Many children live in blended families, where in addition to their biological parents, they may also be raised by step parents, extended family, close family friends, and or even long-term family friends. While not everyone involved is the child's legal guardian, each person plays a role in the child's day to day life, and should be considered when trying to determine how to be most helpful to the child moving forward.
As a result, there are typically phases to working with a pediatric psychiatry patient.
First, there is a phase of getting to know whatever members of the family wish to attend the appointments. This number can get quite large, quite quickly, as the child's extended family may want to be present to provide collateral information and also to provide support for the legal guardians as an initial treatment plan is developed.
If the child has a very large family, sometimes subgroups will be brought in a time. For example, the child psychiatrist may meet with grandparents one week, and then perhaps a close family friend another week.
If the family is currently working with a family therapist, they may also be contacted with the permission of the child's legal guardians.
However, ultimately, care decisions need to be navigated with one or two key people, typically the child's legal guardians. This person will eventually take on the role of informng all concerned family members about any final decisions made regarding the child's treatment plan.
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