*Note: These contents are assembled from several web sites, some of whom are now defunct. Although I have the documents in my records, I've provided the current links to available items. Copies of material from defunct sites, as well as my works, are provided below. Copyright belongs to the authors and/or publishers of the material according to the information contained in the documents. An internet search of the titles or of content from the material should be made for referencing purposes. The owner of this web site only claims authorship where indicated within the material.
"Getting Help to Kids that Need It." University of Regina Department of Psychology Colloquium, October 9, 2008 (DHB notes) — Child mental health problems are common and cause severe disruption in the developmental trajectory. Many times they track to adulthood. They cause significant family distress and may contribute to parental mental health problems.
35 YEARS of WORKING with SUICIDAL PATIENTS: LESSONS LEARNED Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D 2007 — Contains information on suicide in adolescents
A Better Start: Child Maltreatment Prevention as a Public Health Priority 2010 — A public health approach to child maltreatment would address the range of conditions that place children at risk for abuse or neglect, not just at the individual and family levels but also at the community and societal levels. for more resources see http://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/
Aboriginal Early Childhood Development Assessment: Issues and Insights in a Cultural Context: A Report to the British Columbia Aboriginal Child Care Society 2013 — The goal of this work is to develop a greater understanding about the uses, approaches, processes, and efficacy of child development screening and assessment. In parƟcular, BCACCS [BC Aboriginal Child Care Society] wants to understand more fully the issues related to the use of these tools with First NaƟons/Aboriginal children.
Abuse Registry: Brief literature review (DHB) 2008 — Because an abuse registry along the lines that you describe might be subject to legal challenges unless enacted through legislation, another approach would be to screen all prospective employees.
Adolescent Brain Development and Drug Abuse 2008 — Research indicates that brain development is still in progress during adolescence; immature brain regions may place teenagers at elevated risk to the effects of drugs.
Adolescent Development and Pathways to Problem Behavior 2011 — Chapter 1: Our discussion of patterns of adolescent development begins with viewing adolescence in the context of physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and moral domains of growth and change.
A Review of Standardized Developmental Assessment Instruments for Young Children and Their Applicability for Children With Special Needs 2012 — This article provides a review of contemporary instruments for the developmental assessment of children aged 0–4 years and their applicability for children with special needs.
A Series of Issues Briefs on Strengthening Systems of Care for Children and Adolescents with Severe Emotional Disturbance -2004 — The briefs focus on assessment of children, therapeutic foster care, wraparound services, flexible funding, and multisystemic therapy.
Assessing Communication and Learning in Young Children Who are Deafblind or Who Have Multiple Disabilities 2009 — This guide is intended for all professionals who are responsible for assessing and developing interventions for young children who are deafblind. The contents should also be helpful for families of these children who seek to become actively involved in educational planning.
Assessment of Children: Issues and Instruments 2004 — The Real Choice projects involve finding alternative treatment placements for children with SED currently in or at risk of entering residential treatment programs. The success of such projects requires that children be correctly assigned to the appropriate level of care. One set of tools that can aid this assignment is standardized assessment instruments.
A structural neural deficit in adolescents with conduct disorder and its association with lack of empathy 2007 — The problem of juvenile delinquency and violence in modern societies has stimulated the search for factors that may predispose to aggressive behaviour. Despite the undisputable importance of socio-economic and political factors, the understanding of pathological aggression should benefit from identifying its biological basis.
Being alive well: Aboriginal youth and evidence-based approaches to promoting mental well-being 2007 — This paper was commissioned by the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNHIB) in order to review the current evidence base regarding efforts to promote mental health in Aboriginal youth in Canada.
Blueprint for Change: Research on Child and Adolescent Mental Health - Report of the National Advisory Mental Health Council’s Workgroup on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Intervention Development and Deployment 2001 — (1) identifying research opportunities in the development, testing, and deployment of treatment, service, and preventive interventions; (2) assessing the human resource needs in recruiting, training, and retaining child mental health researchers; and (3) making recommendations for strategically targeting research activities and infrastructure support to stimulate intervention development, testing, and deployment of research-based interventions
Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) 2012 — a standardized norm referenced instrument designed to assess the social emotional problems and competencies of children aged 12 to 35 months 30 days.
Central nervous changes in social dysfunction: Autism, aggression, and psychopathy 2006 — This paper reviews brain imaging data from research aiming at establishing possible central nervous correlates to aggression and psychopathy.
