Young people’s mental health and coronavirus

A few weeks ago, several prominent child and adolescent mental health experts called on the government in an open letter to prioritise young people as the country begins to lift lockdown restrictions. Despite Johnson’s initial statement that he expected all primary school aged children to be back at school before the summer holidays, the government … Read more

Mental Health Impacts of Lockdown

To say the last few months have been challenging is an understatement. Covid-19 has had major impacts worldwide, both on people’s health and almost every aspect of their lifestyle. Several countries (the UK including) have tried to slow the spread of the virus through imposing ‘lockdowns’, in which everything but the most essential activities are … Read more

Falling through the gap between CAMHS and AMHS

Recently I wrote a blog post for the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health about the problems young people face when navigating the move between child and adult mental health services. Once young people reach the upper age age limit of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) they must leave, and if they … Read more

Lifestyle interventions for mental health

Previously, I’ve written about the effect several lifestyle factors such as exercise, outdoor space, food, and self care can have on our mental health. Whilst there is some evidence that all of these factors can impact our mental health, how can this knowledge be used to create an effective intervention to help improve people’s mental … Read more

Green Space and Mental Health

It’s probably no surprise to you that our environments have an impact on our mood. We describe neglected indoor environments (think doctors waiting rooms) as ‘depressing’, or feel uplifted when our homes are decorated for Christmas. However, recent research has explored the more significant effects on our environment – particularly whether exposure to different types … Read more

Sleep and Mental Health

We all know we feel better after a good night’s sleep. However, sleep can easily feel like an inconvenience, something we have to do that takes us away from the temptations of Netflix or scrolling through Instagram. I recently read Matthew Walker’s book ‘Why We Sleep’, and it changed my mind about where sleep should … Read more

Mental Health at Work

Back in September, the charities Mind and Heads Together launched a new initiative to raise awareness of mental health in the workplace. This was in the light of a recent Mind study, which found that 48% of people reported experiencing a mental health problem in their current workplace (Heads Together, 2018). The Stevenson/Farmer report (2017) … Read more

Youth Mental Health

There’s been a lot of stories in the news recently about young people’s mental health. More young people than ever before are being referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), young people are experiencing delays in trying to access treatment, and they can also have problems continuing to access care when they reach … Read more