Centre For Child & Adolescent Wellbeing

PRE-PROGRAM ASSIGNMENT (June’24)

Name- ISHITA VYAS

University- DELHI UNIVERSITY

Course- PHILOSOPHY HONOURS

Date- 31st May 2024

Q1. What is your understanding about the field of child and adolescent mental health?

Child and Adolescent mental health has been there over the ages, drawing attention to the
traditional stigmas that were attached to mental health in general, the field of child psychology
was not given much importance that doesn’t mean that the problem didn’t existed at that time,
but people are getting more aware about the parenting styles and backgrounds these days and
it is a progress in de-stigmatizing the mental health of our youths of this generation. Due to
changing advancements and technologies specifically talking about social media in which the
youth of this generation are more specifically involved, creates both positive and negative
impacts on them, talking about the positive, it gives them a platform to express themselves and
talking about the negative, it can lead to comparing themselves with others. This is my general
overview about the field of child and adolescent mental health.

Q2. What kind of mental health professionals work in the field of child and adolescent mental
health?

Mental Health professionals may vary from field to field but their common goal is to work
towards mental health, specifically talking about mental health professionals in the field of child
and adolescent mental health, we have school and educational counsellors, child psychologists,
career counsellors for adolescents, therapists, psychiatrists, talking about psychiatrists their
major function lies in prescribing medications if the conditions affects the daily lifestyles and
well-being of an individual.

Q3. What are the different kinds of cases that come in a child and adolescent mental health
clinic? (It can include disorders as well as specific difficulties).
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According, to the DSM criteria, all the mentioned disorders create some or the other
malfunctioning in an individual from society’s perspective and this is a very narrow-minded
approach in treating that individual. Rather, nowadays, specifically talking about children with
learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD and the Autism Spectrum, these are mentioned as
Neurodiversity, a condition in which a person’s cognitive wiring of the brain is just considered
to be different rather than a disability. This perspective will be able to build strength and
empowerment in our children and adolescent of the coming generations.

Q4. What are some of the therapy approaches that can be used with the above-mentioned
cases?

Therapy approaches depend on the need of the client, that a mental health professional
decides. Consider for example, a child having ADHD traits doesn’t necessarily means that the
child will have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) but in order to not those ADHD
traits or personality type more versatile that it starts to impact child’s overall academic and co-
curricular behaviors at their school with their teachers and friends or at their home with their
parents then the child might need some therapeutic interventions or approaches that would be
implied by a professional in therapy depending upon the approach in which the therapist or
counselor have an expertise as well as the approach which will suit the child to bring a
significant change that will make the child feel more calm and centered. Some of the most
famous therapeutic approaches are CBT (Cognitive Behavioral therapy in which the thoughts of
the mind are restructured in a more positive way), REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioral therapy),
or any other approaches such as Humanistic approach or Psychoanalytic approach by Freud.

Q5. Provide a brief description of any one case profile that you would like to explore in general.

Everyone has seen the famous movie, “Taare Zameen Par”, as in that movie, how beautifully it
is shown that the boy Ishaan who faces Learning Disability in the end overcomes all the fears
that were sitting inside of him when he won first prize in the painting competition of his school
with the help of his supportive art teacher who don’t take him as the society do, it is a very
harsh reality that when we don’t find something or someone similar to ourselves we start to
believe that the other person is not worth anything, our education system is somewhat build on
these terms, unfortunately it don’t have many policies or provisions for those children who
 Centre For Child & Adolescent Wellbeing
faces any difficulties in their learning stage, that doesn’t really means that they have a disability
rather it just means that their cognitive capacities are different from ours or might be they are
born differently, they also might have some other potentialities which we don’t have, just in the
case of the boy Ishaan, he might not be good with learning numbers or alphabets that’s what
dyslexia means in general, but he was spectacular in drawing, painting and sketching, his artistic
and creative side was more than other normal children who didn’t had any learning disabilities.
In general, I would like to explore more about how the children with any neuro-disability
changes their disability to building strengths in their diversity of minds.

Q6. Is there any specific therapeutic approach that intrigues you?

All therapeutic approaches have their own expertise that a therapist in that particular expertise
knows about, in accordance, with the need of the client in a particular setting, talking about
that specific therapeutic approach which intrigues me is humanistic approach which talks about
how we all have some hidden potential and capabilities that help us to grow in a more higher
version of ourselves if we practice it daily. Humanistic approach is not specific to itself, rather, it
is an approach which can act as an eclectic tool within other therapeutic approach as well,
because somewhere or the other the topic of mental health revolves around this only. How one
can deal with any type of mental stress in their daily lives because every disorder has an
underlying cause of stress which becomes a pattern in our day-to-day lives slowly and steadily
impacting the overall functioning of an individual. Daily practicing a humanistic approach to
deal with our day-to-day mental health problems like stress can help us feel more centered,
grounded and calm with ourselves.