Child and Adolescent Trauma Measures: A Review 2003 — The manual attempts a comprehensive review as of the fall, 2003 of those instruments which address a range of traumatic experiences and the impact on children and adolescents. Copies of the instruments are included for those measures which are available at no or minimum cost and for which we were able to obtain a copy. In some instances, the author granted permission for the inclusion of an instrument or sample questions.
CHILD DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND PARENTING EFFICACY: A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF TWO MODELS OF INSIGHTS 2012 — Results indicate that children enrolled in INSIGHTS evidenced a decrease in disruptive behavior problems over the course of the intervention, with children with high maintenance temperaments evidencing the most rapid rates of decline.
Child Maltreatment Prevention: Toward an Evidence-Based Approach 2009 — This publication represents an effort to address the following question: What is the state of the evidence base on child maltreatment prevention? T
Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care 2006 — The results suggest that children on the margin of foster care placement have better employment, delinquency, and teen motherhood outcomes when they remain at home.
Closing the Distance for Street Youth — This is an exercise on applying the "closing the distance" lens to the living conditions of part of the street youth population in order to analyze the ways in which they experience exclusion and distancing in their lives.
COMMONLY USED ASSESSMENT and SCREENING INSTRUMENTS 2004 — Instead, the information provided here should be useful for understanding the strengths, limitations, and appropriate uses of the instruments described. It can also be used to understand issues involved in the assessment and testing of young children in general
DELlRIUM I~' CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS 2008 — Dissertation: Through the use of a systematic review of the literature and a case series of children and adolescents diagnosed with delirium, [the author] attempts to highlight relevant continuities and discontinuities between the syndrome of delirium as it presents in childhood and adolescence, and as it presents in adulthood and old age.
Determining the Best Interests of the Child 2012 — This factsheet discusses State laws that present the factors that courts need to consider when making decisions about a child's appropriate custody and care. Factors to be considered include parental capacity to provide adequate care, sibling and other family relationships, and the child's wishes. The factsheet also addresses the definition of best interests and guiding principles of best interest determinations.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDITY ASSESSMENT OF A MEASURE OF SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING WITHIN AN ONLINE CONTEXT AMONG ADOLESCENTS 2015 thesis — The Online Social Information Processing scale (OSIP) is a measure with 116 items that was developed based on the Social Information Processing model (SIP). The OSIP measures six social information processing skills, with a focus on how these skills are used in the face of online aggression. This goal of this study was to examine the validity of the OSIP for measuring how adolescents processed social information in online settings.
Development of the Juvenile Justice Anger Management Treatment for Girls 2012 — This cognitive-behavioral intervention was adapted from the Coping Power Program (Lochman & Wells, 2002), a school-based anger management treatment for younger children that has established efficacy and effectiveness findings with its target populations.
Effective Mental Health Services for Aboriginal Children and Youth 2012 — This Evidence Brief was produced by: The Provincial System Support Program, a program of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH),
Effective Strategies to Support Positive Parenting in Community Health Centers: Report of the Working Group on Child Maltreatment Prevention in Community Health Centers 2009 — In September 2007, the CDC contracted with the American Psychological Association (APA) to convene a panel of experts to identify and recommend public health strategies based on the best available science to prevent child maltreatment within the context of behavioral health integration at community health centers.
Evidence Based Practices — The growing trend toward the use of Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) in children’s mental health services has been gaining recognition and importance in Ontario.
Explicating the Social Mechanisms Linking Alcohol Use Behaviors and Ecology to Child Maltreatment 2012 — This paper begins to describe and explicate the specific mechanisms by which alcohol use and the alcohol use environment contribute to specific types of child maltreatment.
Family Assessment in Child Welfare Services: Instrument Comparisons 2006 — Family assessment instruments hold promise for enhancing clinical judgment by structuring the decision making process and demonstrating the linkages between assessment, service provision, and child and family outcomes.
Family Connections to Peers and Community 2013 — “Parents and families form connections with peers and mentors in formal or informal social networks that are supportive and/or educational and that enhance social well-being and community life.
Functional Assessment Based Parent Intervention in Reducing Children’s Challenging Behaviors: Exploratory Study of Group Training 2014 — This study examined the effects of group parent training on children’s challenging behaviors in home settings. Free full text is available for pdf download.
Guidelines for Best Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services 2001 (rev 2007) — address many of the clinical challenges that practitioners regularly face, by offering a set of qualitative standards... There are three main sections: Assessment, Practice, and Behavioral Health Submissions.
