The Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Journal child adolescent psychiatry, ucla child adolescent psychiatry, academy child adolescent psychiatry
The physician who specializes in treatment of small children and adolescents
can be called child and adolescent physiatrist. He has specialization
in treatment of disorders of thinking and behavior in children, adolescents
and their family. He can provide the guidance to the family regarding
hoe to take care properly of the children and their mentality, in this
age children often tend to get misleaded and can not think much for themselves,
so they need proper guidance and care this is where the child physiatrist
comes in to play.
A child physiatrist uses his knowledge of social and psychological factors
in working with patients namely children. He does a complete report on
the patient and evaluates his condition for physical, genetic, emotional,
cognitive, peer, etc all factors. So as to he can find the root cause
of the problem that lies in the child. He shares all the research information
with the family and friends of the patient and keeps them updated about
Dos and Don’ts. He formulates a treatment plan taking in to consideration
all the factors mentioned before, he also informs about this plan to patient’s
family to help him.
In the plan there may be certain approaches involved like group or family
therapy. Some times meditation can be used too calm the patient and relax
him. He can also consult with other physician. A child physiatrist is
expected to think in the best interests of children so is also required
many times to perform consultations in schools, juvenile courts or social
agencies.
To become a child physiatrist, at least four years of medical school
are required then a further three years of residency training in medicine,
neurology and general psychiatry with adults, in addition to all this
he also requires to have some additional years of specialized training
in psychiatric work with children or adolescents, residency in children.
After getting his license a child physiatrist can achieve competence
in his fields and can have much grasp over his theory and practice of
psychiatry. In any type of training he requires a through knowledge of
normal child development and his family development as well. He can gain
his skills from treating different adolescents from different families
and backgrounds and can understand them better and better.
If you want to find a child physiatrist for your child you can go through
local medical and psychiatric societies or local mental health associations.
You can also go to your local hospitals or departments of psychiatry in
medical schools to get some good child physiatrist recommended. There
are also some national organizations to help children such as American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. So you can always find one
for your child, make sure you find a credited and certified child physiatrist.
