ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors talk about a research study which was carried out at the Brent Adolescent Centre/Centre for Research into Adolescent Breakdown. They describe some of their findings and show how they have been able to apply them in their present day-to-day work at the Walk-in Centre. The findings are extremely useful in giving some guidelines about assessing risk and identifying vulnerable adolescents. The author also shows how they might be relevant in other settings such as hospitals, remand homes, or schools for emotionally disturbed adolescents. They also talk about breakdown and its meaning in adolescence. They regarded a suicide attempt as a particular manifest instance of such a breakdown in development, in that it represents the adolescent's belief in his own failure to continue functioning and living. The author concludes with some brief remarks about analytic research and some practical implications of the research study.
