Behavioral Health assessment and intervention for children, teens and young adults
Our skilled psychology providers have advanced training and experience in psychological services for children, teens and young adults. We provide assessment, diagnosis and treatment for hospitalized children (inpatients) and outpatients at our hospital locations and in the community. We work closely with you and your child to tailor our services to meet your family’s needs for assessment and intervention.
Language services are available when desired.
Programs
Autism Program
The Autism Center at Texas Children's Hospital focuses on the assessment of children through age 12 who are suspected of having autism spectrum disorder. There are limited and brief outpatient parenting intervention services also provided through the Autism Center. We also have services for children and adolescents with Autism or Developmental or Intellectual Disability hospitalized at Texas Children’s Hospital (in person at Main Campus and virtual across other Texas Children’s Hospital campuses). There are also opportunities for families served through our Autism Center to participate in research.
We provide short-term therapy for parents and their children from age 18 months to 6 years who have behavioral and developmental concerns, including:
Aggression, such as biting or hitting
Defiance, such as refusing to obey
Difficulties in school, including expulsion
Sleep disturbances
Temper tantrums or fits
Family conflict related to behavior management
Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Our evidence-based approach involves behavioral parent training, so primary caregiver(s) will be involved every visit. The intervention usually lasts for 5 to 8 visits, and we decide on the number of sessions based on the symptoms and your child’s progress.
We provide services to children and adolescents in the foster care system related to unique stressors and adjustments they face. We treat depression and anxiety as well as symptoms of trauma.
Our behavioral health team provides neuropsychological and psychological assessment as well as brief outpatient visits for diagnosis and treatment recommendations. We specialize in diagnostic intake assessments for:
Children and adolescents with acute (sudden) or chronic (long-term) illnesses
Children and adolescents with symptoms or a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder
Children and adolescents presenting with trauma
Children and adolescents presenting with mood disorders
Our psychologists and behavioral health clinicians provide evidence based outpatient therapy for typical childhood presenting problems (e.g. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, adjustment to family changes, depression, generalized anxiety, coping with school difficulty, etc.). We also work as part of the multidisciplinary bipolar clinic team. These services occur across our campus locations.
We understand that adolescents may require a higher level of care than what can be offered through weekly psychotherapy.
The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) provides intensive, evidence-based, and outcomes-driven behavioral health care to adolescents ages 12 through 17-years-old struggling with emotional and behavioral issues that lead to challenges in daily life. Difficulties may include but are not limited to suicidal thoughts, self-injurious behavior, anxiety, mood difficulties, impulsive behavior, and family conflict. The program is best suited for adolescents that are stepping down from an inpatient behavioral health facility or stepping up from traditional weekly outpatient psychotherapy.
IOP services are individualized to meet the unique needs of the adolescent and their family. The program provides targeted support in a coordinated and highly structured therapeutic environment with services including psychiatric evaluation with medication management; individual, skills-focused group and family therapies; and integrative therapies such as art, music, and mindfulness-based interventions. Additionally, we offer a weekly caregiver support group. All care is in person, three days per week and four hours per day.
Our team focuses on increasing access to behavioral health care for youth and families who experience systemic barriers to care in traditional settings. The MBHU partners with several community agencies that have many children, adolescents, and families facing challenges in accessing behavioral health care for a variety of reasons. Many of these children and adolescents have experienced devastating traumas, including physical and sexual abuse, sex trafficking or exposure to torture or severe domestic violence, and personal losses, such as death of a close family member or friend from suicide, domestic violence or gun violence. Our clinicians provide high-quality, individualized and evidence-based therapeutic screening and services.
We take an evidence-based approach to care, and treatments involve exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). We may see your child or teen in individual therapy sessions with significant family involvement and/or family therapy. We tailor our treatments to your child’s specific symptoms, and the number of sessions will depend on the symptoms and your child’s progress.
The Pediatric Neuropsychology Outpatient Program provides comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations to children with a range of acute and chronic conditions that can have an effect on the brain and brain development. Children are seen through this program when they have difficulties or changes in their cognitive functioning—for example, in their learning, memory, attention, or behavior—in the context of a medical condition or medical treatment that has the potential to affect brain function.
Neuropsychological evaluations use assessment of a child’s cognitive functioning – typically in the context of brain injury or disease – to identify cognitive strengths and weaknesses, assess for changes in functioning, and guide treatment and school planning. The primary goals of evaluation are to help patients, their families, and the people who work with them to better understand their cognitive functioning, and to provide individualized recommendations to help them function better at school, home, and other day-to-day environments.
The Pediatric Psychology Program works with all medical specialties across Texas Children’s to help children address psychological, emotional and behavioral concerns related to illness and adjustment to illness, manage symptoms and side effects of illness or treatment (such as nausea and pain) and integrate treatment plans into daily life. Our comprehensive care also involves working with your child’s medical team to support their recovery, overall health and well-being.
Our behavioral health team provides inpatient and outpatient evidence based assessment and intervention for children, adolescents, and young adults. Treatment is collaborative, which means that we work together with children, teens, young adults and their families to decide on the goals and treatment plans that are right for them.
We can work with you and your child on concerns and issues such as:
Improving adjustment related to a chronic illness or injury
Effectively managing the demands of medical treatment, such as taking medication
Successfully transitioning back to school after an illness-related absence
Because our team can also see children and teens admitted to Texas Children’s, we may do both inpatient and outpatient follow-up care at times. We provide pediatric psychology outpatient care for toddlers through young adults with acute and chronic illnesses and injuries.
The Primary Care Behavioral Health Program offers behavioral health assessment, consultation, and brief interventions for children and adolescents within community-based primary care clinics. This innovative program recognizes the need for increasing access to behavioral and mental health services and aims to serve those presenting a broad range of socio-emotional, learning, and behavioral health needs. Our psychologists provide direct clinical care in primary care centers, as well as consultation support to other behavioral health providers across the larger Texas Children's Pediatrics system.
Taking your child to the Emergency Room for a psychiatric, emotional, or behavioral health problem can be scary. This kind of visit can look very different from an Emergency Room visit for a broken bone, viral illness, or other medical problem.
Should you need to take your child to the emergency room, it is likely you will be asked questions by the medical team about your current concerns and your child’s mental health history. Your child will first undergo a medical screening to determine if they need any medically necessary treatment. After, the medical team will decide to involve a mental health professional to assist in your child's evaluation and care.
Texas Children’s Hospital has a dedicated team of psychologists and behavioral health clinicians that work alongside the emergency room medical team. The primary goal is to assess your child’s safety and then work to develop a plan to best support your child and family going forward. During the assessment, we will talk with you and your child. It is likely that you will be asked to step away from the exam room in order to speak privately with your child. This is not uncommon as children can have difficulty sharing sensitive information in front of loved ones.
Your provider will then make recommendations to the medical team about next steps. Families can typically expect one of the following: 1) discharge home from the emergency room with recommendations for outpatient mental health care or 2) transfer to an inpatient psychiatric facility. Your child may be referred to a program within Texas Children's such as our Intensive Outpatient Program (maybe it's linked here?), Outpatient Psychology, or Outpatient Psychiatry, for example. Although Texas Children's does not have an inpatient psychiatric unit, we will work with you and your family to transfer your child directly to a facility that will provide this level of care.
