ACAMH

When a child stops going to school, the wish to help them back quickly is easy to understand. Emotionally based school avoidance rarely has a single cause, though, and the pace of a response can matter as much as its content. One thought runs through what follows: that slowing down can sometimes do more for a child than any effort to hurry a return.

Many parents, teachers, and clinicians would agree that mental health can affect learning – and the research reflects this. When a student is struggling with anxiety, depression, behavioural difficulties, or other mental health challenges, concentrating in class, completing assignments, and staying engaged at school can become much more difficult.1–4

But are all mental...

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) is one of the best-supported psychological treatments for children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress symptoms. Yet the existence of an evidence-based treatment does not mean that children and families can access it in routine care. Pfeiffer et al. (2024) examine this research-to-practice gap by exploring how TF-CB...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in very young children has been difficult to identify in the past, partly because diagnostic criteria were developed for older children and adults. This matters because trauma shows up differently in young children.  

Instead of talking about intrusive memories or avoidance, young children are more lik...

On 8 July 2026, ACAMH will host a workshop, Understanding the Adolescent Brain: From Research to Real-World Practice.

We caught up with one of the contributors – Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci ...