Making and Breaking Children's Lives (Critical Psychology Division) - Softcover

More and more children are being caught up in the mental health system. One sign of this is the increased use in the UK of the diagnosis Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD ) - Another is the widespread prescribing of the stimulant Ritalin as a treatment. Making and Breaking Children's Lives confronts this situation head on, offering a robust critique and advocating a holistic approach to children's problems where psychosocial context is given greater prominence. Peter Campbell, Openmind (UK) March/April 2006. This is a timely, and extremely relevant publication. Currently there is a lot of earnest activity involved in organising, reorganising and improving services to children - This collection draws our attention to some of the most pressing issues. Readers will be challenged a provoked into clarifying their own positions. Let us hope that clarification does not lead to calcification! John Burnham, Consultant Systemic Family Psychotherapist.

"Making and Breaking Children's Lives" examines how children are hurt in modern society. We hear about the effects of early abandonment, abuse and lack of attachment, but find that children's experiences are sanitised through medical diagnoses and frequently the 'help' offered is prescription drugs. In this challenging book a plurality of voices returns to one consistent theme - the importance of psychosocial context, which become increasingly dismissed as being irrelevant in the rush to label and prescribe. However, there is hope - the final section describes inspiring examples of how services and communities can be developed to give children and their families a chance to prosper - evidence that there is nothing inevitable about the breaking of children's lives.