'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast · The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Mind the Kids - Inpatient Insights

·39 min·2 clips

Ward care can require nurses, psychiatry, psychology, family therapy, dieticians, and paediatrics.

1. Mind the Kids: Inpatient Insights is an ACAMH episode about hospital admission for children and young people with significant or complex mental health needs. 2. Dr. Jane Gilmore, an Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Omar Taseeb, a psychologist at the University of York, host the discussion with Dr. Dawn Cutler and Guy Larrington from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. 3. The episode asks what inpatient care is for, when it is needed, and how a ward can work as treatment rather than only containment. 4. Omar Taseeb says he knows “very little” about inpatient psychiatric difficulties and cites a BBC News article from November about a 12-year-old who died in hospital after detention under the Mental Health Act. 5. Jane Gilmore says inpatient admission can apply when there is “risk of harm to oneself or others” or when the “nature or severity of the condition” needs intensive care. 6. She also raises functional symptoms, including seizures and mobility issues, as part of the broad inpatient mix. 7. Dawn Cutler defines the threshold as severity of impact on life, functional impairment, risk, and treatment that has not had the needed effect for the child to return home. 8. Guy Larrington adds that some young people arrive through A&E with no prior CAMHS contact, while others reach inpatient care after paediatric admission or a rapid crisis. 9. The guests contrast short-term stabilisation in a place of safety with longer admissions where the ward environment itself provides treatment. 10. Guy Larrington says some children have been “in their bedroom for two years, barely coming out,” showing how severe loss of function can develop over time. 11. Dawn Cutler describes the ward as needing safety, trusted relationships, boundaries, reasonable risk-taking, and teamwork with parents and the wider community. 12. She says the ward can look “a bit more like a school” than people imagine, with groups, education, a library, games, and activities. 13. The team around a child can include nurses, healthcare assistants, psychiatry, psychologists, family therapists, child psychotherapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians, and paediatric input. 14. Guy Larrington says parent visiting is part of treatment, not a move from one care environment to another, and gives the example of parents joining a meal on an eating-disorder ward. 15. The episode repeatedly returns to “shared care,” “day release,” and overnight stays at home as part of the transition back to community life. 16. Dawn Cutler says goals are set with the child and parents or carers, are often difficult to define at the start, and are “the most reliable change” of the measures they use. 17. The tone is reflective and exploratory, with Omar Taseeb asking basic questions and the guests answering in detailed clinical language. 18. Jane Gilmore and Omar Taseeb describe the ward as a place where “the environment becomes the treatment,” and they connect that idea to therapeutic relationships and routine. 19. This will suit clinicians, researchers, and parents seeking a clearer picture of inpatient child mental health care. 20. Skip it if you want light conversation or a quick non-clinical overview.

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