Psychology

Mental health a situation of well-being which enables a person to realize his her own potential and cope with the hardship dynamics of life. It is also the condition of absence of mental disorder which determines the productivity and output of an individual towards the community (WHO 2001a). It has been discovered that 20 of the children and adolescents population suffer from mental health disorder and about 6 million people are emotionally disturbed (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).  An estimate of around 12 to 22 persons in a group of hundred people below the age of 18years are in need of mental health services in America (Windle, 1990). According to WHO, neuropsychiatric disorders in children are will increase by 50 percent come 2020 leading to childhood illness, incapacitation and death. 20 of children with 9 to 17 years of age have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that has the potential to cause some impairment (Shaffer et. al. 1996) though it is unlikely that many will get to the specialists in mental health (Offord et al., 1987) and if any, only a negligible percentage are under the cover of secondary Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) (Meltzer et al., 2000). Despite its high record of the rootedness of this problem, only 7 of the worldwide countries have a precisely defined child and adolescent mental health policies. A group therapy has been very useful in offering mental treatment for children and more especially adolescents because they are in a developmental growth stage where peer influence is rampant. There is need of establishing community-friendly treatments in matters of cost. However, there are unique challenges that may occur in the process of a group therapy the observed divide between practice and clinical science. Constituting a group or a number of them in this context could be challenging because children together with adolescents can be difficult to handle. Moreover, there has been a major concern in the management of fluctuations in the process of providing the treatment. Well, the group that seeks to establish the therapy should take into consideration the heterogeneity in the responses from the various members. Studying and analyzing mental health therefore would require making a choice of the suitable analysis levels for the group treatment information and data together with pointing out the major action mechanisms of group treatment. 

Child and Adolescent Rights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent (CRC) is widely recognized all over to acknowledge and be concerned with mental health and its related problems. Though universally agreed and acknowledged by ATLAS responses, there is no proof of correlation between the Conventions ratification and the child development of mental health services (Meltzer et al., 2000).

Legal Framework
The Children Act 1989 terms children with emotional and behavioral problems to be in need and should be provided with necessary services from the local authority. A needy child is one who cannot access and enjoy reasonable standard of health without assistance from local authority whose health and development can be amiss if denied such services andor disabled. Members of the group research will be helpful in providing extensive information concerning the mental disorders. Depression, Oppositional defiant disorder, Anxiety, Conduct disorder together with ADHD have long been known as the main mental disorders with inclusions of Alcohol and drug abuse, Eating disorders, Schizophrenia, Epilepsy, Autism and Mental Retardation as the minor ones. The child can suffer from severe stigma, abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a side effect of the aforementioned disorders of the mind (Offord et al., 1987).

 Causes of Mental Health
Biology and environment has been on high blame of causing these problems among the children and adolescent population. Chemical imbalances in the body, genetics and even damage to the central nervous system such as a head injury constitute the biological causes of the problem. Such matters really need a diversified approach through group work. On the other hand, the environmental factors influencing mental health disorders include environmental toxins such as high levels of lead, physical violence, stress related to chronic poverty, discrimination, or other serious hardships and loss of great personalities as a result of  death, divorce, or even broken relationships (Offord et al., 1987).

Mental Health promotion for children and adolescents
In realization of the role played by the being together of children and parents in the psychological and cognitive development of babies and infants, WHO put in place programmes to encourage these mother-child interaction. These programmes have a particular meaning for mothers living in conditions of stress and social diversity. Schools as social institutions can adopt the responsibility of social and emotional development in pupils in addition to preparation of pupils for future through these groups. In regard to this, WHO developed a life skills educational curriculum so as to enhance childrens psychosocial competency. The skills include critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, empathy, interpersonal skills and ways of coping with emotions and which put children and adolescents in a position to develop sound as well as positive mental health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).

Another mental health initiative by WHO is Child-friendly schools which serves to encourage tolerance and equality between boys and girls and different ethnic, social and religious groups. This ensures that children participate wholly and work together, keeps off physical mistreatment and does not keep with hurting and frightening of the less powerful. As a supportive and nurturing environment, it provides education which responds to the reality of the childrens lives as well as establishing connections between school and family life, encouraging creativity and promoting self-confidence and self esteem of children.

Though not optimally utilized, various treatment models have proved effectiveness in addressing mental health problems of children and adolescents. Despite these strategies being costly and time consuming, most of them are economically efficient compared to the cost mental health problems exact from youth, their families and communities. Successful programs addressing social isolation, depression, family conflict, school failure, substance abuse, violence and delinquency in most cases involve long-term intense interventions (Shaffer et al., 1996).

Two models succeed in treating offending juveniles. Firstly is multi-systemic therapy (MST) (Surgeon Generals Report on Mental Health) where specially trained therapists work with the youth and family in their home aiming at changing the people who associate with the peers. MST therapists take advantage of family strengths to establish natural systems of support and to enhance parenting. The other one is the Therapeutic Foster Care which provides a community-based intervention for severe and persistent offending delinquents. In Therapeutic foster, parents are trained and supported with research-based procedures for working with these aforementioned serious juveniles in their homes (Shaffer et al., 1996).

Children and adolescents spent these ages in school something prompting the Educational services as well as the education staff to play a central role in the mental health of children by engaging in promotion and reinforcement of treatment strategies.  WHO proposes that mental health promotion should be incorporated into the school curriculum and secondary prevention left to target pupils at high risk, while children having psychiatric disorders taken to CAMHS.