How to Implement Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) 2004 — Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a components-based psychosocial treatment model that incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioral, attachment, humanistic, empowerment, and family therapy models. It includes several core treatment components designed to be provided in a flexible manner to address the unique needs of each child and family.
Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Children’s Mental Health 2005 — Despite widespread acknowledgement that health practitioners need to be informed of the best currently available research evidence, implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) can be a challenge in real-world settings. Considerable recent literature has examined EBP. However, few studies have investigated the implications of EBP for interdisciplinary children’s mental health teams. This report focuses on implementing EBP in children’s mental health.
Implementing evidence-informed practice: A practical toolkit by Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health 2013 — introducing a new program to address the mental health needs of children and youth in your community
Instrument Development: Youth Anger, Youth Forgiveness, and Youth Emotional Support 2013 dissertation — The role of forgiveness, anger, and emotional support, among the adolescent population,continues to receive significant interest among the research community. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a measure of perceived level of anger, support, and forgiveness among African-American adolescents.
Knowledge Transfer & Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice in Children’s Mental Health 2005 — The seemingly simple task of transferring a number of evidence-based practices to the field is anything but simple. It requires involvement from all stakeholders, good planning and resourcing, and a system that can develop a culture of evidence-based practice delivery and accountability.
Knowledge Transfer andImplementation ofEvidence-Based Practices inChildren’s Mental Health 2005 — Evidence-based practice is an emerging concept that reflects a burgeoning effort to build quality andaccountability in mental health service delivery. Though not yet formally recognized on the Canadianhealth care agenda, the concept conveys a fundamental belief that children with emotional andbehavioural disorders should be able to count on receiving care that meets their needs and is based onthe best scientific evidence available.
Living in children's residential homes 2012 — This short study provides an insight into the nature of children’s residential homes, the characteristics and circumstances of the young people who live in them and on the short-term outcomes for these young people.
Making Meaning Together: Helping Survivors of Violence to Learn at School 2010 — The deleterious effects on cognitive capacity in children and adolescents who have been exposed to violence at home and in the community have been meticulously documented. What is less well known is how very much these youngsters want to learn at school. Children and adolescents from violent backgrounds, like others, equate education with a hopeful future and are eager to attend. However, when they do go to school, the violence that they experience leaves them terrified to think.
Mental health and behaviour in schools 2014 — Who is this advice for? Primary and secondary school teachers, pastoral leaders, Special Educational Needs Coordinators and others working to support children who suffer from, or are at risk of developing, mental health problems.
Mental health problems in children and young people 2012 — Mental health problems in children and young people are common and account for a significant proportion of the burden of ill health in this age range. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as not simply the absence of disorder but ‘a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community’
Mental Health Screening and Assessment Tools for Children -Literature Review 2008 — a review of measures used to screen and/or assess mental health and/or social-emotional functioning in children of all ages (birth through adolescence), with a focus on the child welfare context whenever possible.
Mindfulness Practice in K-12 Schools: Emerging Research on Stress, Well Being, and Achievement 2014 — The purpose of this document is to provide interested professionals in the area of education and human development with a summary and collection of peer-reviewed research on the emerging field of mindfulness education in schools.
Network on Child Protection and Well Being (started 2012) — teaching, research, and engagement in the area of child maltreatment.
Neural correlates of social decision-making in severely antisocial adolescents 2014 — Neurobiological and behavioral findings suggest that the development of delinquent behavior is associated with atypical social-affective processing.
Neural Responses to Affective and Cognitive Theory of Mind in Children With Conduct Problems and Varying Levels of Callous-Unemotional Traits 2012 — Childhood conduct problems are associated with amygdala and anterior insula hypoactivity during a complex affective processing task including an empathy component.
New Jersey Standards for Prevention Programs: Building Success through Family Support 2014 — Recognizing the importance of preventing child maltreatment and the need for evidence based prevention programs and strategies the Prevention Subcommittee of the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse was charged with developing Standards for Prevention Programs.
Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health — Extensive list od resources available at http://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/resource-hub
Parenting Behaviors, Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, and Problem Behavior: The Role of Self-Esteem and School Adjustment Difficulties Among Chinese Adolescents 2014 dissertation — (Note that dissertations cover the literature and are a source of useful information on topics of concern.) The findings highlight the interactions between family and school contexts in adolescent development.
Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting 2013 — This New Zealand paper explores the system responses required to support children exposed to intimate partner violence.
