Children Need Help To Deal With Disorders

According to the Children’s Defense Fund, one in 10 children in this country has a mental illness serious enough to impair how they function at home, at school or with peers. Despite these high rates of mental illness in children, four out of five children who have mental health problems do not receive any help.

The Psychiatric Research Institute offers inpatient care for children. The Child Diagnostic Unit can accommodate children as young as 2 years old up to 12 years old. Staff members are trained to treat children with a variety of diagnoses, from post-traumatic stress and mood disorders to those with psychotic and pervasive developmental disorders. The unit will use a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment, relying on specialists in psychiatry, psychology, speech, language and occupational therapy and education.

The unit, which has a total of 10 beds dedicated to PRI’s youngest patients, will provide psychological and psychiatric evaluations of children experiencing psychological difficulties. Using a discipline of collaborative problem solving, the staff will follow their patients for 90 days after discharge in order to integrate our treatment plan with community-based resources. The Child Diagnostic Unit provides its patients and their families with a positive, child-friendly environment, with no fixed times for visits. Collaboration between the staff and parents and guardians is encouraged in an effort to successfully treat each patient.

PRI’s Child Study Center, located at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, offers mental health services for children under the age of 12. Our qualified staff of psychologists, social workers, analysts and counselors provides family and individual therapy. Trained specialists see patients for behavior management and psychiatric evaluation along with medication management.