According to a recent study reported on Mental Elf, targeted mental health support can improve borderline-clinical behavioural problems in children.
The study was made by the Children & Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, and indicates that despite the expanding research being seen for mental health in general, and especially for adults, mental health research and support for children, is still in want.
To understand the study better, here is a breakdown of how the testing was carried out:
“This was a randomised controlled trial in which 65 Local Authorities (LAs) across England were allocated to either receive TaMHS or control (usual practice), with 8,172 pupils across 266 schools included in the final analysis. The intervention was targeted at children who reported behavioural difficulties that were considered to be borderline-clinical.
The key elements of the TaMHS framework were:
- Child-focused support (such as one-to-one therapy)
- Parent-focused support (such as information about available services)
- Staff-focused support (such as training)
The specific interventions offered varied between LAs as they were encouraged to develop their own model of school-based support from the framework.
The primary outcome of “behavioural difficulties” was measured via a survey, using the behavioural difficulties subscale of the Me and My School (M&MS, Deighton et al 2013) measure, completed by the children in 2009 (pre-test) and in 2010 (post-test).”
The full report can be found here.
In simple terms, Mental Elf reports that the studies, “have found that children with behavioural difficulties who received Targeted Mental Health Support (TaMHS) in their primary school showed a statistically significant reduction in self-reported behavioural difficulties one year later.”
What do you think of the studies, and how do you think society should approach and handle mental health issues in Children? Let us know in the comments below.
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