| Child and Adolescent
Mental Health TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PROJECT www.camhs.org |
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Although it is acknowledged that it is important for those people working with children and adolescents to have an understanding of child and adolescent mental health and skills for dealing with issues around mental health it is also important to emphasise the different roles and perspectives different professions and groups bring. Thus in order to avoid a checklist approach to the issue of core capabilities relating to child and adolescent mental health a guidance document that people can use to reflect on their own capabilities in the area is being developed. This document will look at the capabilities needed to work with issues relating to mental health and emotional well-being for children and adolescents. It will differentiate between working with different age groups of young people as the skills required by someone working with adolescents will be very different from those working with pre-school or primary school children. It will also attempt to reflect the fact that certain competencies will be required at different levels, for different professionals. Specific core capabilities, which may be unique to various categories of mental health workers / professionals, will need to be further delineated by those professions and practitioners in order to facilitate relevant and appropriate training and development in child and adolescent mental health. It is hoped that in this way some of the complexity of the issues will not be lost and that practitioners will be able to engage with the document as a tool for reflection rather than as a checklist. This document is based on work done by the Sainsbury Centre on The Capable Practitioner and The Essential Capabilities for Mental Health Workers. A diagram outlining this framework is available to view on the next page. |
