How do you determine if you’ ll take on the role of therapist for that patient?
Do your consultations have a set time length?
When I started training, it was three hours. You’ d meet with the child for an hour, then the parents, then the family altogether. The reality of health care these days though, we’ re now talking about an hour or hour and a half for first evaluations. Follow-ups can range from 15 to 30 minutes depending on what’ s needed. If you determine your role is going to be that of a therapist, then follow-ups may be an hour.
There are a variety of illnesses or disorders affecting a child. Are there some that are more common?
As a class of disorders, anxiety is probably the most common. But anxiety is a variety of disorders including: post-traumatic stress, separation anxiety, social anxiety. Those are not uncommon. We have a sort of anxious culture.
I should also say depression. It does occur in youth. Depression can be a safety issue and is something we see fairly often.
Well, there are some interventions where I see the patient for six weeks. But, most times, you’ re helping these children develop or cope better with a disorder that may be chronic in nature. The disorder may not go away, but you’ re helping them manage through it. So, I’ ll see them less frequently as they get better at managing the disorder themselves.
Is there anything you’ d say to families who may be in need of your services in the future?
Keep an open mind. And sometimes, when a child is struggling, it’ s not necessarily because the child has a disorder. It may be a more family-related interpersonal struggle. We know that if a family has health struggles, it can affect the child.
Sometimes my role may be to help the parent, and the child will improve. So just keep an open mind and know that we’ re looking at the whole family rather than just the‘ identified patient.’
Think about our culture. What do families struggle with these days? How do you manage raising a child with all these electronic elements? I usually tell families to find ways to stay connected outside of social media, even if it’ s just eating a meal together with the phones facing down for 20-30 minutes. The connection doesn’ t have to be a major change. If parents can give even 15 minutes of focused interaction here and there, it goes a long way. Negotiating the social media world in a safe way is challenging for teenagers and their parents, and that’ s something we’ ve seen a lot of recently.
4 VITAL SIGNS Volume 12 • Issue 3