Happy Tuesday and a big hello to everyone, especially to those who are new to our community! This a photo of me from last month in Delhi, India, where my parents live (most of my family live within a few hours). For a little over a month, my husband and I were working remotely from there while we all (most especially our toddler, Rumi) got to spend some high-quality time with loved ones — making some beautiful and indelible memories.
If I do it would be from a perspective of the struggle. Although I am a school counselor and have deep community connections, when I needed to find help for my son it has taken 2 years of false starts and dead ends. We have much more access to adult mental health care in my community, but specialized child psychiatric care outside the realm of autism is a desert. We are right in the thick of this.
That's sadly very much been my experience as a pediatrician, too. We had to learn a lot basic pediatric psychiatry (formally, through a training program) to fill the acute need knowing we couldn't get in with pediatric psychiatry short of an emergency, but getting people plugged in for therapy of different kinds was also always really challenging. Definitely a good topic for a post! The struggle is the reality.
Yes, I’ve sent parents to their pediatrician as their first line of defense my whole career. And then I did it and he looked at us and said wow, you need help. This is not typical behavior. I’m not your guy. And we’ve been ping-ponging our way ever since. I do have hope though. We have found a child behavior specialist to work with is as a family and finally had a visit at Texas Childrens. There’s finally movement. I don’t know where we are going, but movement is better than no movement!
Child mental health issues-which type of practitioner to see when and what each can provide
That's a really good one! I'm curious if that's a topic you'll be addressing in your newsletter.
If I do it would be from a perspective of the struggle. Although I am a school counselor and have deep community connections, when I needed to find help for my son it has taken 2 years of false starts and dead ends. We have much more access to adult mental health care in my community, but specialized child psychiatric care outside the realm of autism is a desert. We are right in the thick of this.
That's sadly very much been my experience as a pediatrician, too. We had to learn a lot basic pediatric psychiatry (formally, through a training program) to fill the acute need knowing we couldn't get in with pediatric psychiatry short of an emergency, but getting people plugged in for therapy of different kinds was also always really challenging. Definitely a good topic for a post! The struggle is the reality.
Yes, I’ve sent parents to their pediatrician as their first line of defense my whole career. And then I did it and he looked at us and said wow, you need help. This is not typical behavior. I’m not your guy. And we’ve been ping-ponging our way ever since. I do have hope though. We have found a child behavior specialist to work with is as a family and finally had a visit at Texas Childrens. There’s finally movement. I don’t know where we are going, but movement is better than no movement!
I'm so glad to know that, Ännä. Here's hoping that movement continues and you all find the answers you're seeking soon.