Centre for Social Work Research (CSWR)

Adolescent Mental Health

Adolescent mental health and psychoanalytically informed therapeutic practice with young people; responding to the global challenge.

This theme draws on the clinical work of the Tavistock’s Adolescent Department which provides mental health and psychotherapy services for disturbed young people.  Through the application of psychosocial research methods and reflections on clinical experiences, links are made with the current national and international concerns about adolescent mental health.

Key current research themes include;

• Issues arising in the extended transition to adulthood in contemporary contexts and the implications for health and well-being, and service delivery and design
• Psycho-social understandings of the manifestation of social and personal difficulties for young people, including gang behaviour, substance misuse, violence and suicide, eating disorders, impacts of educational stresses etc
• Providing a critique of current mainstream preoccupations with short-term psychological treatments, instrumentalism and psychiatric-led (diagnostic) approaches to adolescent difficulties and promoting an alternative, developmentally led model, (for example, this approach would formulate  ‘depression’ as a dynamic concept rather than a diagnostic entity)
• Evaluating impacts of psychodynamic psychotherapy for young people, including innovative treatment models, (e.g. the manualised Time-Limited Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Adolescents and Young Adults – TPP-A)
• Evaluating practices and service provision that apply psychodynamic, developmental or relationally led approaches (e.g. the current evaluation of Kids Company’s ‘legit living’ programme)
• Linking with arts, music and drama to explore psycho-social aspects of adolescence/early adulthood
• Generating comparative studies of conceptualisations and responses to young people’s mental health difficulties. See the Tavistock/UEL – Latin American network for Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing

 

 

 

 

---

© 2012