Action 4: Encourage the young person to get appropriate professional help cont.
– Parent(s)/carer(s) should make time daily to be with their pre- adolescent without distractions – Although the urge to “take over” care for their pre-adolescent is natural, the pre-adolescent should be involved in their care decisions as much as possible. – It might also be helpful to share some information about supporting their pre-adolescent with school, such as: – If the pre-adolescent is struggling to attend school (this is known as emotionally-based school avoidance), they might not always be able to explain why they don’t want to go to school. It’s really important to investigate this, and to not force them into the classroom without addressing the reasons why (127). – If the pre-adolescent feels they need more support from the school, they can be introduced to the school’s SENDCO – the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator. The SENDCO can observe the pre-adolescent, support the pre- adolescent and their adult(s), and liaise with other professionals from outside services (128). If the pre-adolescent asks you not to involve their parent(s)/ carer(s), you will need to find out why. They might say they don’t think their parent(s)/guardians will understand or they don’t want to burden them. Most parent(s)/carer(s) will do everything they can to help their children. Helping the pre-adolescent to tell them what is happening will be enough to start them on the road to appropriate help. Explaining this can help the pre-adolescent to overcome their concerns about speaking to their parent(s)/carer(s).
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