BPS joins Children’s Commissioner for Wales roundtable event

Dr Abigail Wright, a member of the BPS's Division of Educational and Child Psychology, represented the society at the online event held by Rocio Cifuentes to hear from professionals working with C&YP about 'possible solutions or promising practices', as well as 'collective action' that can be taken to make improvements in this area. 

The discussions will be used to formulate specific proposals and influence the Welsh government's actions to deliver its mental health strategy.  

Dr Wright, a senior specialist early years educational psychologist and BPS educational psychology lead for Wales, was among a number of people who participated in the event, representing professions including health visiting, speech and language therapy, psychiatry, nursing and pharmacy. She said:

"This was an excellent opportunity to come together to think jointly about how to facilitate change and support.

"We all shared the vision that support for individuals' wellbeing needs to be holistic and accessible in ways that best support the children. It was great to be able to communicate this directly to the commissioner, as well as get across other key messages about measures that can have a positive impact on children and young people's health and wellbeing."

Mental health is among the commissioner's strategic priorities; her own research has found the majority of young people are concerned about their mental health and young people don't know where to get help.

Speaking during the roundtable event, Dr Wright stressed the need for childcare and education services to be adequately funded, saying there were currently resource challenges. This impacted staffs' ability to do the best they could for children and risked the inclusion of some children at school.

Dr Wright also highlighted the need for more community-based support that makes sense of individuals' experiences, rather than trying to assign a 'service' 'pathway' or 'intervention' that might help.

She stressed the value of connections and relationships, saying these things are often what makes any support most meaningful and impactful.

People's 'behaviour' needed to be viewed in the context of their environment and experiences, she added, so that they were not made to feel 'faulty' or incapable of being helped.

The commissioner is holding a series of roundtable events this month to talk about mental health, including with young people.