Resources for Parents
Last updated October 2019
Facts for Families
AACAP's Facts for Families provides concise up-to-date information on issues that affect children, teenagers, and their families.
Policy Statements
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Treatment Resources
Parents Medication Guide
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) created the Depression: Parents’ Medication Guide.
Included in this guide is new research on effective treatments for child and adolescent depression. The goal of the guide is to help parents make informed decisions about getting the best care for a child or adolescent with depression.
Rating Scales
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Guides for Parents
Living with Mental Illness: Books, Stories, and Memoirs
AACAP's Consumer Issues Committee developed a list of books for families that can be rich educational tools and therapeutic resources.
Apps
These apps can be helpful tools for people with depression. They should be used alongside comprehensive assessment and treatment from a trained mental health professional.
mADAP
mADAP is a video-based mobile health app based on Johns Hopkins University's Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP). It was developed specifically to provide information about depression to adolescents. The app, which contains information about how adolescents can get help for depression, is available for free on Apple's App Store and Google Play.
CBT Tools for Youth
CBT Tools is another app designed specifically for youth. It provides information about depression as well as templates with which users familiar with CBT can practice their CBT skills. Coping skills and safety plans and can recorded and easily accessed. This app has an associated cost and is available at Apple's App Store.
Mood Tools
Mood Tools is another app that provides information about depression, templates that can help people practice and use their CBT skills, as well as fields for entering preferred coping skills and safety plans. The app, which does not contain advertisements, is free and is available at both Apple's App Store and Google Play.
CBT Diary
CBT Diary is still another app that makes it easy for mobile users to practice their CBT skills. This app is free but contains advertisements. It is available on Google Play.
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Videos
David Brent, MD
Dr. David Brent of the University of Pittsburgh discusses what psychotherapies are most effective in teenagers with depression, and how they work.
These interventions focus on helping young people change their depressed outlook about the world around them or their relationships with others.
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