Abstract:
This presentation will describe critical issues to consider when a child is admitted and especially re-admitted to the paediatric ward. Clinical examples will be presented. These will include discussion of Pervasive Avoidance Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), fictitious illness. The essential creation of a multidisciplinary team to reflect upon the body’s illness and the messages it conveys about the child’s genes and relationships with the family and others is crucial to a well-functioning paediatric unit. There will be a delineation of some important interventions in various international paediatric teams. The shared training for the multidisciplinary team of doctors, psychologists and nurses from the Italian Hospital in Argentina and the Bristol Report regarding the importance of a coordinator of integrating specialist interventions with complex illnesses will be discussed. Non-negotiables for the child’s hospitalisation alongside family observations will be described. Enabling an ill child to progress developmentally during long-stay hospitalisations will be described using experiences in Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. The link between the psychiatric team and the paediatric team will also be considered.
Biography:
Dr. Jeanne Magagna, Tavistock trained child, adult and family psychotherapist, has worked with children and their parents as a nursery teacher, secondary and university teacher as well as subsequently being Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children for 24 years. She has also worked as a consultant to Family Futures Adoption and Fostering Consortium and previously Coordinator of Training at Centro Studi Martha Harris in Florence and Venice, Italy, where she now continues to teach.
Throughout her professional life her aim is to help parents and professionals observe the deeper aspects of infants’ personality in order that infants can be better understood and have more rights to good parenting. Her books The Silent Child: Communication without Words and Being Present for Your Nursery Age Child discuss how important it is to collaborate with parents to support and understand their children and parents have been involved in these writing projects. With the collaboration with Roz Read she has edited Contemporary Child Psychotherapy. Other collaboratively edited books include: Psychotherapy with Families, Intimate Transformations, Creativity and Psychotic States and A Psychotherapeutic Understanding of Children and Young People. Jeanne currently works on most continents teaching infant observation, discussing collaborative work with parents, and engaging in clinical discussions.
