Emotional problems contribute to serious learning and health impairments in children. Indian studies report emotional problems in school children ranging from 10 to 74%. Emotionally disordered/disturbed children are under the care of parents. When parents do not recognize or give much credence to the disturbance, there is no scope for intervention. This may result in devastating effect on the growth of a child’s personality and learning process. The negative effect on learning process may result in low level of scholastic performance, though no overt psychiatric morbidity is recognizable in clinical sense.
Now the question arises is can we actually afford to miss these signs and symptoms. We at Paras Hospitals wish to initiate a movement for early identification and treatment for pediatric and adolescent mental health disorders. Post referral by a pediatrician, the child will be screened by our Senior Consultants, Clinical psychologist Dr. Preeti Singh for seven clusters of problems in children and adolescents: