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Obtaining Judicial Authorization to Medicate a Minor
A decision to give a child powerful psychotropic medication is a difficult one, fraught with uncertainty and is often viewed as the lesser of two evils. While the administration of medication to a child is itself a complicated decision the stakes are raised if either the child or the parents do not...
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Mental Health Services for Children and Adolescents
Research shows that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14.1 Scientists are discovering that changes in the body leading to mental illness may start much earlier, before any symptoms appear. Through greater understanding of when and how fast specific areas of children’s...
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Residential Treatment Services as a Vital Part of the Continuum of Care for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults – An Interview with Harvey Newman, CEO of Wellspring Residential Treatment Facility
Wellspring is a residential treatment facility located in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Mental Health News recently met with Wellspring CEO Harvey Newman, MSW to discuss residential care and its benefit to the patients that it serves. In the interview that follows, we learn from Mr. Newman how...
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Risk Assessment and Its Importance for Children and Adolescents
More than four years ago, the Institute for Community Living (ICL) extended its focus on risk assessment and intervention to provide staff with additional tools and strategies to support integrated and coordinated assessment and intervention of and for clinical risk. The purpose of the model is to...
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The Road to Independence: Addressing the Needs of Adolescents and Young Adults with a Serious Mental Illness
Diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, Tom has spent most of his teen years in and out of psychiatric hospitals. He was living with his mother, who was unable to provide the support and guidance he needed, and at age 17 was about to age out of the children’s mental health system. Yet he did...
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A Clinic’s Initial Experiences Conducting Multiple Family Groups
Jose is an 11-year-old boy who has, for years, been threatening his family to run away and never return when he is upset with them. His family has tried to cope with these behaviors the best they could, but things reached the point that they felt they needed further assistance. His grandmother made...
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Point of View: Mental Health Needs in Kinship
There are 350-400,000 children and adolescents in New York State that are in kinship care. I.e., they are raised by relatives other than their biological parents. Although there is some evidence that these children do better psychologically than those who are in foster care with strangers, there...
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Kids Do Get Better: Values Driven Inpatient Care
In New York State, and across the country, the story of how mental health care began begins with inpatient care provided in large institutions located in a bucolic rural environment. This “humane treatment,” in its day, was considered a progressive avant-garde form of care. For decades this...
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Engagement in the School Based Clinic Setting: Challenges and Opportunities
The early phase of mental health treatment called “engagement” marks the beginning of an emerging collaboration among provider, child and family. During engagement, clients develop important senses about their providers: Do I like this person? Can they help me? Does it seem like they care about...
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The Role of the Home Care Mental Health Nurse in Identifying, Accessing, and Treating Children and Adolescents Requiring Mental Health Services
As Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General of the US, Dr. David Satcher (2001) stated, “The burden of suffering experienced by children with mental health needs and their families has created a health crisis in this country…children are suffering needlessly because their emotional,...
