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Biomedical subjects

Tamsin Ford

Publications and source records attributed to Tamsin Ford.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Securing Educational Support for Children With Rare Genetic Conditions: Mothers' Experiences and Impacts on the Family.

BACKGROUND: Children with rare genetic conditions are more likely to experience neurodevelopmental challenges requiring additional educational support. Although the governments in the United Kingdom and Ireland are committed to providing such support, securing it can be challenging for parents, with potential adverse implications for their mental health. Children who do not receive the educational support they need are at greater risk of poorer educational outcomes. This study aimed to remedy the lack of empirical data about the experiences of parents of children with rare genetic conditions in obtaining educational support and how these experiences affect them and their families. METHOD: Sixteen mothers were interviewed about their experiences of securing educational support for their child(ren) with a rare genetic condition. Qualitative data were collected during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants reflected on experiences both prior to and during this period. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis. RESULTS: Five main themes were identified: (1) fighting for access into 'the system', (2) a lengthy process to secure support, (3) factors enabling access, (4) challenges after securing support and (5) impact of experience on mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Accessing educational support was challenging, lengthy and stressful, with negative effects on mothers' mental health and relationships with wider family members. Parents of children with rare genetic conditions may face additional challenges securing support.

Humans↗
PubMed2006

The children's services interview: validity and reliability.

BACKGROUND: The Children Service Interview was designed as a brief measure of service use related to mental health problems in Great Britain. METHOD: We validated the Children's Services Interview against medical records from a sample of 87 children, and assessed test-retest reliability from 25 parents completing two interviews. We examined criterion validity by looking at the service use patterns of children attending clinics for different types of disorders. RESULTS: The Children's Services Interview showed high levels of face validity and moderate or better concordance with medical records as far as contacts were recorded in the case notes. Test-retest reliability was moderate or better apart from contacts with the voluntary sector, teachers, and the number and duration of appointments with some professionals. CONCLUSION: The study suggests the Children's Services Interview can extract moderately valid and reliable data on service use. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: Tamsin Ford was supported by a Wellcome Clinical Training Fellowship in Health Services Research while completing this work.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Barriers to the identification of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: In most countries, the majority of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are undiagnosed. In the United Kingdom, a major barrier to accessing specialist services is the limited recognition of disorders by general practitioners. However, it is unclear whether there are also barriers at other stages of the help-seeking process. For children with ADHD, this study aims to examine the correlates of the different stages of help-seeking. METHOD: Children with ADHD (n = 232) were identified from the 1999 British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey. Rates and correlates of parental recognition of child mental health problems and contact with services for these problems were examined. Children who had used particular types of services were compared with those who had not. RESULTS: Most (80%) parents of children with ADHD recognise that their child has a problem although few (35%) construe this in terms of hyperactivity. The impact of the symptoms on key adults, rather than child factors, best predicted parental recognition of problems. Most parents had been in contact with education-based professionals but few had consulted primary care for these problems or had sought help from relevant specialist health services. Parental recognition of problems and perceived burden, rather than child factors, were the main correlates of contact with services. Parental views that their child has hyperactivity were associated with greater severity of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The main barrier to care for ADHD is the limited presentation of these problems to primary care. The majority of parents discuss their concerns with professionals based in education services. There is a need for parental education about ADHD and for health service input to support education professionals in their contact with concerned parents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

The relative importance of child, family, school and neighbourhood correlates of childhood psychiatric disorder.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have described associations between childhood psychiatric disorder and characteristics of the child, and their family, school and neighbourhood, but few studies have studied them simultaneously. Also, most investigators have failed to allow for the extent to which different exposures are correlated, or for clustering at different levels of observation. Our objective was to establish which correlates were independently associated with psychiatric disorder. METHOD: Data on DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses, as well as child and family characteristics, were obtained on 8772 English 5- to 15-year-olds included in a large British prevalence survey of mental health. These data were supplemented by independent measures of school and neighbourhood disadvantage. We entered child and family variables with the measures of school and neighbourhood disadvantage into a logistic regression analysis to establish which variables were independently associated with child psychiatric disorder. RESULTS: No variables were associated with all types of disorder. Poor general health and life events were related to emotional disorders, while conduct disorders were most closely associated with family variables, and ADHD was only related to child characteristics. Disadvantaged schools, deprived neighbourhoods, low socioeconomic status, parental unemployment, cohabiting, large family size, and poverty were not independently associated with disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Individually assessed child and family factors may be more influential than aggregate measures of school and neighbourhood factors. Different disorders have distinctive correlates. Many of the best known "risk factors" are not independently related to childhood psychiatric disorder, and are, therefore, acting distally in the causal pathway or irrelevant.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Child psychiatric disorder and relative age within school year: cross sectional survey of large population sample.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that younger children in a school year are at greater risk of emotional and behavioural problems. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey. SETTING: Community sample from England, Scotland, and Wales. PARTICIPANTS: 10 438 British 5-15 year olds. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Total symptom scores on psychopathology questionnaires completed by parents, teachers, and 11-15 year olds; psychiatric diagnoses based on a clinical review of detailed interview data. RESULTS: Younger children in a school year were significantly more likely to have higher symptom scores and psychiatric disorder. The adjusted regression coefficients for relative age were 0.51 (95% confidence interval 0.36 to 0.65, P < 0.0001) according to teacher report and 0.35 (0.23 to 0.47, P = 0.0001) for parental report. The adjusted odds ratio for psychiatric diagnoses for decreasing relative age was 1.14 (1.03 to 1.25, P = 0.009). The effect was evident across different measures, raters, and age bands. Cross national comparisons supported a "relative age" explanation based on the disadvantages of immaturity rather than a "season of birth" explanation based on seasonal variation in biological risk. CONCLUSIONS: The younger children in a school year are at slightly greater psychiatric risk than older children. Increased awareness by teachers of the relative age of their pupils and a more flexible approach to children's progression through school might reduce the number of children with impairing psychiatric disorders in the general population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey 1999: the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders and comorbidity in a large population-based sample of British children and adolescents. METHOD: Using a one-phase design, 10,438 children were assessed using the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA), a structured interview with verbatim reports reviewed by clinicians so that information from parents, teachers, and children was combined in a manner that emulated the clinical process. The authors' analysis examined comorbidity and the influence of teacher reports. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of DSM-IV disorders was 9.5% (95% confidence interval 8.8-10.1%), but 2.1% of children were assigned "not otherwise specified" rather than operationalized diagnoses. After adjusting for the presence of a third disorder, there was no longer significant comorbidity between anxiety and conduct disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or between depression and oppositional defiant disorder. A comparison of the disorders in children with and without teacher reports suggested that the prevalence of conduct disorders and ADHD would be underestimated in the absence of teacher information. CONCLUSIONS: Roughly 1 in 10 children have at least one DSM-IV disorder, involving a level of distress or social impairment likely to warrant treatment. Comorbidity reported between some childhood diagnoses may be due to the association of both disorders with a third. Diagnoses of conduct disorder and ADHD may be missed if information is not sought from teachers about children's functioning in school.

Adolescent↗