The Importance of Including a Child with ADHD in the Treatment Process
by
Samuel R. Caron, Ph.D.
When treating children with ADHD, an easy mistake often made is to not actively involve the child in the ADD/ADHD treatment process. Not involving the child can negatively affect treatment outcome. This mistake occurs for several reasons.
To begin with there is a serious shortage of child mental health providers in the United States. David Crary, in an April 6th , 2006 Associated Press article stated, “America suffers from a serious, long-term shortage of child psychiatrists that is taking a toll on young people, their parents and their doctors.” According to a recent American Psychological Association article written by Annie Toro, J.D., M.P.H., “Research has shown a dearth of appropriately trained clinical child psychologists, child psychiatrists, and social workers. Only one out of five children and adolescents receives treatment from a mental health professional with special training to work with children. There are particularly acute shortages in the number of mental health service professionals serving children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders.” To address this problem The Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act went before Congress in 2007. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, it has not been passed by Congress.
Counseling vs. Medication
Because medication by itself is frequently so effective, practitioners and parents alike can forget about the importance of counseling the child. However, the recommended treatment of choice continues to be a combination of medication and counseling.
Counseling also takes more time than medication. Once the proper medication and correct dose of medication is determined, the family usually only needs to see their physician for short, monthly medication appointments. Counseling, on the other hand, means attending longer sessions on a regular and frequent basis, possibly once or even twice a week.
Counseling is also more expensive than medication alone, meaning one must often convince insurance companies to cover the costs. Often it is difficult to get a sufficient number of session approved.
Finally, many therapists find it easier to work with the parents than with the child and so choose to focus on parent counseling rather than working directly with the children.
Involve the Child
We should involve the child in the treatment in order to educate him/her about the disorder. Understanding the problems can help the child to cope better as (s)he actively tries to function better. It can also help the child avoid developing impaired self esteem, for example believing that (s)he is stupid, inadequate, or mentally disturbed. Understanding can also help reduce the stigma associated with having ADHD. If the child is an active participant, we also might be able to avoid tapping into an oppositional response from the child, in other words many of the children might conclude that we are trying to control them with medications and therefore respond by purposely fighting progress and not trying. Currently a very high percentage of children quit taking medication when they grow up, even if they still need it. When we actively involve them in their own treatment, we increase the probability that they will continue to properly manage the disorder when they grow up.
ADHD Education for Children
It is for the reasons stated above that I have produced and will continue to produce videos which are aimed at directly educating children about ADHD and thus actively involving them in the treatment process.
These videos offer you an inexpensive alternative for obtaining treatment aimed directly at communicating with your children about ADHD. I hope your family will appreciate my Dr. C & Elwood ADHD videos.
