Child Psychiatrist in South Florida

Understanding Child Psychiatry vs. Child Psychology

Child psychiatry is something most people do not want to talk about. Even doctors and pediatricians may bristle at the word. And yet it can sometimes be a critical intervention for childhood and teen mental illness that is not otherwise treatable with therapy or a wholistic approach. The reality is that child psychiatry, when necessary and provided ethically, saves lives and futures.

The first distinction to understand about child psychiatry is the word psychiatry. Psychiatric medicine is the practice of prescribing psychotropic medications to children.  An example of this would be an anti-depressant or mood stabilizer. Child psychiatrists are not therapists and they are not there to do play therapy with your son or daughter. Their main objective is to diagnose a child or teen and prescribe medication for psychiatric symptoms. Some of these symptoms may include sleeplessness, inability to get through school, behavioral problems, or violence.

A child psychologist on the other hand, works with children and teens using therapy techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, play therapy and mindfulness. It is best practice (meaning the best procedure) to start first with child psychology and then if problems and symptoms persist, to be evaluated by a child psychiatrist. If you think your child might benefit from therapy, please visit our child/adolescent therapy page here.

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The Process of Getting Help: What to Expect

An important part of child psychiatry is collaboration with parents. Patents, not teachers, are the best providers of collateral information (meaning background information) regarding the child’s upbringing, home environment, school situation, social life and emotional and behavioral range. At MorMindful you are encouraged to come to all of your child or teen’s psychiatry appointments to participate, provide insight and work together as a team to make changes in the home so that the medication works as well as possible.

Many people think of child psychiatry as a way to medicate children into a stupor. This could not be farther from the truth. The doctors at MorMindful are specifically trained with a “less-is-more” approach. You child’s psychiatrist is there to give you the most accurate diagnosis possible in order to get much needed school accommodations if necessary and prescribe a medication that hopefully will help them function better at home and school.

Getting in to see a child psychiatrist in South Florida on a timely basis and at a rate that is realistic is not easy to do. At MorMindful we do everything we can to keep our rates attainable to many people with the knowledge that the initial evaluation is larger than follow-up visits because it is the most time consuming and challenging.

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If your child or teen is in need of an accurate psychiatric evaluation designed for kids, call our office now to request an appointment.