Interventions and prevention strategies for counseling adolescents. (Introduction To Special Issue: Counseling Adolescents).Intervention and prevention strategies for counseling children and adolescents is one of the most promising areas of mental health counseling one can envision. Although certainly not comprehensive, this special edition provides a contextual overview of at least six key areas of youth's lives: (a) preventing adolescent stress, (b) treating child and adolescent ADHD Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Definition Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsive behaviors, and the inability to remain focused on tasks or , (c) reducing adolescent depression, (d) responding to adolescents' troubled behaviors, (e) writing therapeutic letters to adolescent clients, and (f) using cultural sensitivity in counseling children. This special edition takes an in-depth look at both intervention and prevention counseling prevention counseling AIDS Advising Pts on the risk of HIV infection and developing a plan to ↓ that risk for them and their partners . Intervention strategies can reduce pain and conflict in adolescents at the time of crisis by using evidence-based therapies, utilizing theory-driven techniques, and designing developmentally appropriate counseling methodologies. Prevention strategies can reduce the need for intensive counseling interventions altogether when mental health counselors team with other professionals to work with the youth populations at risk, when we adopt a proactive stance to treating children and adolescents, and when we look for the relative contributions of environmental, organic, medical, and psychopathological psy·cho·pa·thol·o·gy n. 1. The study of the origin, development, and manifestations of mental or behavioral disorders. 2. The manifestation of a mental or behavioral disorder. etiologies to problem behavior (Albee & Gullotta, 1997; Bloom, 1996). Strategies for counseling children and adolescents are vitally important to mental health counselors because children and adolescents often experience or engage in behaviors or environments that place them at risk. Although only a few areas could be covered in this special edition, at least ten urgent concerns touch the lives of children and adolescents today: depression and suicide; sexual and physical abuse; drug and substance abuse; violence and juvenile delinquency; teen pregnancies; HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. and STDs; dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human , school failure, and underachievement; at-risk profiles (including poverty, diversity, gender, and sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. ); eating disorders eating disorders, in psychology, disorders in eating patterns that comprise four categories: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, rumination disorder, and pica. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by self-starvation to avoid obesity. ; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), formerly called hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction, a chronic, neurologically based syndrome characterized by any or all of three types of behavior: hyperactivity, distractibility, and impulsivity. (ADHD); and loss and trauma including divorce, death, post traumatic stress disorder Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) A disorder that occurs among survivors of severe environmental stress such as a tornado, an airplane crash, or military combat. Symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks, and nightmares. (PTSD PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder. PTSD abbr. posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ), immigrant families, and homelessness. We hope to make the point in this special edition that to adequately address these areas of concern in youngsters' lives, we must move from the delivery of individual and intervention counseling to the delivery of group or population and prevention counseling. To assist youngsters in their concerns, we must approach their problem behaviors not only from developmental and environmental perspectives, but also from organic, medical, and mental health perspectives. Finally, to create changes in behavior and promote wellness in the lives of youth, we must understand stress as an integral component of children and adolescents' concerns. This issue of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling is exciting and useful not only because the topic is timely and of urgent import, but also because the contributing authors are competent clinicians as well as informed scholars in their area of expertise. Consistent with the mission of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, authors' contributions touch on all aspects of practice, theory, research, and professionalism related to work with youth. So, we trust that you not only will enjoy these articles but also they will bolster your desire to intervene and prevent troubled behavior so that youngsters can live more rewarding lives and can embrace their futures with hope. REFERENCES Albee, G. W., & Gullotta, T. P. (1997). Primary prevention works. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bloom, M. (1996). Primary prevention practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. |
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