Clinic Services

What is the Child Guidance Clinic?

Most people, including children, have difficulties at some time in their lives. Sometimes it helps to talk to somebody outside the family about how to cope with or overcome a particular problem.

The Clinic offers help to children or young people and their families. There may be problems with how a child gets on with other children or with adults, or with how different members of the family get on with each other. A child may not be coping at school, or may have become withdrawn or sad. Family members may disagree about discipline, or there may be tensions between parents which affect the children.

What Happens at the Clinic?

There are different stages in working with a family:

To begin with, a clear picture of the problem must be built up. A clinic staff member meets with the family one or more times to hear about the difficulties. If the family agrees, the staff member may also contact the family doctor, a teacher or others for information to help in understanding the problem. If necessary, special investigations may be carried out by clinic staff.

It can take a number of sessions over a few weeks to build up an understanding of the problem. That may seem a long time, but it is important to make sure that the help offered to the family meets their needs.

In the next stage, the clinic staff member and the family together decide what kind of help will work best for them. In most cases, one or more family members meets with a clinic staff member for a number of sessions:

• The parents or guardian may discuss ways of dealing with problem.
• The child or another family member may need to learn to talk about feelings and difficulties.
• The whole family may need to be involved in working out a solution.

Sometimes it is necessary to refer elsewhere for specialized help such as remedial teaching, or a medical investigation.

So the child and the family have to work hard to help to sort out the difficulties?

Yes- changes can only happen if the family works closely with the clinic staff member in getting to understand the problem and in carrying out decisions and plans made together about how to deal with the problem.

Who works at the Clinic?

The Clinic is a teaching unit which provides professional training in clinical psychology. All those in training work under close supervision with senior staff, who have specialized in clinical and educational psychology and psychiatry. With the family's permission, senior staff sometimes observe sessions through a one- way mirror. Sessions are also sometimes recorded so that what happened in a session can be reviewed later.

What about confidentiality?

All written records, as well as any tapes, are treated as confidential and are only available to staff working at the Clinic.

What about payment?

The fee depends on what the family can afford and is worked out between the family and the clinic staff member seeing them.

When can the Child Guidance Clinic be contacted?

The Clinic is open Monday-Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. for enquiries. There may be a short waiting period before the first appointment. Each clinic staff member arranges her/his own appointments for sessions directly with families.