Venue: Salwa ballroom # 2
Erin Valentine - Clinical Psychologist, Psychiatry Department – Sidra Medicine
Omar Mahmood - Acting Psychology Lead, Assistant Clinical Professor, Clinical Psychologist – Sidra Medicine
Although referrals for psychological therapy are becoming more common from physicians and allied health professionals to psychologists, practitioners may be unaware of the range of therapeutic techniques that are commonly used with children and adolescents in mental health care. This workshop will present an overview of the therapeutic process which begins with making an accurate diagnosis to engagement of the child and family to providing the child and adolescent psychological interventions in the context of multidisciplinary mental health care.
Objective: This workshop aims to broad the understanding of participants, in both depth and breadth, of the methods and techniques psychologists use when working with children and adolescent to address their mental health needs. This begins with the assessment process to the ongoing engagement process and then finally to working with children with diagnoses of: anxiety, depression, ADHD, grief/loss, autism, disruptive behavior, tantruming, aggression, and other common mental health challenges.
This workshop will provide an overview of the basic tenets of psychological care with children and adolescents, look at general theoretical approaches to therapy, provide a brief summary of the state of empirical research on child therapy, provide examples of specific therapeutic techniques that are used, discuss cultural considerations specific to work with a Qatari population, provide participants the opportunity to practice what they have learned, and answer questions about how behavioral health can work together with general medical health care.
At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Define and categorize different theoretical approaches including the state of empirical research on psychological interventions with children and adolescents.
- Illustrate specific approaches, interventions, and techniques used in child psychology to address a variety of mental health needs.
- Identify appropriate referrals for child and adolescent mental health therapy based on patient’s provisional diagnosis.
- Apply information form case scenarios to decision making about mental health therapy referrals for children and adolescents.
- Understand cultural considerations in psychological care including the diagnosis and engagement process with children in adolescents in Qatar and the GCC.
