Child and Family

We believe that healthy families provide the essential foundation for the growth and development of healthy children.  Our professional staff of mental health specialists is trained to help families achieve their goals with evidence based practices and cutting edge treatment.

Cowlitz County Guidance Association provides many outstanding services to meet the needs of children and families, including:

• Our customary range of therapy, psychology, psychiatry and case management
• Healing, Intervention and Prevention Program (HIP)
• School Threat Assessments
• Safe Schools Healthy Students (SSHS)
• School Outreach Services (SOS)
• Wraparound Cowlitz
• Strengthening Families (c)
• The Parent Project (c)
• Anger Management
• Treatment of children and families involved in Juvenile Detention and Juvenile Court

In addition to our wide array of child and family services, we are a learning center for university students preparing for careers in the psychology field.  We provide internships for college students achieveing advance degrees in social work, psychology and other helping professions.

Child Psychiatry (Medications)

All other treatment options are explored prior to using medications to treat a child.  Family Therapy, parent training, environmental changes, medical issues and diet are among the many strategies employed prior to prescribing medications for children.  

Our Child Psychiatrist treats children six years of age and older.  Medical research is not clear in supporting prescription for children under six years of age.  In addition, school age children have the benefit of multiple observers and environments in which a child functions.  This increases the feedback to the Child Psychiatrist and helps to insure an accurate diagnosis and medication regimen.

Due to the delicate nature of children taking psychiatric medications, we require that all outpatient mental health care for the child be provided by our organization.  We feel we afford the child and family the greatest opportunity for success by insuring communication between the Child Psychiatrist, Therapist and Case Manager.  Open communication between multiple mental health providers is often difficult, and we prefer not to take this chance when prescribing medications to a child.

For similar reasons, we do not provide one-time child psychiatry consultations.  The medication process is fluid, meaning medications may need to be adjusted over time as the child is further observed.  This is extremely important to avoid mis-medication.  A single appointment with our Child Psychiatrist for consultation would only be a snapshot, where we need to see the movie to be effective and safe.

We are very lucky to have an excellent Child Psychiatrist.  We treat the responsibility of medicating children with the utmost diligence.  In this way, we protect children and help them lead happy lives, less burdened from the symptoms of mental illness.