Positive Parent-Child Relationships 2013 — Outcome: “Beginning with the transition to parenthood, parents and families develop warm relationships that nurture their child’s learning and development.”
Positive parenting and family functioning 2014 — program development toolkit by city of Calgary
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children 2014 — Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents occurs as a result of a child’s exposure to 1 or more major traumatic events. Such events can take many forms, including physical or sexual assaults, natural disasters, accidents, traumatic death or injury of a loved one, and emotional abuse or neglect.
Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders 2007 — This practice parameter describes the epidemiology, clinical picture, differential diagnosis, course, risk factors, and pharmacological and psychotherapy treatments of children and adolescents with major depressive or dysthymic disorders.
PREPaRE: School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum
PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum — This is a brief overview of the PREPaRE curriculum and is not an official PREPaRE training. To find out more about the PREPaRE curriculum, visit http://www.nasponline.org/prepare/index.aspx
Preventing Physical and Psychological Maltreatment of Children in Families: Review of Research for the Campaign for Action on Family Violence 2008 — This report presents a summary of findings from a literature review of selected New Zealand and international research on the physical and psychological abuse of children and on child maltreatment prevention.
Prevention of Behavior Problems for Children in Foster Care: Outcomes and Mediation Effects 2008 — Child behavior problems were reduced significantly more in the intervention condition than in the control condition, and specific parenting practices were found to mediate these reductions, especially for high-risk children in foster families reporting more than six behavior problems per day at baseline.
Prevention of Child Maltreatment and Associated Impairment 2012 — Child maltreatment encompasses four main types of abuse – physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. More recently, exposure to intimate partner violence has also been identified as a form of child abuse.
Promising Practices Network — The Promising Practices Network began in 1997 as a partnership between four state-level organizations that help public and private organizations improve the well-being of children and families. Due to funding constraints, the PPN project has concluded. The PPN website was archived in June 2014 and has not been updated since then.
Reaching out to fathers: ‘what works’ in parenting interventions? 2014 — This article discusses the importance of specifically including fathers, surveys the limited evidence base on working with fathers, and identifies ten interventions of proven effectiveness.
RESEARCH REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICES FOR PROVISION OF YOUTH SERVICES 2002 — This report identifies elements of “best practice” in service delivery for high-risk youth. “Best practices” are based on the results of a review of current literature related to evidence of program model’s effectiveness. The report also addresses barriers to service delivery affecting the high-risk youth population.
Responsive parenting:a strategy to preventviolence EARLY CHILDHOOD MATTERS 2014 — John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, once said: ‘If a community values its children, it must cherish their parents.’ There is growing evidence that responsive parenting can have lifetime effects on all aspects of children’s development including their health, nutrition, learning and protection. much of this edition of Early Childhood Matters is devoted to the potential of parenting programmes to reduce the incidence and impact of violence in young children’s lives.
Restoring Dignity Responding to Child Abuse in Canadian Institutions 2000 — Full report at http://www.ellisandcompany.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/JL2-7-2000-2E.pdf
Risk and Safety Assessment in Child Welfare: Instrument Comparisons 2005 — Risk assessment tools generally include broad categories related to abuse and neglect, behavioral descriptions, procedures to determine levels of risk, and standardized forms for recording this information.
Safety in Child Protective Services Training Reference Guide 2013 — Safety Services refers to actions; items and resources provided, supervision identified as part of a safety plan occurring specifically for controlling or managing impending danger threats.
Saskatchewan Child Abuse Protocol 2014 — The Saskatchewan Child Abuse Protocol demonstrates a commitment by the Government of Saskatchewan and Police Services to ensure that all efforts to protect children from abuse and neglect are integrated, effective and sensitive to the needs of children.
Social Skills Training with Children andYoung People: Theory, Evidence and Practice 2003 — Behavioural SST methods include instructions, modelling, behaviour rehearsal, feedback and reinforcement, frequently used in association with interpersonal problem solving and social perception skills training.
SOME RESOURCES ON ADOLESCENT BRAINS
Somewhere To Turn To, Someone To Talk To. Headstrong – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health 2009 — The report outlines the Jigsaw model, which was shaped by consultations with young people, service providers and examples of best-practice in youth mental health identified internationally. It also describes two case studies of Jigsaw in action in Ireland and how the model can adapt to the unique circumstances of young people and their communities.
