Helping Children

Principles of Good Practice in Child Mental Health
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-0-367-70291-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Anna Freud

Children and young people’s mental health is now recognized as one of society’s most pressing challenges. Rates of distress and disorder have risen sharply while services struggle to keep pace. Long waiting lists and public concern highlight the growing gap between what children need and what professional systems can deliver. Yet there remains an expectation that therapy alone should provide the answer.

This book argues that the mental health needs of children cannot be met by specialist services in isolation. Instead, it calls for a new approach that brings together parents, teachers, peers, and communities alongside mental health professionals, each playing an equal part in supporting children’s wellbeing. Drawing on research, policy, and practice experience, the book identifies six principles of effective help: the active involvement of parents and carers; the importance of listening to children’s own wishes; creating environments of psychological safety; recognising that help can come from many sources; embedding support within everyday community life; and building a culture where caring for children’s mental health becomes everyone’s shared responsibility.

Written by leading figures in child mental health, this book offers a powerful new framework for rethinking how society responds to young people’s distress. It speaks to professionals, educators, parents, and policymakers alike, showing how families, schools, and communities can work together to nurture resilience and belonging, reducing dependence on overstretched specialist services.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, and Professional Practice & Development

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fuggle, Peter

Fonagy, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychotherapie / Klinische Psychologie Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychotherapie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: children and young people 2. Providing help: the problems for mental health services 3. Providing help: the problems for families 4. The Thrive Framework 5. The helping process: the role of families 6. The helping process: the role of professionals 7. Supporting safety 8. Taking an active part in help 9. Measuring help 10. It takes a village 11. Implications for direct help 12. Implications for how services work 13. Implications for designing and planning services 14. Summary and conclusions

Über Autor(innen)

Peter Fuggle has been a clinical psychologist working with children since 1984. He was clinical director at NHS Islington Child Mental Health Service and then at Anna Freud. He contributed to the development of child-IAPT, the Thrive Approach, Community Wellbeing Practitioners and Educational Mental Health Practitioners. With Dickon Bevington, he co-developed the AMBIT Programme for young people with multiple needs.

Peter Fonagy, CBE, Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science, Head of Division for Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL. He is also Senior National Clinical Adviser for NHS England on Children and Young Peoples’ Mental Health. Peter was Chief Executive of Anna Freud for over 20 years.