What Services are on Offer in the Child Service?

The practice offers a range of personalised and confidential assessments and treatments to children, young people and their parents and families.

Sometimes children will be seen individually but it is more usual for them to be seen with their parents for at least some of the time. Often it may be appropriate for the whole family to be seen together.

1. Assessment:
Assessment of a difficulty will vary dependent upon the individual needs of children and their families.  Families who are seen for an initial assessment are under no obligation to undertake any therapy with the practice. If a recommendation is made for further therapy, parents will be made aware of all the options including those available through the NHS.

Initial Assessment Session:
An assessment will usually involve at least one assessment session with the child and his or her family to gather information about the difficulties, the way in which they have arisen over time and the child’s development and family background.  This session will last between an hour and an hour and a half.

Questionnaires:
Many families and older children will be asked to complete a brief questionnaire as part of the assessment.  This is to give a clear picture of everyone’s concerns and to enable as clear a focus as possible from the outset.
It may also be appropriate for a child and his or her parents to complete further questionnaires designed to assess the exact nature of specific difficulties. Examples of these questionnaires include:

• The Beck Youth Inventories (depression, anxiety, anger, disruptive behaviour and self esteem)
• Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale
• The Impact of Events Scale (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Standardised Developmental Assessments:
If there are concerns about a child’s development, assessment will almost always include the use of standardised measures including the following:

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC IV)
• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI III)
• NEPSY II
• Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT II)

Observation:
Where appropriate, arrangements may be made to observe a child, either at home or at school. Such observations may be conducted by the Special Needs Advisor to the Practice and, where appropriate, feedback and support can also be offered to a child’s school.

2. Treatment:
Following an assessment it may be clear that some form of treatment is indicated.  If you decide that you would like to pursue this with me I will give you an indication of the length of time this is likely to take.  I would usually expect to see a child for between six and ten sessions although in some cases longer term therapy will be appropriate.
Treatment choices are always individually planned and based upon a careful assessment of the difficulties.  Children and their families will always be involved in the decision about what form of therapy is likely to be most helpful. Any recommendations made will be informed by professional good practice guidelines and outcome research (NICE and CAMHS Evidence-Based Practice Unit).
Any form of treatment is likely to integrate a range of different psychological models and may include:

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
• Individual Psychotherapy
• Family Therapy
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming (EMDR)
• Hypnosis

What Sort of Difficulties will be Seen? Read more

Child Services at High View. Read more

Dr Gwyn Carter

Email: gwyn@high-view.org.uk