Prevention of Mental Disorders
Childhood disorders are treatable (Kazdin  Weisz, 1998) but preventive interventions need to be offered prior to the development of significant symptomology so as to reduce levels of childhood mental illness. Consequently, extra efforts are required to reach the many marginalized children to treatment. A big number of the victims receive inadequate services or even never. A great challenge in service delivery is faced when some children are given services of therapy after they have entered another system such as special education or juvenile court something done after their problems take root (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).

The Role of Developmental Theory in Prevention Research
Science of prevention is highlighted by the incorporation of developmental theory with models from sociology, epidemiology, public health and developmental psychopathology. Ecological analysis and multivariate examination of causation and risk has contributed in building the prevention research.
An organism in the course of development is highly influenced by context and the ecological model gives four levels for categorizing context as it affects the development of a child. Microsystem is the first level and revolves around the ecologies having direct interaction with the child like the family, peer group, school and neighborhood. Secondly is the mesosystem which looks into the relationships between the various microsystems and its absence welcomes a risk in development. These two levels affect prevention with circumstances which do not directly involve the child like changes in marital circumstance, changes in the legal system, parental social support or other social structures that set policies and practices that alter Microsystems and mesosystem interactions (Kazdin  Weisz, 1998).

The exosystem entails that which impacts the childs development indirectly. Many preventive interventions may be viewed as changes at the exosystem level that alter interactions among lower system levels. Finally, the macrosystem goes beyond all others and considers systems influence, consisting of the broad ideological and institutional patterns and events that define a culture or subculture. It is thus evident that Developmental-ecological models help to understand levels of influence on behavior and also point out potential targets and intervention mediators. It is therefore important for studies to be specific of where the interventions lay emphasis on (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).

Interventions
Many victims of mental health disorders have problems in other areas of their lives and make them vulnerable to suicidal behavior. Depressive disorder, hyperactivityattention-deficit disorder were identified as the most common disorders of the mind (Windle, 1990). He also discovered that at least one among every four victims had attended a professional service during the six months before the survey thus making him conclude that child and adolescent mental health problems are an important public health service in Australia. In reference to this, appropriate balance between funding provided for clinical interventions focusing on individual children and families and funding for interventions that express concern on populations, needs cautious study. The latter are an essential component of any strategy to reduce mental health problems as the high commonness of problems makes it uncertain that personal care will always be available for all those requiring help. Clinical as well as population interventions of health should consider the comorbid problems encountered by children disorders of the mind.

Another study showed that primary preventive programs aimed at preventing behavioral and social problems in children and adolescents are better than those established preventive and treatment interventions in the social sciences and medicine. Programs modifying the school environment, independently focused efforts of mental health promotion and seeks to assist children negotiate traumatic transitions give way to major mean effects ranging from 24 to 93. Its evidenced that the average participant in a primary prevention program goes beyond the performance of 0.59 to 0.82 of those in a group of control, and outcomes show a 0.8 to 0.46 difference in rates of success promoting prevention groups. Most programs groups provide a double benefit of significantly cutting down on problems and significantly increasing competencies (Durlak  Wells, 1997).

In addition Durlak and Wells (1998) discovered that preventive interventions (secondary prevention) programs of mental health meant for children together with adolescents that desired to point out early signs and symptoms of maladjustment as well as to intervene prior to full-blown disorders root themselves significantly, reduce problems and increase competencies. Cognitive-behavior and behavioral programs for children having subclinical disorders are as successful as psychotherapy for children with developed problems and more successful than any attempts to thwart adolescent smoking, delinquency and alcohol use. The performance outwits by approximately 0.7 for an average participant receiving either cognitive-behavior or behavioral intervention pertinent to those in a group of control. Interestingly, a high mean effect (72) was recorded by programs targeting developing externalizing problems which are normally the least amenable to change via traditional psychotherapeutic efforts when they reach clinical levels (Durlak and Wells, 1998).

As part of the efforts needed to build up behavioral treatments for the abuse of substances that are together community-friendly and efficacious, convening a science meeting on this group based therapy research has been found of great help. The main aim of such a meeting is to make clarification for the position of the science in relation to the group behavioral cure, and also to converse the challenges of carrying out the group therapy as well as the potential way out to these challenges. These discussions are always anticipated to offer information concerning future initiatives concerning the group therapy, and to promote technical support provided to investigators who propose group therapy studies.

Of priority in the future research would require a greater intervention specification in these procedures, treatment implementation assessment, more studies of follow-up, and identifying how various participants react to the initial early intervention. Also future research should give priority to clearer specification of intervention procedures and program goals, assessment of program implementation, more follow-up studies, and determining how characteristics of the intervention and participants relate to different outcomes.

The methodology which would suffice the entire process of looking into the issues affecting mental health would be laying a foundation on the evidence of the matters as they unfold. The review of such secondary materials with information regarding mental health is not enough. The problems pertinent to mental health have a variety of originations in that what may be the course on one occasion may not really be the issue on another occasion.

Owing to this fact, there is therefore much communication that is needed to address the challenges faced by both the casualties and the therapists who administer treatment within these circles. Due to these dynamics experienced in the entire issue, the researchers are expected to be very much alert and avoid bias at all costs. There is a tendency that many people would tend to relate their findings with what has happened in the past. The issues of mental illness have gone to great levels which need a careful consideration. The study requires the development of a group therapy because previous initiatives have failed a great deal. Secondary analysis of data making use of developed statistical strategies has previously been useful in accounting for group data. The problem apparently fits in well in a group counseling set up where brainstorming of methodologies will be helpful in giving answers to good questions which arise.