May 6th, 2020
By Eileen Weber
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has ground most of daily life to a halt for weeks. Small businesses are shut down. Children aren’t going to school. People are confined to their homes clinging tightly to toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Globally, there are more than two million cases of the virus with tens of thousands of deaths. The United States has hundreds of thousands of cases with hotspots in areas of New York and Massachusetts and growing pockets in the South and Midwest. But when it comes to issues surrounding the coronavirus, there is one thing that’s been largely overlooked: kids with [More]
Tags: children, kids, coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, autistic, structure, routine
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April 19th, 2020
By Eileen Weber
In the past two decades, the number of young people 18 and under accessing mental health services has doubled. A recent report showed that one in three children in the state experience at least one “adverse childhood experience” before age nine. The report from Building Bright Futures, a non-profit organization in Vermont that monitors early care, health, and education systems for potential legislative policy improvements, explained that adverse childhood experiences, or ACES, typically involve living in a home that struggles to cover basic needs. It can be anything from divorce to living with someone who has a substance abuse disorder [More]
Tags: divorce, children, Vermont, mental health services, suicide, developmental screening, substance abuse disorder, Early Childhood Mental Health Task Force
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October 10th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
For a psychologist just starting out or an established clinician looking to expand her practice or switch focus, the prospect of working with a different age group can be daunting. But, of course, there are plenty of others who have taken the path ahead of you and advice to follow. The first step is to really think about what age group(s) you have a passion for working with on a day-to-day basis. From young children to adolescents, adults and seniors, there are benefits to working with each group and no one can say which is objectively “better.” It really comes [More]
Tags: psychologist, children, adolescents, focus, brain development, practice, age group, adults, seniors, puberty, changes in identity, social interactions
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January 7th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Realizing that more must be done to reach out to children who have witnessed traumatic events, representatives from several agencies joined in Manchester NH to craft a unique outreach program. Launched two years ago, ACERT, or the Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team, has experienced some amazing results. Several times each week, a member of the Manchester Police Department, a crisis service advocate from the Manchester YWCA and a community health worker from the Manchester Community Health Center (MCHC) head out to knock on doors of homes where children were exposed to trauma. The plan, said program founding partner Lara Quiroga, [More]
Tags: children, trauma, sexual assault, New Hampshire, suicide, drug use, traumatic events, ACERT, domestic incidents, overdose
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November 10th, 2018
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Looking to address issues of long wait times and limited access to mental health care, the state of Maine has initiated a system-wide assessment of its behavioral health services for children. With a series of surveys geared towards stakeholders including children and families, providers, law enforcement and corrections personnel, advocacy service providers, educators and behavioral health providers, the state hopes to gather a wide range of feedback about the system, its strengths and areas where corrections are needed. “The review will examine the service array, regulatory structure, and operational processes across Children’s Behavioral Health Services or CBHS,” said Emily Spencer, [More]
Tags: children, Maine, improvement, best practices, corrections, mental health care, behavioral health services, survey, strengths, service array, regulatory structure, operational processes, Disability Rights Maine, Maine Department of Health and Human Services
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November 9th, 2018
By Janine Weisman
School is a safe place — but only for half of the world’s students. A new UNICEF analysis finds that half of students aged 13 to 15 globally report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and around school. That’s about 150 million teens, according to the report “An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in Schools,” which outlines a variety of ways students face violence in and around the classroom. The report measures peer-to-peer violence as the number of children who report having been bullied in the previous month or having been involved in a physical fight. And, the report’s data shows the prevalence of [More]
Tags: children, students, UNICEF analysis, peer-to-peer violence, bullying, physical fights, school, shootings, toxic stress, exposure to violence, healthy brain development, antisocial behaviors, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, criminal activity
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October 5th, 2018
By Catherine Robertson Souter
As the saying goes, find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life. Psychologists, more than most people, are aware of the need to find meaning in the day to day. For some, however, finding their passion generally takes a long time. For others, it comes more quickly. For Ashley Warhol, Psy.D, finding her niche as director of clinical services and internship training at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health flowed naturally, and quickly, from a predoctoral internship with the organization in 2012. Following the internship, she was offered a position as a staff clinician, moved [More]
Tags: children, adolescents, interview, training, clinician, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, Ashley Warhol, treatment interventions, Q&A
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October 3rd, 2018
By Phyllis Hanlon
Residential, or boarding, schools serve different populations and have different goals. Schools that address behavioral issues in children admit students with a variety of diagnoses. Those diagnoses include a number of psychological and emotional issues that range from anxiety, mood and eating disorders, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) to fire setting, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other behavioral problems. In recent years, more children have presented with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. According to Valentina M. Parchin, Ph.D, director of education for the Adelbrook Learning Center in East Hartford, Connecticut, this agency has moved [More]
Tags: children, residential treatment, Residential schools, boarding schools, behavioral issues, Board-certified behaviorists, student, emotional issues, psychological issues., therapeutic approach
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August 30th, 2018
By Eileen Weber
Reports of family separation at the Mexican border set off a firestorm. Video and audio demonstrated the conditions in which the more than 3,000 children lived. An estimated 1,600 parents are still in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With reunification underway, the Trump administration recently admitted that more than 450 immigrant parents separated from their children may have been deported. “I find Trump’s policy of separating children from parents shocking, appalling, and extremely cruel,” said Richard McNally, Ph.D, professor and director of clinical training in the department of psychology at Harvard University. McNally has focused much of his [More]
Tags: children, PTSD, border separation, family separation, immigrants, parents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, IRIS, war-torn areas
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August 30th, 2018
By Catherine Robertson Souter
It would surprise no one that children who have been mistreated or have been subjected to another form of trauma would experience repercussions. It makes sense that trauma can result in symptoms that look like behavioral disorders, oppositional defiant disorders, anxiety, depression, or ADHD. Yet, for many children the symptoms are treated as not being related to their traumatic experiences. As part of an on-going research project, Julian D. Ford, Ph.D, A.B.P.P., professor of psychiatry and law at the University of Connecticut and director of the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice, and colleagues Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D. and Bessel [More]
Tags: children, PTSD, kids, interview, treatment, research, family separation, Developmental trauma disorder, symptoms, study, National Child Traumatic Stress Network
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