Children Need Help as Much as Adults
Love keeps families together, but life can strain the harmony. Grown-ups likely know how psychiatry can help them better regulate anxiety, depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. But children may need this help, too.
Psychiatry Connection, a telepsychiatry practice operating in multiple U.S. states, offers this help. Dr. Sid Khurana, the practice’s co-founder, said parents can often sense distress in their children and look for help; he advised parents to be particularly wary of consistently downtrodden demeanors.
“Everybody’s allowed to have a bad day; we all have bad days,” Khurana said. “But when those bad days start to string together, and you go through many days at a time that the little one is not doing well, that’s when it’s a time to knock on some doors.”
Signals in School
Teachers can sometimes see children’s signs of struggle reflected in dropping grades, flagging interest in extracurricular activities or a failure to stay focused, finish assignments and avoid trouble, Khurana said.
“If the teacher calls you, the parent, and says, ‘Hey, I am concerned about little Johnny’ or ‘I’m a little concerned about Jenny,’ then that’s a concern that should be taken seriously,” Khurana said.
Treating the Family
Children’s technological aptitude can make telepsychiatry particularly effective for them. A Yale Child Study Center psychiatric nurse told Yale Medicine, for example, that some young people who were shier in person engaged better in online sessions.
Psychiatry Connection treats children individually and families collectively, Khurana said, tailoring care to children’s emotional development level and needs based on assessments and testing. This delivers the best results for everyone.
“As a psychiatrist, as a child psychiatrist, we take into account what the child has to say, what their mental status exam is, but also what the parents have to say and how that parent-child dynamic is working,” Khurana said.
How to Get Help
Psychiatry Connection’s board-certified, experienced, competent child psychiatrists stand ready to treat children and teenagers. Book an appointment here.
