploring in particular how initiatives in parenting and education can promote children's emotional well-being. The topics they cover include:

* the prevention and management of addiction and eating disorders

* the development of culturally sensitive services for ethnic minority children and families

* the impact of parenting programmes and the life skills education programmes in schools

* ways of meeting the mental health needs of children who are socially excluded, homeless or in local authority care.

Providing examples of a broad range of projects and initiatives in Britain and other European countries, this handbook will be an invaluable resource for all professionals working in child and adolescent mental health.

`Dwivedi (International Institute of Child and Adolescent Mental Health) and Harper (child psychology, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust, UK) provide an overview of the key psychological processes affecting mental health and draw out implications for preventive measures and promotion of emotional well-being in children and adolescents. Contributors from a range of disciplines offer examples of projects and initiatives in the UK for preventing addiction and eating disorders, developing culturally sensitive services, and meeting the mental health needs of children in local authority care'.
Book News
`This textbook should be of interest to students specializing in child mental health, as well as to a range of social care practitioners who are seeking to develop their understanding and practice.'
Care and Health Magazine
`This handbook provides a guide to the main psychological processes affecting mental health…This comprehensive publication will be a valuable resource for all professionals working in the field of child and adolescent mental health.'
childRIGHT

`I found this book very useful. The authors state in their preface that they aim to "provide practitioners with information and examples of services…for children, young people and their families". They have achieved their aim, while also creating a resource for those who simply wish to learn more about child and adolescent mental health.

The 15 chapters in this book provide detailed and well presented information about mental health problems affecting children… I found the chapter on attachment and attachment disorders particularly useful. It gives an outline of attachment theory and its main concepts, before providing sections on attachment disorders in preschool, school-age, and adolescent children…One of the things I like best about this book is its avowed rejection of an over-medicalized view of child mental health problems. Thus there is a chapter on socially excluded children, and the mental health risks they face…This book will enable some of us to envisage and lobby for such services where gaps in provision remain.'

Journal of Mental Health
`This book is well grounded in developmental and systematic theory, but it also includes examples of how such theories apply to real-life situations with practical examples of how mental health promotion strategies can be implemented in local communities'.
Children Now

`This book provides content that is well referenced, clear, logically laid out, easy to read, and applicable to children and care providers across social systems and cultural groups. Topics covered include: the prevention and management of anxiety and depression, addiction, and eating disorders; the development of culturally sensitive services for ethnic minority children and families, the impact of parenting programmes and the life skills education programmes in schools; and ways of meeting the mental health needs of children who are socially excluded, homeless or under the auspice of a local authority care system. The authors provide evidence not only to support their theoretical claims but also to dispel unexamined myths about children and adolescents. What is stunning is the authors' targeting of developmental age-sensitive and developmental age-specific strategies to foster the development of age appropriate behaviour of children, adolescents and their parents. Also stunning is the authors' poignant call for better top-down, `systemic positioning' of programmes for children as a primary way of assuring their continuity and success. The authors are to be commended, as well, for their effort to increase the power of an intervention initiative with children and their parents by integrating multicultural concepts into the initiative.

In summary, this guide for promoting a child's emotional competence can be of great value for anyone who cares about children and those who are responsible for improving the lot of children in society including parents, practitioners, politicians, faculty and students. I highly recommend the guide for upper division, undergraduate nursing and social work students mastering concepts in the discipline of paediatrics, education, and mental health.'

International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research
`This would be a good read for a multitude of professionals working within practice or academia, concerned with the health and well-being of children and adolescents. Policy documents and statistical evidence are referred to, which add to the depth and relevance of discussion. Conceptual frameworks of practice make it a sound resource tool for professionals working with potentially vulnerable children'.
British Journal of Social work. Vol 35: No4 June 2005