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Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health

Health and social care professionals and staff in schools should be alert to the early
signs and indications of mental ill health, and can often take the first steps in finding
out more about the problems and needs of the child. There are various ‘tools’ that can
be used to help people decide if a mental health problem is likely, and these usually
take the form of sets of identification questions to ask. A mental health assessment
needs to be carried out if the answers to the questions indicate the likelihood of a
problem and this assessment must be done by a practitioner who is competent to
perform such an assessment.

An example of one of these tools is the child version of the Social Phobia Inventory
(SPIN), and this is mentioned in the NICE Guidance for the recognition assessment
and treatment of anxiety disorder.

A Activity 2: SPIN Inventory

Visit the website below to find out more about the SPIN Inventory.
Use the space below to make a note of any key points.
https://psychology-tools.com/spin/

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