child mental health options

Written by Elizabeth Dolan, Counselor 
Families seeking help are often not familiar with the resources that can be provided
unless they have gone through this type of experience in the past. I will help
provide some of the overarching terms that can feel daunting to a family new to the
mental health healing process. One of the terms is called Wraparound Services
(WRAP) which can be described as community based, individualized, and
comprehensive mental, emotional, behavioral, and social services and care for
people in need, like helpless children and their parents. These services incorporate
an individual’s social, emotional, health, academic, and sometimes occupational
needs, and recruit multiple providers from within the community like teachers or
medical professionals.
Another term used is Child and Family Team (CFT) Meetings. These team
meetings can be very beneficial between children, parents, and human service
providers for goal setting and to make the necessary changes to successfully
reunify families. Often providers can work with the family to construct a plan for
meeting appropriate goals as well as offering resources and support.
In the school system the term Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are often
discussed. IEPs are developed primarily by school personnel in the special
education department in response to the needs of specific children who are not
performing well at school for mental, emotional, behavioral, familial, and/or social
reasons. This is a good resource if the patient is not meeting success at school and
progressing at a certain rate in comparison to other on-level students.
The final term I will talk about is Team Decision Meetings (TDMs). These
meetings are held between different social service providers before important
decisions are made on behalf of the child. During these meetings, providers
develop a suitable course of action given the family’s circumstances to help update
the different organizations on the progress of a family. These terms can be briefed
over very quickly by the different parties and it is important as a family to
understand the context to help best serve the patient.