E15 Prof. Deborah Christie - Adolescence as a Diagnosis: Loving Our Adolescents and Tips for Parents

Tuesday Talks with Prof. Deborah Christie Prof. Deborah Christie is a Professor of Paediatric and Adolescent Psychology and a Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Lead for Paediatric and Adolescent Psychological Medicine at University College London (UCL) Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust, where she has worked since 1998. Join us for a real and fun conversation about adolescence. How do we manage ourselves and our growing children? How do we adapt our behavior to their stage of life—unique, sometimes difficult, but always short? If we can ride it well, we end up with wonderful adults who want to hang out with us again. Let's remember we were once young too. Dr. Coco Novak writes about this stage in her and her children's lives in her book Single, and Too Tired to Mingle. Let's not be tough on our adolescents but embrace this part of growing up. Prof. Christie has a passion for working with young people searching for ways to live with chronic illness. She talks openly about her grandson's diagnosis of diabetes - and the challenges he is going through. A must watch for any parent with a child suffering with any illnesses. Dr Christie has received a number of awards – most recently the Quality in Care Best initiative for young people with diabetes and the Adele Hoffman visiting professorship in adolescent health and medicine. Dr Christie is an international presenter and trainer in motivational and solution focused therapies and works with multidisciplinary teams to help them engage and communicate effectively with children, young people and families living with chronic illness and managing complexity. Dr Christie has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and chapters and is co-editor of a bestselling book Psychosocial aspects of diabetes in children, adolescents and families. Research interests currently include neuropsychological outcomes in children and adolescent survivors of meningitis, quality of life measures in chronic illness, and the development of effective multidisciplinary interventions for diabetes and obesity in children.