Child & Adolescent Mental Health: A Practical, All-in-One Guide

About twenty percent of children and adolescents in the United States — that’s roughly fifteen million kids — have a diagnosable mental health condition. Odds are, you know one, or have one, yourself: a child who struggles to control their emotions and behaviors, or has a hard time in school or relating to others. Whatever happened to our free-spirited, happy, socially adjusted, emotionally stable children and adolescents, you might ask. They still exist. But it’s a widely accepted fact in psychiatry and clinical psychotherapy that children and adolescents are dealing with an increased number of educational, social, emotional, familial, and environmental stressors than in previous eras. This sometimes leads to substance abuse, which affects about half of high-school seniors. Many of these same high-school seniors have traumatic histories (witnessing abuse, being abused, and so on), and many are at an increased risk for substance abuse, mental health challenges, and social challenges. To make matters worse, children and adolescents who have traumatic histories and who have experimented with an illicit drug also have an increased risk for sexually-transmitted diseases, smoking, and even obesity, all of which are all leading causes of death. And there’s more. Children and adolescents who are of color and/or who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face even more challenges in accessing mental health services. As a therapist working with this population, I fr...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Book Reviews Children and Teens Disorders Family General Parenting Professional Psychiatry Psychological Assessment Psychology Psychotherapy School Issues Students a practical all in one guide Child & Adolescent Mental Health Source Type: news