Preventing Mental Disorders in School-Age Children - Report Example

Human services Introduction Psychological health in children is determined as one of the most crucial aspects being directly related with their physical growth as well as learning behavior and implementing skills. Contextually, in common instances, mental health issues with relation to depression as well as behavior disorder among others are recognized to affect the development among children. Moreover, mental health problems among children are observed to disrupt their day-to-day life at school as well as at home along with in their respective community. Consequently, children with the problem of mental health are often found to fail in attainting competitive academic progress, get engaged in violent or criminal activities, become addicted to drug abuse as well as develop a suicidal tendency within them (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2013). However, in most instances, such problems among children remain unidentified and neglected. In this respect, the children are required to be provided with adequate assistance with the objective of identifying and preventing the psychological problems diagnosed among children in a time efficient and effective manner. Moreover, health programs are required to be initiated with the intention of providing better counseling services for children with mental health issues (William & Kerfoot, 2005). Emphasizing on this particular notion, the paper will intend to discuss on the evaluation as well as the assessment of healthcare services with relation to psychological issues diagnosed among children. It will also discuss about the procedures as well as the programs in accordance with which assistance is aimed to be provided to the children. Overview of psychological problems among children The issue related with psychological health of the children is recorded to be growing rapidly. On the contrary, mental healthcare services have been demonstrated to possess various limitations in identifying and thus implementing preventive measures to counter the psychological problems faced by children within the community (Stagman & Cooper, 2010). It is worth mentioning in this context that mental health issues probable among children are required to be identified in effective time-efficient manner with the objective of assisting those children at risk with the implementation of effective prevention programs. In this regard, the children should be provided with adequate assistance by the human services departments of various countries both in the international and regional levels involving the care providers, communities as well as schools. Contextually, due attention also needs to be rendered towards the identification of mental problems among children at an early stage which can assist in better assessment of the psychological problems experienced by the children. It is worth mentioning in this context that there are various child-serving organizations established in various countries, which are entitled with the task of providing support to the children suffering from psychological problems and their families (Greenberg, Domitrovich & Bumbarger, 2000). One of the major challenges in serving the children with psychological problems have been observed as the incapability or rather the reluctance of the children to communicate their problems which in turn obstructs the early identification of the challenges faced by the populaces. It is fundamentally owing to this particular fact that estimation of mental health problems among children is considered as quite difficult. In this respect, various programs have been initiated with the intention of generating awareness among the community regarding the psychological problems probable in the childhood and the preventive measures which needs to be taken in order to counter such problems (Greenberg, Domitrovich & Bumbarger, 2000). From a generalized point of view, the prevention programs initiative to deal with the psychological problems among children are segregated into several parts in accordance with the extent of intervention planned and the procedure adopted for targeting population (Durlak, 1995). Similarly, when implementing environment focused programs for identifying and preventing psychological problems among children, influences caused by environmental factors such as family background, community, and similar other aspects along with its manipulation are taken into account. In this respect, there are many environmental interventions program initiated by various human services sector which influences the behavior of children suffering from psychological problems. It is in this context that the interaction between environment and children is required to be studied effectively as it is determined to be an important influencing factor in relation to the psychological health of the children. Human services professionals have also stated that the psychological health of children should be studied with the assistance of parents, peers as well as teachers as they play an important role in the children’s life creating strong impressions on their thinking, learning and behavioral traits (Durlak, 1995). Identifying and preventing psychological problems among children through human services Concerning the psychological problems witnessed among children in today’s socio-cultural global environment, various mental health departments as well as human services organizations have been developed and promoted by the government of various countries. The intention of human service agencies have been thus to implement effective strategies towards indentifying and minimizing such problems among children by a large extent within a shorter span of time. In this regard, human services organizations have been working in collaboration with individuals, schools, families as well as workplaces with the motive of mitigating psychological health related problems among children. It is worth mentioning in this context that by means of regular counseling and assistances, human services professionals are often found to be quite capable to diagnose psychological problems among children in the early phases and therefore help other members of the community to prevent such syndromes in an effective manner (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2012). Moreover, human services organizations attempt to determine the importance of social as well as emotional development of children as one of the most significant factors responsible for their better development. In this regard, children from birth to 12 years of age are required to be offered with better environmental support in order to be facilitated with adequate psychological developments. Human services professionals thus aim at supporting the families as well as teachers along with friends to develop healthy relationship with children in order to ascertain factors or causes which are responsible for affecting their mental health and social development. Human services professionals also argue in this context that factors or causes should be identified in an appropriate manner as these factors may adversely affect the mental, social as well as emotional development among children (International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses, 2008; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2003). Contextually, human services professionals have often been observed that family members of children who are living in depressive conditions as well as possess any kind of heredity for mental disorder are determined to be at a greater risk of suffering from psychological health problems. In this respect, friends as well as families along with teachers are identified to play an important role in supporting children diagnosed with psychological problems. Additionally, stress as well as psychological trauma is recognized to be important environmental factors responsible for psychological problems among children which also needs to be identified and accordingly prevented to minimize such risks (Lloyd, Pouwer & Hermanns, 2013). In identifying and preventing psychological health problems among children, human services professionals tend to adopt various intervention methods with the intention of providing better support as well as treatment to the affected people. Contextually, medications in preventing psychological problems among children are found to be more effective when accumulated with counseling services provided to the children by human