At the start of term we welcomed psychologist and researcher Dr Lucy Foulkes to train all school staff about adolescent mental health. 

Specialising in adolescent mental health and social development, as well as what’s going wrong with mental health awareness, Dr Lucy Foulkes is a research fellow at both Oxford University and the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL, and author of What Mental Illness Really Is (And What It Isn’t). Alongside research, lecturing and public speaking, she is also finishing her next book on adolescent development, due for publication in 2024. 

After discussing the latest statistics on adolescent mental illness and how it has changed over the last few decades, Dr Lucy Foulkes interrogated the research. She discussed whether life is really worse for teenagers today than previous generations and how improved awareness creates an uplift in reporting. Presenting a scale of emotion from coping to mental health illness, she explained how social acceptance and social media proliferation can cause many normal negative feelings to be too readily interpreted as mental health problems.  

With a  list of tips and resources for schools and parents to help diagnose and support pupils with mental health concerns, the training formed an informative and thought-provoking start to term. 

Lucy’s reading recommendations for staff and parents:

Helping Your Child With Fears and Worries: A Self-Help Guide For Parents by Cathy Creswell and Lucy Willetts (Robinson, 2019)

Teenage Depression: A CBT Guide For Parents: Help Your Child Beat Their Low Mood by Shirley Reynolds and Monika Parkinson (Robinson, 2015) 

The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living by Dr Russ Harris (Robinson, 2008)

Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Doubleday, 2018)

What Mental Illness Really Is… (And What It Isn’t) by Dr Lucy Foulkes (Penguin, 2022)