What interventions best help traumatised children? Leading researcher and clinician Professor Helen MInnis

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Trauma can have long lasting effects on a child’s mental health and physical health. Learn more about the latest research and interventions for traumatised children in this interview with leading psychiatrist and researcher, Professor Helen Minnis.

What interventions are most helpful for children and their families who have experienced trauma? This is a question that Helen Minnis, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow, is seeking to answer. She has become one of the leading research Psychiatrists of her generation , working for many years therapeutically and researching children who have been abused and neglected. In this interview with Jane O’Rourke, Helen discusses what she is finding leading three research projects examining different therapeutic interventions with children and their families.

Professor Helen Minnis was also one of the first female black psychiatrists to qualify in the UK. She tells Jane how her own life as a black woman and clinician, has shaped her research.

We know that many fostered and adopted children come to their new families severely traumatised, and many also have problems such as ADHD and Autism. In this interview, Jane asks Helen how fostered and adopted children can best be helped in their new placements?

0:22 Background to Helen Minnis and her latest research

0:53 BeST? Services Trial, randomised controlled trial of an infant mental health intervention for children aged zero to five coming into foster care.

2:52 New Orleans intervention originally developed by Charley Zeanah and Julie Larrieu and the GIFT and LIFT interventions

4:45 Challenging the UK practice of Foster Carers being short term carers to prioritise the needs of children? Why US practice registering Foster Carers being there for the long term if the child needs.

6:20 Foster care commitment - a measure that was developed by Mary Dozier called the This is My Baby or This is My Child Interview

7:35 Partnership for Change Trial: intervening before a child goes into child protection. 8:50 Experts by Experience Shaping Services for Children

11:05 Neurodevelopmental conditions ADHD, autism, tic disorders linked with child neglect and abuse 11:33 Working with Parents Without An Agenda 12:44 Parents experience of being suicidal

14:36 Cultivating Compassion for Parents and holding back judgement

17:05 Randomised Controlled Trial of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy developed by Dan Hughes

19:20 What is DDP?

21:35 Results of DDP trial so far 22:58 What are the Main Predictors of Successful Adoptions?

24:17 Adopted Children are More Emotionally Resilient than Others

25:10 Heritable Problems in Adopted Children

26:00 Traumatised Children Who Can’t Ask For Help

28:33 Supporting Adoptive and Foster Parents

29:35 Attachment Disorders affecting fostered and adopted children such as reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited social engagement disorder

33'10 Why sparked Helen's interest working with children: How an Orphanage Sparked a Career With Adopted and Fostered Children

35:00 Professor Eric Taylor as a mentor

37:19 How has Helen's experiences as a black woman and clinician informed her research? Influence of Kwame McKenzie

38:19 Black woman in white spaces