Mental/Emotional Disorders in Children & Adolescents

This paper looks at the issue of mental and emotional disorders in children and adolescents and the need for counseling in treating such disorders. It uses the second edition of Larry B. Golden's Case Studies in Child and Adolescent Counseling to study some of the principal ways in which problems arise and are treated, especially in short-term treatment sessions. Children and adolescents present a different set of problems from those of adult patients. Because of their age, they are at a different stage of personality development than are adults, and developmental differences must be taken into account in diagnosing and treating them. Also, the families, teachers, and other social systems of which young patients are a part must be included in treatment and are often significant factors in understanding the problem. Finally, while most diagnoses possible with adult patients can also be considered for younger patients, some areas are of particular concern, including the sometimes over-diagnosed attention deficit disorders and suicide ideations, which must always be taken especially seriously by counselors working with younger patients. Children and adolescents present some special concerns for counselors that make them a different challenge from adult patients. This paper considers some of the elements that make them unique.

Mental illness, psychological disorders, psychopathology, and other disturbances of the mind are usually thought of as being adult problems. Chi

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y be at work with their young clients, in order to recognize symptoms and provide accurate information. Drugs are only one of the possible problems facing contemporary children and likely to cause psychological stresses. While Golden's book includes a wide range of causative factors, it is lacking in some of the more serious difficulties of modern life, including the pressure to join gangs, the ready availability of guns, neighborhood violence, sexual assault, and other forces at work in society. Suicide is one of the greatest threats to modern children, as increasing numbers of very young children begin to entertain suicidal thoughts and consider suicide to be a viable way to escape their problems. Diane L. Frankenfield and her colleagues report, "Suicide is the third leading cause of mortality among persons aged 10 to 19 years." Counselors who are accustomed to dealing with suicide threats must be very careful not to let the young age of their patients blind them to the seriousness of the threat. J. Jeffries McWhirter, describing a case in which he was asked to assess a patient threatening suicide, lays out the questions the therapist needs to ask before beginning such an assessment: "Will I be sufficiently perceptive t

Category: Psychology - M