Treatment of Psychiatric Emergencies in Children Versus Adults

The diagnosis of psychiatric emergencies can include a wide range of problems—from serious drug reactions to abuse and suicidal ideation/behaviors. Regardless of care setting, the PMHNP must know how to address emergencies, coordinate care with other members of the health care team and law enforcement officials (when indicated), and effectively communicate with family members who are often overwhelmed in emergency situations.

In this Discussion, you compare treatment of adult psychiatric emergency clients to child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Compare treatment of adult psychiatric emergency clients to child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients

· Analyze legal and ethical issues concerning treatment of child or adolescent psychiatric emergency clients

To Prepare:

· Review the Learning Resources concerning emergency psychiatric medicine.

· Consider a case where an adult client had a psychiatric emergency. If you have not had a personal experience with an adult client who had a psychiatric emergency, you can conduct an internet or library search to identify.

Post:

· Briefly describe the case you selected.

· Explain how you would treat the client differently if he or she were a child or adolescent.

· Explain any legal or ethical issues you would have to consider when working with a child or adolescent emergency case.

Required Readings ( Need 3 references)

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

• “Bipolar and Related      Disorders”

Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

• Chapter 23, “Emergency Psychiatric Medicine”      (pp. 785–790)
• Chapter 31, “Child Psychiatry” (pp. 1226–1253)

Optional Resources

Thapar, A., Pine, D. S., Leckman, J. F., Scott, S., Snowling, M. J., & Taylor, E. A. (2015). Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.

• Chapter 50, “Provision of Intensive Treatment:      Intensive Outreach, Day Units, and In-Patient Units” (pp. 648–664)
• Chapter 64, “Suicidal Behavior and Self-Harm”      (pp. 893–912)