Moorehouse, Natalie Rose;
(2022)
Supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of looked after children and young people: multiple perspectives within one London borough.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Moorehouse_10155300_thesisid_removed.pdf Download (12MB) | Preview |
Abstract
School based mental health support is currently cited as an effective approach to addressing the growing levels of mental health needs amongst children and young people in the UK. However, it is not yet known whether this approach will sufficiently meet the needs of looked after children and young people who not only experience significantly higher levels of emotional wellbeing and mental health needs but are also reported to experience difficulties in accessing support services. The current research therefore aimed to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders in this discussion, namely looked after children and young people and professionals, using Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological Theory of Human Development’ as an organising framework (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). In order to achieve this, a small-scale qualitative inquiry within one English Local Authority, Borough X, was undertaken (Creswell, 2013). Looked after children and young person’s views were explored at a group level via a workshop of eight young people and at an individual level with one young person, via a semi-structured interview. Professional views were explored at an individual level only via semi-structured interviews with fourteen professionals across a variety of backgrounds including health, social, educational and psychological services. The use of a qualitative approach to data analysis was chosen in order to ensure the data was sufficiently rich as to reflect the participants’ phenomenological experience in accordance with a social constructivist ontology. Using thematic analysis (Braun &Clarke, 2006), four themes were identified by young people: ‘Hear us’; ‘Be there for us’; ‘Help us to feel understood’; and ‘Provide us with opportunity’, and four by professionals: ‘Schools as providing therapeutic support’; ‘External therapeutic support’; ‘The professional network’; and ‘The wider context’. These findings were then used to consider implications for educational psychology practice and future research in order to contribute to understandings of how best to support young people in care with reference to their mental health and emotional wellbeing both across services and within schools.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | Supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of looked after children and young people: multiple perspectives within one London borough. |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155300 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
