Coping With Depression In Young

Depressive disorders can produce dramatic and frightening changes in young peoples’ behaviour, but while parents may suspect something is wrong, they are often at a loss to know what. This book shows parents how to tell the difference between the ordinary ups and downs and true depression, helping them better understand clinical warning signs and the various approaches to treatment. Dealing sensitively with how depression sometimes manifests itself—self-harm, alcohol and drug abuse, and suicide attempts—the book offers parents practical guidance on how they can reach out to their children and find professional assistance.

Professor Carol Fitzpatrick is Professor of Child Psychiatry at University College Dublin and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital and The Children's Hospital, Temple Street, in Dublin. She is author of many research papers about mental health in young people and has a particular interest in depression and self-harm in young people.

Dr John Sharry is Principal Social Worker at the Mater Hospital and is a Director of The Brief Therapy Group in Dublin. He is the author of four self-help books for parents, including Parent Power: Bringing up Responsible Children and Teenagers (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and When Parents Separate: Helping Children Cope (Veritas, 2001). He is also the author of three psychotherapy books: Solution-focused Groupwork (Sage, 2001), Becoming a Solution Detective: A strengths-based Guide to Brief Therapy (BT Press, 2001) and the forthcoming Counselling Children, Adolescents and Families (Sage, 2004).
Both authors are experienced clinicians who have worked with many young people and their families coping with depression. They are joint authors of The Parents Plus Programmes, video-based courses for parents coping with a variety of emotional and behavioural difficulties in their children and teenagers, which are widely used in the UK and Ireland. See www.parentsplus.ie