Coronavirus (COVID-19) mental health transition and recovery plan - children and young people's mental health: CRWIA

7. What evidence have you used to inform your assessment?

Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board:

The Joint Delivery Board's focus is to deliver the recommendations of the Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board, the Children & Young People's Mental Health Taskforce, the Youth Commission on Mental Health, the Audit of Rejected Referrals and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Audit Scotland Report.

CAMHS Improvement: Recommendations made in the Audit Scotland: Audit of Rejected Referrals; Children and Young People's Mental Health Task Force; Youth Commission; CAMHS waiting times data.

Eating Disorder Policy: National Review of Eating Disorder Services in Scotland.

Community Mental Health: The Framework on which services are based was developed through two years of engagement with stakeholders and a response to recommendations from the Children & Young People's Mental Health Taskforce, Youth Commission, Audit Scotland report on Children and Young People's Mental Health and the Audit of Rejected Referrals.

Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health: The World Association of Infant Mental Health has produced a position paper on the rights of the infant which, alongside UNCRC, has informed our approach to both Infant Mental Health service provision/awareness and how the rights of the infant are respected within other services. A rapid review of infant mental health has also informed this ongoing work including reference to prevalence (Skovgaard, 2010), Infant Mental Health within the context of wider systems (Zeanah et al, 2005), IMH within the context of childhood (Parent Infant Foundation 2021), and the long term implications from an international perspective (Lyons Ruth et al, 2017).

Children and Young People's Mental Health:

We monitor a range of sources of continuous evidence gathering to build a picture of the needs and health and wellbeing trends of children and young people in Scotland. Among others this includes: the Growing Up in Scotland Survey, Young People in Scotland Survey, School Health and Wellbeing Census, Lockdown Lowdown Study, Thriving Learners Study. This data provides us with a range of insights in to the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and of new and emerging trends. We also engage directly with children and young people regularly through children and young people's organisations to listen to their voices and gather feedback directly.

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing: The Student Mental Health Action Plan will be informed by research and evidence such as the recent Thriving Learners Study which highlighted an increase in students presenting with mental health issues and increasing demand for university services.

The National Trauma Training Programme: Over recent years there has been increasing awareness and evidence about the impacts of trauma and adversity, including the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) studies. There is also increasing understanding about the importance of relationships, positive childhood experiences, and trauma-informed approaches for supporting resilience and recovery. The Transforming Psychological Trauma Knowledge and Skills Framework, on which the National Trauma Training Programme is based, has been informed by this research evidence, as well as the views of experts with lived experience of trauma.