Children with medical problems present considerable difficulties to families, caregivers, learning institutions, and communities. Medical reforms, encompassing the managed care movement, highlight that the incorporation of systems of care is vital to the provision of quality medical care. Modifications in social policy, in addition to developments in research, have generated the requirement for experts who can successfully connect systems of care to handle and avert medical challenges. Change movements in the sector of healthcare, mental health, and learning influence the provision of services to children, as well as families. Vital developments in medicine, psychology and learning have brought about modifications in research and performance. Additionally, the rising opportunities and difficulties demand the connection of fields of child psychology with other areas of study to react to strategy changes and enhancements in research associated with medical care.
Chronic medical challenges, encompassing mental health problems, among children and teenagers are greatly widespread. The approximated prevalence of mental health problems among children and teenagers between nine and seventeen years of age is twenty-one percent, and the occurrence of common medical problems like asthma and obesity is approximated to be ten percent and twenty-two percent respectively. The costs of medical problems and, at times, premature death could be exceedingly expensive to families and communities thus calling for the initiation of the health reform movement. Via the advancement of partnerships in different disciplines and schemes, psychologists, as well as other caregivers, react to the problems facing children. In cooperation with families, schools, and leaders, such experts assist in the inclusive incorporation of the children into schools and communities.
The lessons that I have learned include the fact that the healthcare reform movement has positioned considerable importance on the avoidance of medical problems and the development of healthcare for every child. The concentration on prevention has further established the primacy of community-anchored models of healthcare. Learning institutions, particularly, have been the target of the avoidance endeavors since they hold nearly every child in the communities and have extant means of organizing interdisciplinary conferences for children, as well as families. The development of effective school-oriented prevention plans demands partnership amid a broad scope of possible stakeholders. School psychologists are exceptionally placed to act in response to reforms associated with medical attention due to the significance of offering interventions and avoidance programs for children having or at the danger of developing medical problems in learning institutions. Attributable to their positions in institutions of learning, school psychologists have the best chance of collaborating with school personnel like counselors, nurses, and educators in establishing programs to handle the medical requirements of school children.
I was mostly surprised by the high number of children with medical problems, mainly mental health disorders. Though mental health problems are greatly common, less than half of the children and teenagers that develop these problems obtain services to handle their needs. Such services are provided by mental health professionals and pediatric caregivers. Surprisingly, even with the great need to address the problem, hindrances to care are multifarious and encompass stigmatization related to mental health disorders, monetary costs, transport, and family displeasure with services to mention a few. A major field of concentration is the destigmatization of mental health problems and attempts to eliminate stigmatization require focusing on the improvement of public understanding of the indivisible connection involving biological and psychosocial aspects in causing mental health disorders.