Interconnections Worldwide

Working internationally to share information, help build knowledge and support teamwork around babies, children and young people who are disabled, marginalised or vulnerable

The home of Team Around the Child (TAC) and the Multiagency Keyworker

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Mindfulness based courses for Mental Health Professionals

A Skills Based Approach to Treatment Resistant Depression

Teaching Clients to use Mindfulness Skills

 

A Skills Based Approach to Treatment Resistant Depression with Professor Tom Lynch

Lady Margaret Hall – Oxford, UK

12th – 13th Sept 2011

 

Teaching Clients to use Mindfulness Skills

Emmanuel College – Cambridge, UK

19th Sept 2011

 

Programme from Oct 2011 

15.10.11          London            Mindfulness Skills

18.11.11          Newcastle       Emotion Tolerance

19.11.11          Newcastle       Mindfulness Skills

02.12.11          Winchester      Emotion Tolerance

03.12.11          Winchester      Mindfulness

05.12.11          Glasgow          Depression

 

These workshops are aimed at Mental Health Practitioners and contribute towards BABCP CPD

They are brought to you in partnership between Stanton Psychological Services Ltd and Grayrock Ltd

For details visit  www.stantonltd.co.uk  or  www.grayrock.co.uk

Ill-equipped schools and teachers put children with special needs at risk

Pupils with special needs and teachers in mainstream schools are often the victims of a “one size fits all” approach to schooling and education, a leading academic has claimed.

Pupils with special needs and teachers in mainstream schools are often the victims of a "one size fits all" approach to schooling and education, a leading academic has claimed.Professor Paul Cooper, a chartered psychologist and professor of education at the University of Leicester, said pupils with social, emotional and behavioural problems (SEBD) are at particular risk of under-achieving because schools are frequently ill-equipped to handle their problems. 

Teachers need better training in the appropriate skills and methods for supporting pupils with special needs, while the children themselves require a more diverse range of provision to meet those needs both within and beyond mainstream schools. 

In a new book, From Inclusion to Engagement: helping students engage with schooling through policy and practice, Professor Cooper and co-author Barbara Jacobs, a research student in the University of Leicester's School of Education, argue that it is not children with special needs that present the problems for schools and teachers -- but failings within the education system. 

Professor Cooper, whose book also examines classroom strategies and approaches that have been found to be effective, said that too often "blanket assumptions" are made about pupils' needs, and teachers frequently lack the skills and knowledge to be able to support them. 

He said: "There should be a diverse range of educational facilities so that children can move between one or another as needs arise. Everyone should have the right to go to their local school, but they also have a right to be educated in accordance with their needs and aspirations. 

"It is patently obvious that many of our schools experience difficulties in catering for the needs of all students, and demanding that they do so in the absence of appropriate training and resources is disheartening for teachers and disastrous for students -- especially those who are most vulnerable. 

Teachers are as much victims of this muddled approach as children, Professor Cooper argues. "Initial teacher training has not changed sufficiently to accommodate the inclusion policy, leaving most teachers lacking in the skills required to deal with children with serious difficulties.

"This failure means that the most vulnerable pupils often do not tend to achieve educational success.  There is also a knock on effect from this, whereby teachers facing the most challenging circumstances find themselves locked into a fire fighting role, which has a negative effect on the learning experience of all students."

The situation is not helped by some academics who get bogged down in ideological discourse rather than conducting useful research, Professor Cooper adds.

"Too much time is spent by some educationalists navel-gazing and fiddling around with concepts that fail to tackle the nuts and bolts of interaction in the classroom," he said.  It's no wonder that policy makers and teachers pay little attention to what academics have to say, given the misguided nature of the discourse which too often vilifies specialist knowledge and skills and equates inclusion with where children are located rather than the quality of their educational engagement."

* From Inclusion to Engagement: helping students engage with schooling through policy and practice, is published by Wiley Blackwell, Price £27 in paperback or £57 in hardback.

