Child and adolescent guidance centers can offer mental health and juvenile justice services, studying and treating interrelationships between the developing person, family, and community. They offer psychological and psychiatric services for children and adolescents up to 19 years of age. The vast majority of children and adolescents seen by child and adolescent guidance counselors do not suffer from mental illness. Most have emotional and behavioural problems that need professional help, such as:
Behavioural problems: lying, stealing, aggressiveness, destructiveness, disobedience, overactivity
Emotional problems: depression, school refusal, fears
Adjustment reactions: school related problems, grief
Development disorders: autism, bedwetting and soiling
Mental retardation
Psychosomatic disorders
Bizarre and abnormal behaviours
Relationship (including parent-child, sibling and marital) problems
Sociolegal issues and problems: child custody assessment, sexual offences, child abuse
Other: eating and sleep disorders, sexual problems in adolescence, tics and stress reaction
Treatment is generally designed to meet each child's needs. Treatment methods at child and adolescent guidance centers may include: medical treatment, individual psychotherapy, family and marital therapy, behavioural / cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, group therapy, play therapy, and social case work.
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