Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19507
In this podcast, we are joined by Professor Lina Gega, professor of mental health at the University of York and honorary nurse consultant in psychological therapies at Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust. Lina is also a joint editor of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal, one of the three journals produced by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Lina sets the scene by providing an insight into how she came to specialise in cognitive behavioural therapy and digital mental health, as well as what makes digital media so applicable to child and adolescent mental health.
With the COVID pandemic having been an accelerator for digital technologies, Lina discusses her recently published paper on the impact of digital technology during the pandemic, including what conclusions she drew and how this impacts children and young people.
Lina also talks us through her work on several interesting projects and provides insight into their aims, plus findings. For a number of her projects, Lina has teamed up with colleagues from outside of academia to develop prototypes for digital tools for children with different emotional vulnerabilities.
Lina discusses what barriers and challenges she has faced when translating research into practise and explores how to overcome these to make a real difference to families.
Furthermore, as Lina has published over 70 papers, books, and book chapters, plus has worked with publishers, universities, NHS services, charities, and grant-awarding bodies as a research advisor and reviewer, Lina shares her advice for researchers, in particular those early in their careers who want to achieve and maintain high standards in the conduct and reporting of research.

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.18400
In this podcast, we hear from Dr. Johnna Swartz, Assistant Professor of Human Ecology at the University of California Davis.
The focus is on the JCPP paper ‘Reward- and threat-related neural function associated with risk and presence of depression in adolescents: a study using a composite risk score in Brazil’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13496), co-authored by Dr. Johnna Swartz.
Johnna sets the scene by explaining why she opted for Brazil to conduct her research, and provides us with a summary of the paper.
Johnna then details why it is important to study low risk, high risk, and depressed adolescents, rather than just low risk versus high-risk adolescents or non-depressed versus depressed adolescents, before highlighting and explaining the key findings of her research.
Furthermore, Johnna also discusses the implications of the findings for professionals working with young people and their families, and whether the risk scores used in the study are being adapted for use in clinical settings to help assess depression risk for young people.

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.18654
In this podcast, we talk to Professor Mark Tomlinson of the Department of Global Health Institute for Life Course Health Research, Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper, ‘First 1,000 days: enough for mothers but not for children? Long-term outcomes of an early intervention on maternal depressed mood and child cognitive development: follow-up of a randomised controlled trial’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13482).
Mark is the lead author of this paper and sets the scene by providing insight into what prompted his interest in both young people’s mental health and, in particular, the impact of maternal depression on infant and child development.
Mark talks us through what his paper looks at, why he decided to research this area, highlights the methodology used in the paper, and shares his findings.
Mark then provides further insight into the finding that, although the paper describes how caregivers who received a home visiting intervention during their pregnancies and postpartum did show lasting improvements in depressed mood, and that the intervention was also associated with mothers being more sensitive and less intrusive in their interactions with their infants and to a higher rate of secure infant attachment at 18 months, there was a lack of long-term developmental benefit for the children.
Furthermore, Mark also discusses what message professionals, researchers, and policymakers should take from his findings, and provides additional information with regard to follow up research.

In conversation with Dr Duncan Gillard, Senior Educational Psychologist and an experienced ACT practitioner, trainer and author. Duncan is the co-author of the popular self-help book Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Dummies.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a trans-diagnostic therapeutic approach, belonging to the broad church of cognitive behavioural therapies (CBTs). With the practice of mindfulness as one of its core processes, the aim of ACT is to enable people to move toward a life with meaning and purpose through values-based action.