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Understand Clients Mental Health Diagnosis & Appropriately Interact with them
- 1. Understanding a youth âs mental health diagnosis and how to appropriately interact with them
Editor's Notes
- Instructor âs notes: The most important person to give you information regarding a mental health diagnosis is the Clinician. Make sure to ask the Clinician any questions you may have about the diagnosis. The consultantâs are also a great source of information in terms of what to expect behaviorally from a youth with a certain diagnosis. If this information is not enough, the caseworker should also have a good idea about the youthâs behaviors and cycles. Make sure when talking to caseworkerâs you are just getting information and not asking advice on behavioral interventions; leave that for treatment planning.
- Instructor âs notes: Spend some time talking about âlabelsâ and some of the negative implications of labeling youth: hurts self esteem; may take is personally and as if they are âbrokenâ or something is wrong with them; they may also use it as a excuse for negative behaviors. It is also important to understand their limitations based on the diagnosis. For example, a child with Autism or Asperger âs may have some processing limitations and may need some changes in the structure and/or teaching for it to be successful. Again, staff with the clinician and consultant for ideas.
- Again, the diagnosis is something they currently have. It does not mean it will be there forever (ex: depression, anxiety, PTSD all can go into remission). It is not an excuse for negative behaviors or attention seeking behaviors; however keep in mind it may create limitations or barriers that you may need to work with.
- These are some diagnosis we see a lot with village youth, however this list is definitely not all of them.
- This is one of the toughest, if not the toughest diagnosis for a child to have. These kids will either attach very easily (disinhibited) or it will take a long time to gain their trust (inhibited). One way to help these kids feel safe is to be very structured and consistent with consequences. Rules help them feel safe. If they feel their safety is in jeopardy, they will go into fight or flight mode. For example, we often see kids with RAD âpunishâ the family teachers after their days off because they feel they were left.
- These children were most likely severely neglected, did not get their basic needs met, passed around between family members or have been in and out of different foster placements most their lives. The child will sabotage a long-term, most likely adoptive placement, in order to protect themselves from getting hurt. They believe they are ultimately going to be rejected so they try and make it happen; âon their own termsâ. These children will âpunishâ their foster parents by acting out in extreme ways until the placement fails. If the child is in a short term placement (ex: group home) there will still be some noticeable acting out behaviors as they will feel rejected when it is time to leave the home.
- Children who have suffered sexual or physical abuse will sometimes be diagnosed with PTSD.
- A lot of the time, these children have lived in a state of hyperarousal or âwalking on eggshellsâ. They have trouble calming down or regulating emotions. They may get triggered by something you are unaware of. For example: raised voices or slamming doors. Other possibilities include the dark (a lot of sexual abuse takes place at night or in the dark). Anything to trigger one of the senses: sights, sounds, smells, touches or tastes. This is a form of anxiety so sometimes medication can be helpful.
- If the child is not paying attention at school but does not have the same trouble at home, chances are it is not ADHD.
- The three Spectrum Disorders are all different from one another. Make sure you understand which diagnosis the youth has and what the most prevalent symptoms are. This is an important diagnosis to make sure to take the time and understand. It will most likely effect how the youth interacts with foster parents, peers, teachers, etc. There will most likely need to be a lot of teaching done around boundaries as they often have a hard time picking up on social cues.
- In children, only one of the symptoms have to be present for more days than not. Medication does help with symptoms of anxiety.
- Medication does help with depression. If the child makes any kind of self harm remark or behavior, make sure to staff it with the consultant and if needed, the clinician. Sometimes it will be attention seeking however we need to take it seriously.
- If you notice signs and symptoms of something that could be a diagnosis, feel free to staff it with the clinician and the treatment team. Make sure you do not assume they have a diagnosis just because they exhibit a few symptoms.