10 Summary of Session 7

In this session, you have focused on various interventions that can be useful when trained specialists work with individual children and their parents in helping to improve children’s mental health and wellbeing. You have also seen how prescribed medication can sometimes be administered but needs to be undertaken very carefully according to clinical guidelines, such as those developed by NICE. There is also a growing acceptance that children’s wellbeing needs to be the responsibility of everyone who works or is involved with children in a variety of settings, and at different levels within an organisation.

You should now be able to:

• recognise how the power imbalances between child and adult can affect the therapeutic processes
• understand what is meant by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• appreciate the role of play and creativity in counselling and therapy with young children
• realise some of the challenges associated with prescribing medication to treat a child’s mental health condition
• understand how parents might be helped to manage children’s behaviour and support their wellbeing.

In the next session, which is the final session of the course, you will be examining the effects of technology on children’s mental health. You will also review the key messages you have hopefully gathered from all of the sessions in this course.

You can now go to Session 8 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .