Only Connect : Child and Adolescent Mental Health In Scotland . Looking back, looking forwards.

Professor Cathy Richards, Lead Clinician and Head of CAMHS Psychology , Specialist CAMHS Advisor to the Mental Health and Protection of Rights Division, Scottish Government. Honorary Professor, The University of Edinburgh.

April 4th 2019, 16:00-17:30, Business School, The Conference Room, 29 Buccleuch Place, EH8 9JS

The press is full of stories of young people in crisis and services that have let them down and social media giants who are exploiting distress and causing harm.

How did we get here and what the future of Mental Health Services for children, young people and families?

In this talk Professor Richards will reflect on the importance of relationships in childhood and the way in which their protective function echoes through effective service delivery and development. Data and stories from the Edinburgh Emotional Wellbeing Academy, Cared.Scotland resource and the Transitions Care Plan will be used to highlight the strength of working with children, young people and parents and with multi agency and research colleagues to co-produce services and resources.

Further the role of relationships and co-production in the delivery of Policy will be considered in an international perspective and with reference to Scotland’s Mental Health Strategy and the work of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Task Force chaired by Dame Denise Coia.

Professor Cathy Richards Biography

Professor Richards has worked in Scotland as a Clinical Psychologist with children and young people for over 20 years. Prior to moving to Scotland she worked for the University of Birmingham and South Birmingham Health Authority. For the past 15 years she has been Lead Clinician and Head of Applied Psychology in the Lothian Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. She is the chair of the Scottish CAMHS Lead Clinicians network and CAMHS advisor to the Mental Health Division, Scottish Government. She is an honorary professor with the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Richards has always been interested in working with teams to develop training and resources for children and young people and families and those supporting them. The real life implementation of evidence based practice across settings is also an interest.

Other work includes:

• External advisor for  ‘Preventing Depression and Improving Awareness through Networking in the EU (PREDI-NU)’ intervention programme (1.8M) (2011-2014)
• Contributor to Expert Reference Group in the development of ‘The CAMHS Competence Framework’ (2011)
• Action lead for action 19, 21 and 22 of the Mental Health Strategy.( 2017-present)
• Member of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Task Force Secretariat. ( 2018- present)

For any queries on this event please contact a.mourad@ed.ac.uk