Mental health disorders are the biggest health issue that young people face today. Despite this, child and adolescent mental healthcare is rarely the priority of health institutions or governments. Across the world, specialist mental health services for young people are lacking, and quality care is hard to find.
Faced with limited options for specialist mental health support, parents look towards adult psychiatry or general psychiatry for treatment for their young person. Sometimes, doctors and other professionals may even refer children and adolescents to these services. However, young people require specialist services that acknowledge and respond to their social and developmental needs.
Why Do Young People Need Specialist Mental Health Support?
Childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood are unique times in a young person’s life. They each involve distinct life experiences, such as moving through school, transitioning to further education, or choosing a career.
As they move from childhood to adulthood, young people explore and develop their identity. They may be questioning their sexuality, gender, religion, and other parts of themselves. Adolescents also experience key changes in their support systems, relying less upon their parents and more on their friends.
As they encounter these social changes, they also undergo biological change. Young people’s brains continue developing until their mid-20s. Consequently, children, teenagers, and young adults all experience mental health disorders differently from adults – and respond to treatment in different ways.
Young people also usually have different experiences of mental health and mental health services compared to adults. They may be more likely to:
- be using mental health services for the first time
- have limited knowledge about mental health treatment
- have co-occurring disorders, including substance use
- have relapses because they lack knowledge about managing their condition
- act impulsively, such as disruptive behaviour and self-harm
How Do Specialist Programs Meet the Needs of Young People?
Specialist mental health programs for young people are sensitive to their developmental and social needs. They adapt treatment programs and modalities to each young person’s developmental stage, whether that’s childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood.
Youth-dedicated programs focus on creating an environment that’s welcoming to young people, avoiding stigma and misconceptions. They build an atmosphere where young people want to begin – and continue – mental health treatment.
How Are Treatment Programs and Modalities Adapted for Young People?
Children, adolescents, and adults all respond differently to mental health treatment. This means that the evidence-based treatment approaches recommended for adult mental health disorders are different from those that effectively treat children or adolescents. Sometimes, treatment approaches for young people are specifically created for their age group. In other cases, treatment modalities that are effective for adults are adapted to suit children or teens.
Treatment approaches for children may use more non-verbal communication than those for adults, for example, by sharing pictures or acting out scenes. Treatment approaches dedicated to adolescents (such as MANTRa for anorexia and DBT-a for borderline personality disorder) may put additional focus on impulsive behaviours like self-harm and the impact of social media. They may also use language that is more suitable for teenagers.
For example:
- Emotional regulation training (ERT) is a modality specifically developed for adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Alongside teaching emotional regulation skills, it includes sessions about ‘knowing yourself’ to support identity exploration and formation.
- MANTRa is a treatment approach for anorexia nervosa, adapted for adolescents and young adults. It includes some additional exercises like distress tolerance practices to support adolescents who self-harm or have suicidal thoughts.
- Adolescent identity treatment (AIT) is a BPD treatment that works with young people to build a stable sense of who they are.
Mental health treatment approaches often involve working through examples of challenges faced in everyday life. These challenges are usually age-specific and may relate to relationships, school, or work. It’s important that individual or group therapy settings address the challenges that young people confront rather than those encountered by adults.
When young people attend adult mental health services, they’re often left feeling alienated, out of place, or misunderstood. Not only is treatment less effective, but they’re also less likely to believe in – or stay in – a treatment program. This can seriously harm their recovery journey.
The Role of the Family in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Family involvement is essential in mental health treatment at any age. But for young people, families are integral to effective treatment. Often, a mental health diagnosis itself is bound to the family context and to the interactions between a young person and their family members. A young person’s perception of their behaviours and experiences will be different from their caregivers’ – and this has to be considered from the very start of treatment.
This means that youth-dedicated programs should be family-centred, far beyond what is offered by most adult psychiatry services. Families should be involved in decision-making processes relating to a young person’s treatment and included in treatment modalities like family therapy. Recovery should involve healing within the family system, creating new dynamics that support the mental well-being of every member.
The Wave Clinic: Dedicated Mental Health Services for Young People
At the Wave Clinic, our mental health support spaces are dedicated to young people and their families. Our physical environment, treatment programs, and expertise are all specialised to the needs of young people. We create a space where children, adolescents, and young adults feel comfortable, welcome, and excited to begin their recovery journey.
Exceptional Expertise
Our team is constituted of experts in child and adolescent psychiatry. We bring together exceptional experience, expertise, and training to design and deliver the highest quality of youth-dedicated mental health care.
A Community of Young People
Young people staying at The Wave live within a community of other adolescents and young adults. Here, they can build relationships and friendships with people they can relate to – with individuals who may share many of their life experiences. Rather than feeling alone, alienated, or out of place, young people can support one another to accept their experiences and recover together.
Family-Centred Programs
At The Wave, families are at the centre of our experiences. We build personal relationships with family members from the start of our treatment programs and invite families to our centre for a week of family therapy during residential treatment. Our outpatient centre offers intensive family therapy courses with accommodation.
Luxury and Modern Houses
The Wave Clinic is made up of several houses, each designed to meet the needs of young people. Within our grounds, there are art rooms, a dance and yoga studio, an indoor pool, a cookery studio, a basketball court, table tennis, and a gym. Our rooms are modern, luxurious, and comfortable and made to feel like home.
Education and Experiences
Education is one of the core aspects of childhood and adolescence. Our residential programs combine clinical care with personal learning programs, vocational qualifications, and community projects. We support young people to continue their education and discover new passions as they recover from mental health concerns.
Contact Us
If you’d like to find out more about The Wave Clinic, get in touch today.