Sources for Screening and Assessment Tools, Instruments, and Measures — Websites and compendia listing tools, instruments and measures of assessment. -Children/youth -Parents -Family -Trauma
Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
The AACAP Practice Parameters - current — The AACAP Practice Parameters are developed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Committee on Quality Issues (CQI) in accordance with the American Medical Association policy.
The Adolescent Brain: A Work in Progress 2011 — Many of the new insights into the adolescent brain have been gained using the brain-imaging techniques that were discussed in Chapter One. What the scientists are seeing is that the teen years are a time of significant change in the activity, anatomy and neurochemistry of the brain.
The Efficacy of Aggression Replacement Training with Female Juvenile Offenders in a Residential Commitment Program 2013 dissertation — Female adolescents are increasingly being charged with crimes of violence, and the literature is lacking as to how best to reduce their aggressive tendencies... Aggression Replacement Training® is a 10-week, evidence-based, group treatment intervention designed to advance moral reasoning, improve social skills, and manage angry feelings.
The Forgiving Child: The Impact of Forgiveness Education on Excessive Anger for Elementary-Aged Children 2008 — Research has shown that exposure to negative environmental conditions such as poverty. and violence can have adverse influence on young children. Forgiveness education programs are designed to ameliorate this deleterious impact on young children by targeting excessive anger that can arise from deep hurt.
The Incredible Years: evidence-based, proven effective programs. — Our goal is to deliver evidence-based programs and materials that develop positive parent-teacher-child relationships and assist in preventing and treating behavior problems and promoting social, emotional, and academic competence before a child becomes an adult.
The interRAI Child/Youth Mental Health – Developmental Disability (ChYMHDD) Instrument 2013 — This article provides a brief overview of mental health issues of children and youth with intellectual developmental disorder (IDD). It then describes a new assessment instrument, the interRAI Child and Youth Mental Health – Developmental Disabilities (ChYMH-DD), recently developed through a partnership between the Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI) in London, Ontario and interRAI, an international consortium of expert researchers and clinicians that are committed to improve the quality of life of vulnerable persons through a seamless comprehensive assessment system.
The Mental Health and Well-Being of Aboriginal Children and Youth: Guidance for New Approaches and Services 2004 — This review summarizes research and related literature pertinent to the mental health needs of Aboriginal children and youth.
The Michigan Child Welfare Law Journal: special issue on child welfare 2007 — focuses on issues related to Michigan’s foster care system.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
The Role of Social Support in Relation to Parenting Stress and Risk of Child Maltreatment among Asian American Immigrant Parents 2013 dissertation — This study suggests providing more culturally competent interventions that aim to reduce parenting stress and intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment, increasing utilization of available services and awareness on child protective services, and enhancing Asian immigrant families to develop a social support system of family and friends.
The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction 2011 NIMH — One of the ways that scientists have searched for the causes of mental illness is by studying the development of the brain from birth to adulthood. Powerful new technologies have enabled them to track the growth of the brain and to investigate the connections between brain function, development, and behavior.
To Play, Learn, and Think Understanding and Mitigating the Effects of Exposure to Violent Events on the Cognitive Capacity of Children and Adolescents 2005 — Research on the effects of exposure to real-life violent events point to resulting difficulties in cognitive capacity. This creates difficulties for schoolchildren in thinking and learning.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children Affected by Sexual Abuse or Trauma 2012 — Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment approach shown to help children, adolescents, and their caregivers overcome trauma-related difficulties. It is designed to reduce negative emotional and behavioral responses following child sexual abuse, domestic violence, traumatic loss, and other traumatic events.
Treating Child andAdolescent Depression A Handbook for Children’s Mental Health Practitioners 2002
Uncovering an Epidemic — Screening for Mental Illness in Teens 2006 — the majority of mental illness in young people goes unrecognized and untreated, leaving them vulnerable to emotional, social, and academic impairments during a critical phase of their lives.
UNDERSTANDING CONTEXUAL INFLUENCES OF EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN IN OUT-OF-HOME CARE: THE INFLUENCE OF WORKERS AND FOSTER FAMILIES 2011 — Children receiving out-of-home care show increased problems on a range of behaviors including externalizing behaviors.
Youth Detoxification and Residential Treatment Literature Review 2006 — Best and Promising Practices in Adolescent Substance Use Treatment
Youth Suicide Prevention School-Based Guide 2012 — The briefs also offer specific strategies that are supported by research in reducing the incidence of suicidal behavior, with references that schools may then explore in greater detail. A resource section with helpful links is also included.