Mending young minds: A multi-modal approach to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Dr Laurence Irwin Sugarman is Research Professor and Director of the Center for Applied Psychophysiology and Self-regulation in the College of Health Sciences and Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT); a developmental and behavioural paediatrician at the Easter Seals Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Rochester, New York; and Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Over nearly forty years of clinical practice, Dr. Sugarman refined clinical biofeedback and hypnosis strategies that effectively increase resilience and coping skills for young people and families. Based on this experience, he produced an internationally acclaimed video-documentary, Hypnosis in Pediatric Practice: Imaginative Medicine in Action. At RIT, he has focused on (1) how best to evoke the abilities of young people with autism spectrum disorder and other chronic health problems, (2) innovative interactive media for health, and (3) pedagogy for professional development in psychobiological care.

Dr. Sugarman has authored over forty publications, teaches internationally, and has held leadership positions in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. With Dr. William Wester, Dr. Sugarman has co-authored and co-edited the text, Therapeutic Hypnosis with Children and Adolescents, now in its second edition. His new book, coauthored with Julie Linden and Lee Brooks, is Changing Minds with Clinical Hypnosis: Narratives and discourse for a new health care paradigm.

Dr Rory Conn is a Consultant Paediatric Liaison Psychiatrist in Devon Partnership Trust, providing psychiatric input to the Paediatric Department at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Exeter where he is the Undergraduate Lead for Psychiatry.

He trained at University College London, achieving a 1st Class Intercalated BSc in Medical Humanities and Distinction in Final MBBS. His Child Psychiatry Training was at the world-renowned Tavistock NHS Trust. Here he achieved a Higher Degree in Systemic Therapy (distinction).He completed a “Darzi Fellowship” at Great Ormond Street Hospital and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Leadership.

Dr Rory Conn has won a number of National Awards, including Royal College of Psychiatrists Core Trainee of the Year, 2012 and Higher Trainee of the Year, 2017. He was The Health Service Journal Rising Star Award Finalist in 2015. He is an elected member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists CAMHS faculty.

Dr Rory is passionate about working therapeutically, combining psychodynamic and systemic principles to his work with young people and their families. His particular interests include depression and anxiety, and the interplay between physical and mental health difficulties.

Dr Tessa Reardon is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. Dr Reardon’s PhD focused on understanding the barriers families experience seeking and accessing professional support for anxiety disorders in children. Her research since has aimed to develop and evaluate new approaches to identifying and supporting children with anxiety problems that address these key barriers.

Dr Reardon is currently leading two large school-based randomised controlled trials. 1) The NIHR-funded iCATS-i2i trial (https://osiresearch.org.uk/icats/) is evaluating procedures for screening for child anxiety problems through primary schools, sharing screening outcomes with families and offering and delivering a brief parent-led online intervention for children (aged 8-9) identified as likely to benefit. 2) The Kavli Trust funded MY-CATS trial (https://osiresearch.org.uk/icats/) focuses on younger children (aged 4-7) who are at elevated risk for developing anxiety disorders, and is evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of offering the same intervention to parents of children identified as at-risk on the basis of screening positive for elevated anxiety symptoms, inhibited temperament and/or elevated parent anxiety. 

Professor Karen Olness is board certified in Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics and Professor Emerita of Paediatrics, Global Health and Diseases at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. She is the inaugural president of the NPHTI Board of Directors and past president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the American Board of Hypnosis, the International Society of Hypnosis and the Society for Developmental Behavioural Paediatrics.

Professor Olness organized and taught the first three-day paediatric hypnosis workshop with Gail Gardner PhD at an SCEH meeting in Philadelphia in 1976 and organized the first SDBP sponsored workshop in 1986. Starting in 1972 she conducted controlled studies, examining the abilities of children to apply hypnosis in control of autonomic responses, reduction of migraines and control of immunologic responses. She has written more than 150 articles, chapters, and books and served on many National Institutes of Health study sections. In 1981 with Gail Gardner PhD, she wrote the first edition of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children. Now it is in its fifth edition, written with Daniel Kohen MD.

Professor Olness has been a volunteer to help children in disasters for many years and developed the first training program on “Management of disasters: focus on children” in 1996. These workshops continue annually at CWRU and have been presented in 18 countries. She is co-founder (with husband, Hakon) and Medical Director of Health Frontiers, an all volunteer NGO that developed and is supporting three post graduate training programs in Laos, training in hypnosis in resource poor countries and training in disaster management. In 2017-18 she served as the Strategic Advisor on Children in Humanitarian Emergencies for the International Pediatric Association.