Children and adolescents may need help with a wide range of issues at different points in their lives. Mental health problems in young people can lead to tragic consequences, including suicide, substance abuse, inability to live independently, involvement with the correctional system, failure to complete high school, lack of vocational success, and health problems.
We offer mental health services and support for children and young people who have difficulties with their emotional or behavioral wellbeing. We adapt a comprehensive mental health care approach for children and adolescents where appropriate treatments are used.
We also provide help to parents may also need guidance to deal with behavioural or other problems their child is experiencing.
Depression
Depression can be very difficult to cope with. It can creep up on an individual, without knowing. With the lifestyle and social stressors that children deal with these days, depression is more common than expected.
A few signs of childhood depression are:
- Continuous feelings of sadness, worthlessness and hopelessness
- Increased irritability or anger
- Social withdrawal
- Increased sensitivity to rejection
- Changes in appetite/Sleep
- Difficulty concentrating
- Physical complaints (such as stomachaches, headaches) that don’t respond to treatment
- Reduced ability to function during events and activities at home or with friends, in school, extracurricular activities, and in other hobbies or interests
- Thoughts of death or suicide
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Anxiety
All children experience anxiety. Anxiety in children is expected and normal at specific times in development. However, anxious children are often overly tense or uptight. Some may seek a lot of reassurance, and their worries may interfere with activities.
Parents should be alert to the signs of severe anxiety so they can intervene early to prevent complications. There are different types of anxiety in children.
A few are:
- Generalized Anxiety
- Separation Anxiety
- Phobias
- Panic Attacks
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorders.
Conduct Disorder
Conduct Disorder refers to serious behavioural and emotional disorder that can occur in children and teenagers. Children and adolescent with conduct disorder have great difficulty in socializing and display disruptive and violent behaviour. The behaviour becomes uncommon when it is long-lasting and violates the rights of others. Some major factors that could be involved are; child abuse or neglect, school failure, traumatic life experiences and brain damage. Many children show mood disorders, anxiety and learning problems.
Posttraumatic stress
Children and teens could have PTSD if they have lived through an event that could have caused them or someone else to be killed or badly hurt. Such events include sexual or physical abuse or other violent crimes. Disasters such as floods, school shootings, car crashes, or fires might also cause PTSD. Other events that can cause PTSD are war, a friend’s suicide, or seeing violence in the area they live.
Unfortunately many sufferers do not seek treatment, but PTSD rarely resolves itself without professional help. The longer a person suffers from PTSD the harder treatment becomes, so we encourage any sufferers or guardians of sufferers to seek treatment as soon as possible. It is also more difficult
to treat complex PTSD resulting from multiple and sustained trauma or abuse than it is to treat PTSD caused by a single trauma.
The psychological treatments that are likely to be offered are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
We see a wide range of cases for example but not limited to the following psychological conditions:
- Low Self-Esteem & Body Image Issues
- Behavioural Difficulties
- Social and Emotional Adjustment Difficulties
- Separation Anxiety
- Psychological Trauma
- Children’s Depression
- Anger Management
- Peer Pressure
- Bullying
- Addiction
- Anxiety
- Grief issues
- Eating Disorders
- Mood Disorders
- Emotional/Physical Abuse
- Emotional Intelligence
- Cultural Issues
- Conflict Resolution
- Work and Career Issues.
- Teenage Identity Issues.
- Teenage Rebellion
- Stress Management
- Self-Harm and Suicidal Ideation
- Chronic Health issues and chronic pain
For more details and in-depth guidance, please feel free to call us or just book an appointment directly.
We look forward to helping you.
Life Works Team