Effective Communication Skills Adolescents Discussion

The practitioner did a nice job at using effective communication skills when she repeated back the symptoms the patient had told her he been having. When the patient was asked if he has been feeling depressed, he had a difficult time answering. I think the practitioner also did a good job at asking other questions that would help her determine if the patient is experiencing depression such as asking if he has been crying a lot or if he has been angry. I think the provider should have spent more time discussing the patient’s anger instead of telling him they could talk more about that later. I think exploring the patient’s anger could help in her assessment. At this point in the clinical interview, I am concerned that he has had feelings of not wanting to be alive. My next question would be Do you actively have a plan to hurt yourself, or end your life? This would be my next question because I want to determine if the patient is actively or passively suicidal so I can ensure his safety.

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Children and adolescents often process things differently than adults. It important to complete a thorough psychiatric assessment of a child/adolescent because they may struggle to report when their symptoms started, or the duration of their symptoms (Sharma, Srinath, Jacob, & Guatam, 2019). A couple of tools such as the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) and BLANK can be used during the psychiatric assessment of a child or adolescent. Effective Communication Skills Adolescents The CBCL is a worldwide psychiatric evaluation tool that is an easy-to-use scale and is completed by the child/adolescent’s parents (Biederman et al., 2020). Another rating scale often used in psychiatric assessments of children is the Strengths, and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The SDQ has 5 scales which include emotional symptoms, conduct problems, inattention/hyperactivity, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior, as well as asks about both positive and negative attributes across these 5 scales (Bryant, Guy, & Holmes, 2020).

Sometimes children and adolescents are treated for psychiatric conditions differently than adults. One specific psychiatric treatment that can be used to treat children but not adults is play therapy. Another treatment that may be used to treat children is art therapy. Art therapy can help children express complex emotions, or feelings that children may normally struggle to express verbally (Moula, Powell, & Karkou, 2020). When performing a psychiatric assessment of a child or adolescent it is important to include the parents. Parents play an important role in assessment because they are the ones who observe many of the child’s behaviors and they can report what they the child doing (Sharma, Srinath, Jacob, & Guatam, 2019). Parents are also very important in the assessment process because they are the ones who will provide the patients with history.

I have provided four different scholarly sources to support this discussion piece. Each article is peer reviewed, and within the past five years. All articles also provide references, and are not intended to advertise, or sell anything. The article Clinical practice guidelines for assessment of children and adolescents, did not have a PDF to download, however.

Effective Communication Skills Adolescents Discussion