How many ways do they need to say it? Young autistic people need support for their mental health.

Autistic people with mental health needs are clear that they need specialised services and these can only be effective if people are properly trained in both mental health and autism.

Vaso Totsika’s blog considers a study by Crane and colleagues, which seeks to further our understanding of how young autistic people experience the world of service provision in relation to their mental health needs, and in particular at the time of transition from child to adult services.

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CBT may help to improve emotion regulation in children with autism

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James Cusack from Autistica writes his debut elf blog on a new RCT of CBT to improve emotion regulation in children with autism, published recently in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

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Turn on, tune in, drop out! Music therapy no better than usual care for young people

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Lisa Burscheidt is rather disappointed by a randomised controlled trial of music therapy for children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems.

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Digital health for young people with mental health problems: silver bullet or red herring?

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Victoria Betton on a recent meta review of digital health interventions for children and young people with mental health problems. The question is, does the evidence square with her experience of what actually happens in practice?

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Parent training works for child and adolescent mental health

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Tony McGinn presents a high-level overview of the state of parent training evidence. His blog draws on over 30 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, to bring you a handy summary of what works.

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Substance misuse and addiction in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

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Andrew Jones summarises a recent Canadian cohort study, which explores the extent of substance misuse and addictive disorders among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Mental health support for children with learning disabilities

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In her debut blog, Christine Burke from the Mental Health Foundation considers what good mental health support should look like for children and young people with learning disabilities.

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Pivotal response treatment is promising for children with autism

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Rosalyn Nelson presents the findings of a small RCT of Pivotal Response Treatment groups for parents of children with autism, which has promising results in terms of encouraging children to communicate.

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Seclusion and restraint in disability services influenced by both individual and organisational factors

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Seclusion, whilst still in use in disability services can be considered at odds with the person-centred values underpinning modern services

Here, Alex Leeder looks at a review of its use in Victoria, Australia, to try to find what factors are associated with its ongoing use.

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Placebo effect in psychiatry: what do we really know?

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David Steele summarises a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which looks at the mediators and moderators of the placebo effect in psychiatry.

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