For more information, please contact Professor Cooper on 0116 252 3751; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Seminar: Infant Disability. Infant Mental Health. Two separate worlds?

mh_of_di2London, UK. Wednesday 9th November, 2011.     

Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London, UK, NW1 2BJ.

9.45 a.m. to 12 midday.          (Refreshments from 9.15.)

The venue is just over the road from Euston Station. (For venue, visit: www.friendshouse.co.uk. E-mail: mailto: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Tel: 020 7663 1000)

Coffee and tea will be available before the seminar.

Lunch is not provided but the venue has a café and Euston station (just across the road) has numerous shops, cafes, food outlets and bars.

There will be time and space after the seminar for people who want to continue their discussions and share materials

Costs:  £75.00   

Paired place: If a practitioner can bring with them a parent who uses, or has used, their service, the cost of the paired place will be £100.

Please note: These costs do not include overnight accommodation.

Facilitator: Peter Limbrick – the originator of the TAC model in early childhood intervention / early support and author of several books on the TAC theme.[1]

The seminar will have an informal presentation followed by plenary and/or small group discussions. There will be a display of relevant material and delegates are invited to bring their own materials and resources to share.

The Seminar discussion

It can seem that there is little overlap between these two worlds and these two groups of practitioners. How much knowledge do infant disability practitioners have of infant mental health issues? How much do infant mental health practitioners know about disability?

This seminar will pick up the concern that too many separate practitioners and too many programmes might undermine a vulnerable infant's emotional, social and psychological wellbeing by making too many demands and facing him or her with too many people to relate to. Peter will suggest that multiple practitioners too early in the infant's life might actually spoil the mother and infant's process of becoming attached to each other.

The aim of this session is to explore the bridges that already exist between the two worlds, to discuss strategies for making more links between them, to develop first ideas for evaluating an infant's readiness for multiple practitioners, and to explore what infant disability practitioner can do to promote attachment and protect infants' mental health.

It is intended for this seminar to be co-facilitated by someone from the world of infant mental health. It will be relevant to practitioners and managers in statutory, voluntary and private agencies involved in infant disability and/or infant mental health - in any country.

It is our intention to present this seminar as advertised here, but we reserve the right to alter the programme as necessary

For a booking form e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

This Seminar is the third in a set of four seminars over a two day period on the theme of Team Around the Child (TAC). Each seminar can be booked separately. To see the two-day programme click here.

 

Interconnections

Tel/fax: 01497 831550

E-mail: mailto: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web: www.teamaroundthechild.com

[1] For a list of publications please visit http://www.teamaroundthechild.com/bookshop.html

Families with disabled children can’t afford to return to work

The Every Disabled Child Matters campaign (EDCM) Campaign warns that Universal Credit proposals will not ‘make work pay’ for families with disabled children

 

EDCM and the Family Fund have launched ‘Breaking down barriers: making work pay for families with disabled children’. This report sets out the findings of a survey of families with disabled children who receive grant help from the Family Fund on the barriers they face entering and remaining in employment.

 

The survey indicates that limited support in meeting the high costs of childcare, and a lack of suitable provision, means that parents of disabled children cannot afford to return to work. Only 24% of survey respondents currently access childcare, and 66% of respondents stated that they pay more for childcare for their disabled child than for their non-disabled child. One parent summed this up, saying: ‘I could not afford to go back to work full time as both my children have disabilities and would need separate childcare… the cost would make working a pointless exercise’.

 

EDCM’s report raises concerns that, despite introducing a 10% cut in support for meeting childcare costs from April 2011, the Government has yet to set out proposals for childcare support within the Universal Credit.

 

Breaking down barriers: making work pay for families with disabled children’ calls upon the Government to:

 

·         Commit to improving the quality and availability of childcare for disabled children

·         Commit to providing at least current levels of financial support through disability additions within the Universal Credit, to make work pay for families with disabled children

 

For more information, click here

 

share your information  Cartoon © Martina Jirankova-Limbrick 2011