services professionals for their better emotional and behavioral developments (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2012). Therefore, it can be evidently observed that the role played by human service professionals in identifying and preventing psychological problems among children is quite pivotal. Human services intervention in psychological problems among children The psychological problems among children are required to be identified in a proficient manner with the intention of providing better support as well as treatment facilities to them. It is in this context that following a systematic process is quite essential to identify and respond to the highest number of influencing factors causing the psychological problems among children. Contextually, a three step approach is often followed by human services professionals in order to render effective support to the children suffering from any kind of psychological pressure. The three step approach comprises of identification, assessment and intervention or treatment of the psychological problem diagnosed among children. The identification step emphasizes on the recognition of the causing factors and the type of psychological problem experienced by the child analyzing the environmental factors as well as the scientific factors in a skillful manner. In this regard, human service professionals have often been witnessed to adopt an appropriate as well as reliable screening tool implies to a set of questionnaires developed in order to reveal various aspects related to the behavioral traits, feelings and thoughts of the child. Additionally, human service professionals are also trained to be accustomed with the particular syndromes and diagnostic attributes with the aim of recognizing the psychological problems among children who themselves might be unable to convey their experiences in a structured and accurately interpretable manner (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2012). The second step in the three step approach is the assessment stage which aims at evaluating the type of psychological problems and the possible remedies to such health problems among children in accordance with the findings obtained in the first step. The assessment of problems is normally performed by qualified as well as experienced professionals belonging to the human services sector or the healthcare services sector in order to ascertain the presence of such problems among children. In this phase, the human services professionals intend to interact with the children and their families as well as friends in order to observe the mental health problem of the individual child after obtaining the free consent of their parents/guardians and school teachers. On the basis of interaction as well as observation of children, these professionals aim towards devising an appropriate plan for preventing the psychological health problems (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2012). Intervention or treatment is the third step in the three step process of human services intervention in psychological problems. This particular step of intervention signifies that children with psychological problems should be assessed in a proper manner before being followed-up for further treatments (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2012). In case of any special requirements, the families of these children, the human services professional are required to provide with additional support as well as services in terms of financial assistance or through moral support (DeAngelis, 2004). The four major principles required to be adopted by the human service professionals include ‘specificity’, ‘developmentally appropriate approach’, ‘variability and practicability’ as well as ‘evaluation and assessment of effectiveness’. ‘Specificity’, in this regard, signifies that appropriate as well as effective techniques of treatment should be adopted for each specific psychological disorder among children with proper identification of the syndromes and the effects of such health related issues. The ‘developmentally appropriate approach’ further imply that children should be initially provided with different sorts of intervention facilities to diagnose their exact requirements in accordance with their age to obtain better control on their psychological problems. In the similar context, the aspects of ‘variability and practicability’ denote that children suffering from psychological problems should be supported by the human service professional to gain access to adequate treatment facilities in a time-efficient manner to obtain better progress. Last but not the least; the principle of ‘evaluation and assessment of effectiveness’ signifies that human service intervention as well as healthcare services should be assessed in frequent intervals on the basis of its effectiveness to minimize the chances of any kind of errors or negative impacts of the treatment process on the psychological or physical status of the children (Remschmidt & Belfer, 2005). Conclusion Various medical research studies have revealed that psychological problems play a major role in hampering the growth as well as development of children with respect to their physical and emotional health. In this concern, the major psychological factors which are regarded to influence the growth as well as development of children are depression and behavioral disorders. Apart from their physical growth, the psychological problems have further been observed to create significant affects on the children in their academic life and often persuade them towards getting addicted drugs or unsocial activities and even criminal offences. Irrespective of these serious consequences of psychological problems among children, identification and prevention processes of such issues have been criticized as weak with the requirement of further developments. From a critical perspective, healthcare services are also evaluated as inadequately effective in identifying and preventing children from psychological problems which further necessitates the intervention of human services professional in countering this particular issue. In this regard, the human service providers have often been observed to initiate structured and rationalized plans to work in collaboration with families as well as schools to identify the psychological problems among children in a more effective way. Facilitating the intervention program with rational identification of the psychological problems among children, human services professionals therefore also play a vital role in designing the treatment procedure. References DeAngelis, T. (2004). Childrens mental health problems seen as epidemic. Psychologists advocate a systems-wide change with the child at the center 35(11), pp. 38. Durlak, J. A. (1995). School-based prevention programs for children and adolescents. United States: SAGE. Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C. & Bumbarger, B. (2000). Preventing mental disorders in school-age children: A review of the effectiveness of prevention programs. Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), pp. 1-147. International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses. (2008). Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Youth in Juvenile Justice, pp. 1-8. Lloyd, C. E., Pouwer, F. & Hermanns, N. (2013). Screening for depression and other psychological problems in diabetes. United Kingdom: Springer. Reynolds, C. R. & Kamphaus, R. W. (2003). Handbook of psychological and educational assessment of children, 2/e: personality, behavior, and context. New York City: Guilford Press. Remschmidt, H. & Belfer, M. (2005). Mental health care for children and adolescents worldwide: a review. World psychiatry 4(3), pp. 147-153. Stagman, S. & Cooper, J. L. (2010). Children’s mental health. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_929.pdf Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. (2012). Identifying mental health and substance use problems of children and adolescents: A guide for child-serving organizations. Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/children/508compliant_Identifying_MH_and_SU_Problems_1-30-2012.pdf U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2013). Child Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/childmentalhealth.html William, R. & Kerfoot, M. (2005). Child & adolescent mental health services: strategy, planning, delivery, and evaluation. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Read More