Mental Health Specialist

What is mental health?

Mental health is an aspect of your child’s health that is just as important as their physical health and wellness. It refers to their mental state and the emotions that come with it. 

Your child’s mental health status influences how they think, feel, and behave. If it declines, you’ll notice changes in their behavior and likely their performance in school too. 

Following a thorough assessment, Neighborhood Pediatrics can treat your child for common mental and behavioral health disorders.

Which conditions can affect my child’s mental health?

Many mental health disorders affect children, and various conditions can exhibit some of the same signs and initial symptoms as the others. 

The pediatricians at Neighborhood Pediatrics encourage you to ask plenty of questions about your child’s diagnosis and make personalized treatment recommendations. 

Neighborhood Pediatrics specializes in helping children manage:

Depression

Depression can be hard to detect in children as adults often mistake the signs as the normal moodiness of growing up. You should consider booking an evaluation for your child if they withdraw socially from their peers, have low energy, continually feel sad and hopeless, or have changes in their sleep cycle or appetite. 

Anxiety

It’s normal for children to worry, but anxiety disorders in children such as separation anxiety, social anxiety, and phobias go beyond the scope of typical fear or distress. Your child with anxiety might have trouble sleeping, exhibit irritability, and even have physical symptoms like stomach aches or headaches.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

ADHD is a common behavioral health disorder in children and adolescents. It can have widespread effects, including inattentiveness, an inability to sit still, frequent careless mistakes, and impulsivity. 

If your child is struggling in school and exhibits symptoms of ADHD, you and your child’s teacher may fill out ADHD rating scale forms before your child’s evaluation. 

Which treatments and services can benefit my child’s mental health?

The pediatricians at Neighborhood Pediatrics can treat your child according to their diagnosis with personalized and attentive care. 

An in-house counselor assists with therapy for children with mental health conditions. She specializes in play therapy, which helps children process and articulate their emotions as they play with toys. 

During play therapy, children can express themselves through their toys as the therapist observes. Eventually, the therapist works with your child to set goals.

Play therapy and other forms of treatment can also help your child with symptoms of ADHD. Additionally, for ADHD, Neighborhood Pediatrics can work with your child’s school to make reasonable accommodations that will help them pay attention and succeed. 

If you have mental health concerns for your child, call the Neighborhood Pediatrics office or schedule an evaluation online today.