Childrens Mental Health

This essay will focus on how mental health provisions and attitudes have changed for children and young people historically and in our current society. In addition the professional will focus on the nature vs nurture debate toward mental health using the medical and social model, analysing the strengths and weaknesses to the provisions and models focusing on eating disorders.

Lewis (2013) explains the ability to control your emotions does not begin until a child nears the age of six (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). The need to maintain control of feelings and emotions remains important throughout adulthood. It would not be normal for a 38-year-old lawyer to throw a temper tantrum in the courtroom because they did not win a case. Not everyone is great at controlling their emotions, but there is always room for improvement (Berger, 2014). A child is not born with this control, nor can one learn it on their own. Morris et al. (2007) discussed the importance of parents, teachers and other adults that may be in a child?s life to instruct and inform children of appropriate ways to manage their feelings for them to learn or develop over time (as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 276). It is the same aspect as manners. A child does not come out of the womb saying ?please? and ?thank you,? but must be taught to use such mannerisms. Eric Erikson explained that children believe they can achieve any goal just as long as they keep trying because their view of their abilities is not yet within reason (Berger, 2014). A child may see a fish breath underwater and believe they too can breathe while swimming

Such toxic stress can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan. Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development. The most effective prevention is to reduce exposure of young children to extremely stressful conditions. Research also indicates that supportive, responsive relationships with caring adults as early in life as possible can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of toxic stress response (Center on Developing Child, nd). By establishing clear lines of communication between adults and children, and home and school, parents and teachers can help to shape children’s perceptions in informed ways. During times of trouble, when emotions run high, parents and teachers can help children develop the skills necessary to manage their feelings, to confront unpleasant or adverse realities, and to acquire greater emotional stability. In order to support children in better understanding their world, adults may have to help them come to terms with circumstances that are frightening, confusing, overwhelming, or possibly unrelated to their past experience. By providing a safe and supportive environment and a healthy acceptance of all that is good in life, a calm and ready-to-listen adult can facilitate children’s well being, and help to alleviate the fear, dismay or confusion they may feel. In doing so, it is important to honor and nurture children’s sensitivity. Although parents and teachers cannot shelter children from all adversity, they are well positioned to help children learn about the imbalances in the world, to better comprehend their impact, and to find thoughtful ways to strike a comfortable and meaningful balance of their own (Foster & Matthews,

Challenges due to poverty could be addressed by providing financial assistance, food, and clothing. Time spent with parents is essential when dealing with children who have behavioral issues because parents or guardians may not have the funds or time to spend with their children due to other obligations needed to support the family. Parents and guardians play a major role in helping children grow and develop to their fullest potential. As children grow, they depend on their parents or guardians for basic needs and support such as food, shelter, education, protection, and care. During their life difficulties and times of crisis, they depend on family for guidance. Mental disorders in childhood and adolescence can

These children have been in an unstable environment, which can affect their ability to fully participate in society. Research shows that children have a high rate of physical development and mental health problems. They often have many mental and medical heath problems that are not helped. Pediatricians can serve to help make sure each child’s conditions and needs are

Have you ever wondered why states spend roughly one billion dollars a year on children (20 and under) who are attempting suicide or have attempted suicide (Nami, 2010)? That is due to the thousands of children who live their daily lives with an undiagnosed mental disorder. What is children’s mental health? Children’s mental health is defined as growing emotionally while developing healthful social skills and learning how to deal with problems (CDC, 2013). Some mental disorders found in children include: mood and anxiety disorders, behavior disorders, Autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and substance use disorder. ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is the most common disorder of children

As a child being a part of the welfare system can be challenging and have negative results on mental and physical health. Often society mistake “the system’s kids” to be delinquents who are consistently in trouble, have a hard time listening or following instructions from an authority figure, or children who cannot behave themselves. Many do not realize that most of these problems are psychological and can stem from the events at home. America’s population of child maltreatment victims, seventy-five percent are under the age of 12, these children are also at a higher risk for exhibiting delinquent behavior (Whitted & al, 2012). Abuse and neglect are two major risk factors that may lead a child to develop long lasting mental health impairments such as depression, low self-esteem and difficulties maintaining relationships in adulthood.

Children will come from a diverse range of backgrounds including family environments, cultures and circumstances. A child is at school from a very young age to late teens and during this time many families will go through significant changes, such as: divorce, new sibling, losing a parent/grandparent, illness, moving house or school or even moving country – sometimes however schools may not always be aware of these changes. Any one of these happenings may affect their emotional and or

Health and safety legislations and regulations are implemented in own work settings because there will always be a possibility of accidents happening which may damage someone’s health and all work will expose people to hazards, however the health and safety legislations and regulations are put in place and used so that these risks and hazards are under control and so everyone’s health (staff and children) are safe at all costs.

In this chapter the first this we read about was cultural beliefs about what is normal and what is abnormal. Then we read about the prevalence of mental health problems in children and adolescents. We learned that mental health disorders are quite common in young people and about 40% of adolescents have experienced a diagnosable disorder during this past year and about on in 10 children suffer from a disorder that affects their development and yet they fail to get the treatment that they need. We then read about risk factors for childhood disorders, the risk factors include genetic susceptibility, prenatal influences on the developing brain, environmental stressors, family factors, ethnic minority statues, anxiety and depressive disorders,

The community, school, and parents all have to work together as a whole to ensure the proper development of children. The community can prevent psychopathology in children by allowing people to have the basic rights to food and shelter. A poverty stricken environment has a lot to do with the development of the child. If families were provided with the basic essentials of food, and shelter despite their education level or economic status, more families would be stress free. Typically those of lower socioeconomic status have to work a lot harder and it causes a lot of stress within the family.

     Two critical problems for child psychologists are (1) to determine how environmental variables (such as parental attitudes) and biological characteristics (such as health) interact and

Psychological disorder is a pattern of behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or physical symptoms presented by an individual. Infants, children, adolescents, and older adults may experience in their lifetime psychological disorder. It’s really essential to pay attention to early symptoms, before these symptoms increases. Many of this mental illness began and an early age. Children and adolescence mental help differ in many ways from those adults. Abnormal child psychology, biological influences must be balanced with important developmental and cultural factors such as; microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, and, macro system. It’s critical to remember that having a mental illness do not describe how people are, these disorders only describe patterns

Recognizing Mental Health Issues: School age children between the ages of 7 and 17years old fall between 2 stages of development; school age (7-12years) and adolescent (12-17years). With childhood development we see changes in behaviors, cognitive and motor functions. Several day-to-day experiences can affect a child’s behaviors and/or cognitive functions; parents getting a divorce, moving to a new town, getting a new brother/sister, going to a new school etc. (nih.gov). During routine school health assessments, the nurse would recognize the following as more serious warning signs of a mental health problem: when the child is reported to be having problems in more than one setting (at school, at home, with peers etc.), reports of changes in appetite or sleep, social withdrawal or fear of things he or she was not afraid of before, returning to behaviors more common in younger children, such as bedwetting, signs of self-destructive behavior, such as head-banging, reports of repeated thoughts of death etc. (nih.gov). Once recognized, the

Health issues can also affect emotional and mental health. For example a child may have low confidence or self-esteem and could lead to depression. (Bupa, 2014)