This article describes the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) with four pre-adolescent children. EMDR has been shown to bring rapid relief in adults with PTSD. Studies are beginning to show that it can also be useful in work with young children. However, the standard protocol requires some adjustment to make it suitable for use with young children. In addition, in situations where children have complex difficulties in addition to PTSD, EMDR may need to be used alongside other interventions within a complex treatment package. This study describes brief work carried out with four pre-adolescent children with PTSD. Three of these children had received no treatment despite suffering from significant and chronic symptoms for some years. One had suffered a recent traumatic bereavement. All had additional problems that required intervention. EMDR was used as part of a multimodal treatment package. In all cases, the children's PTSD symptoms resolved within 2-4 sessions of EMDR. The maximum total number of sessions was 7. The

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A B S T R A C T This article describes expert witness work with refugee children carried out by the Child & Family Team at the Traumatic Stress Clinic affiliated to University College, London. These children are referred by solicitors acting for their parents in relation to claims for asylum. The children have usually survived multiple traumatic experiences and often have significant post-traumatic symptomatology. Many speak little English and have had little preparation for the assessment. This article briefly summarizes the law relating to human rights and refugees that is relevant to these children and the questions posed by their solicitors. It then describes the way in which the team approaches the assessment and the clinical and legal issues raised. K E Y W O R D S human rights, legal issues, psychological trauma, refugee T H I S A RT I C L E D E S C R I B E S recent work with the children of refugees carried out by the Child & Family Team at the Traumatic Stress Clinic (TSC) affiliated to University College, London. These children were referred to the clinic in 2001 by solicitors acting for their parents in relation to claims for asylum. This article first outlines the legal

The work of a new community-based crisis intervention team is described. 326 psychiatric emergencies were seen over a period of 3 years. An increasing proportion of these were acutely psychotic at the time of assessment. Home treatment was effective for a significant number of patients, including those with a previous history of hospital admission. Some practical and theoretical aspects of the service are discussed.

The aim of this article is to look at good practice in expert-witness court reports in Children Act cases. Reports written by child psychiatrist experts differ enormously in the information they contain, the way in which the report is structured and in style of presentation. There may be a number of reasons for this. Child psychiatrists who work as experts receive little or no formal training for this area of their work. There is no official guidance from the courts about how reports should be presented. Guidance to experts by instructing solicitors is often limited. Feedback to experts by `user' groups, such as judges, is often lacking. There are no studies which have sought the views of users as to what they see as the desirable attributes of a report. This questionnaire study was carried out with the support of the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Official Solicitor's Office, the National Association of Guardians ad litem, and the Law Society. It looks at what the users want and what the experts think, and explores the degree to which it is possible for a consensus to be reached by the interested parties. The results of the questionnaire are combined with recent guidance to produce a model format suitable for use in Children Act cases.