Investigating question-answer sequences in child mental health assessments: Engaging children and families through declarative question design

Objective: In mental health settings, before a child can be diagnosed with a mental health condition, they must initially be assessed. These assessments are characterised by question-answer sequences with the child and family members, and our objective is to explore the function of declarative questions. Methods: Video recordings of mental health assessments from 28 families were collected, each being approximately 90 min. Referred children were aged 6–17-years. Data were transcribed using the Jefferson approach and conversation analysis was used. Results: Attention to question-answer sequences identified that one common type was the declarative question. We focus on three identifiable forms: clean language short declaratives, declaratives with extreme case formulations, and reformulation declaratives. Conclusions: The response to these three types of declaratives formed the basis for subsequent question-answer elaboration sequences. The question functioned both to engage the child directly and align with other family members. Practice implications: Implications for practitioners are that these types of declarative questions offer a resource to engage in fact-checking in a way that is non-face-threatening. Conversation analysis provides a methodological tool for practitioners to engage in reflective practice to enhance their clinical skills in relation to question design

Investigating question-answer sequences in child mental health assessments: Engaging children and families through declarative question design

Objective: In mental health settings, before a child can be diagnosed with a mental health condition, they must initially be assessed. These assessments are characterised by question-answer sequences with the child and family members, and our objective is to explore the function of declarative questions. Methods: Video recordings of mental health assessments from 28 families were collected, each being approximately 90 min. Referred children were aged 6–17-years. Data were transcribed using the Jefferson approach and conversation analysis was used. Results: Attention to question-answer sequences identified that one common type was the declarative question. We focus on three identifiable forms: clean language short declaratives, declaratives with extreme case formulations, and reformulation declaratives. Conclusions: The response to these three types of declaratives formed the basis for subsequent question-answer elaboration sequences. The question functioned both to engage the child directly and align with other family members. Practice implications: Implications for practitioners are that these types of declarative questions offer a resource to engage in fact-checking in a way that is non-face-threatening. Conversation analysis provides a methodological tool for practitioners to engage in reflective practice to enhance their clinical skills in relation to question design

Using naturally occurring data in qualitative health research: A practical guide.

This highly practical resource brings new dimensions to the utility of qualitative data in health research by focusing on naturally occurring data. It examines how naturally occurring data complement interviews and other sources of researcher-generated health data, and takes readers through the steps of identifying, collecting, analyzing, and disseminating these findings in ethical research with real-world relevance. The authors acknowledge the critical importance of evidence-based practice in today’s healthcare landscape and argue for naturally occurring data as a form of practice-based evidence making valued contributions to the field. And chapters evaluate frequently overlooked avenues for naturally occurring data, including media and social media sources, health policy and forensic health contexts, and digital communications. Included in the coverage: · Exploring the benefits and limitations of using naturally occurring data in health research · Considering qualitative approaches that may benefit from using naturally occurring data · Utilizing computer-mediated communications and social media in health · Using naturally occurring data to research vulnerable groups · Reviewing empirical examples of health research using naturally occurring data Using Naturally Occurring Data in Qualitative Health Research makes concepts, methods, and rationales accessible and applicable for readers in the health and mental health fields, among them health administrators, professionals in research methodology, psychology researchers, and practicing and trainee clinicians

“Is Everybody Comfortable?” Thinking Through Co-design Approaches to Better Support Girls’ Physical Activity in Schools

Of interest across the domains of sport, education and health in the UK and internationally is the challenge of engaging girls in physical activity. There has been increasing support for novel approaches that take seriously the notion of ‘co-design’: i.e. involving girls in decision-making processes that directly and indirectly affect their engagement with physical activity. Given this approach is still in its infancy, this study set out to explore pupils’ experiences of a co-designed school-based physical activity programme–the UK Youth Sport Trust’s Girls Active programme–and offers suggestions for enhancing future co-design interventions. We report analysis of 22 focus groups conducted with 143 pupils from eight of the ten schools that engaged in the Girls Active programme. Seeking to explore how co-design can be optimised, the analysis arrived at a conceptualisation grounded in comfort theory, articulated here across three sources of comfort and discomfort: material, social and practical. We discuss how orienting future co-design interventions around these sources of discomfort may be a useful way of avoiding several significant reasons why girls might disengage from physical activity in schools. Crucially, we suggest that pupils are uniquely placed to offer insight and foresight about experiences of discomfort, making a co-design approach a potentially powerful way to help navigate what can be a complex, changing and context-sensitive issue. Finally, important distinctions between co-design and co-production are discussed to encourage researchers in the field to carefully consider which of these approaches are most appropriate for their own work

Professional practices and children's social competence in mental health talk

The World Health Organisation estimates that worldwide 10-20% of children and adolescents experience mental health problems (WHO, 2018). Beyond the boundaries of these clinically-defined populations and conditions, children experience a range of ordinary and extraordinary circumstances that affect their mental health and wellbeing. Throughout their lives, children may participate in a range of different institutional settings where emotional, behavioural and neurodevelopmental matters are attended to as relevant for the purposes of that institution..