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Children’s Mental Health
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Definition of Condition
Children’s mental health refers to their social and emotional well-being. Children show emotions like happiness, fear, surprise, anger, interests, acceptance and disgust starting from their early stages of life CITATION Bec15 \l 1033 (Becker, et al., 2015). Signs of dysfunction in children can be noted in such behaviors as social interactions, behaviors when playing, attachment and attention. Signs associated with toddlers with mental health problems include: sleep problems, low interest in exploring the environment, problems of separation and aggressive behavior. Moreover, children’s social and emotional behaviors are measured based on their ability to relate to the others, their demonstration of empathy, response to aggression and problem solving ability CITATION Lin14 \l 1033 (Lindsey, et al., 2014). Children’s mental health development is determined by their temperament, injury, genetic abnormalities and illnesses. Emotional development of children is influenced by abuses, losses, parenting methods and neglect.
Medical Implications
Development of children’s social and emotional health is closely connected to other aspects of growth and development CITATION Atk17 \l 1033 (Atkins, Cappella, Shernoff, Mehta, & Gustafson, 2017). Such other areas are physical development, language development and communication, their relationship and cognitive skills. Furthermore, children without achievement of social and emotional milestones or those with abnormal skills could face social, emotional and developmental problems. Children’s early mental health problems may result into lifelong struggles. According to previous research, about a half of all cases of mental illness start at fourteen.
Policy and Benchmarking
Children’s Mental Act was enacted in Illinois in 2003. The State became the first to recognize the how important their social and emotional health are in achieving academic success. The Act recognizes the fact that untreated children’s mental health problems have monetary and developmental consequences since they affect learning ability of the children making them prone to crime. About 10% of children in Illinois suffer from mental illness. Only about 20% gets health services.
Health service providers have a good relationship with children and their families, they can better detect the children’s behavioral, developmental and psychological CITATION Hoa18 \l 1033 (Hoagwood, et al., 2018). Though the providers are able to identify physical or motor difficulties, more training is required to identify mental health and attachment problems. It is estimated that 13% of children aged 8–15 in the United States of America suffer from mental health; about 1.1% of adults in the U.S.A. suffer from schizophrenia and that 2.6% of adults in the U.S.A. have bipolar disorders CITATION Nat15 \l 1033 (National Alliance for Mental Illness, 2015).
Funding Implications
Developmental screening and early int...