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Department of Psychiatry
School Of Medicine

FAMILY (Child & Adolescent Program)

Child & adolescent mental health is the core of our FAMILY program, an acronym that stands for Fostering Anxiety and Mood Improvement in Lives of Youth.
Welcome to the FAMILY Program

The dedicated group of psychiatric and psychological providers want to help you, your children and family thrive. Our team focuses on providing the best evidenced based care, personalizing cutting-edge mental health and wellness plans, and working collaboratively with you and our entire team to meet your needs.

Specialized Areas of Treatment:

Anxiety and worries (including Generalized Anxiety, Separation anxiety

Social Anxiety, Panic disorder, Phobias and Obsessive compulsive disorders)

Mood Disorders (including Depression, Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, Dysthymia, and Bipolar Disorders)

General Transition, Phase of Life, or Family Issues

Impulse Control Disorders (including Tourette’s Syndrome, Tics, and Trichotillomania)

Maternal Mental Health (including and not limited to Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety)

School Refusal

Refusal to get treatment by a family member

Life struggles (academics, social, family, self-exploration, career)

Crisis Evaluation Services

Young Child Mental Health

Traumatic Events

Grief and Loss

Family Services

These appointments last up to 90 minutes and are a comprehensive evaluation to determine what type of services would be the most effective in treating you, the family, or your child/ren. Both psychiatrists and psychologists can make a thorough assessment of the issues, but if you are thinking you may want to explore medications as part of the treatment, then request a visit with a psychiatrist as your first appointment.

Do you have questions about the mental health care that you are currently receiving? Our psychiatric and psychological providers are here to assess and make recommendations regarding your treatment.

These appointments last up to 50 minutes and focus on helping you work through the issues identified by your evaluation. Your therapy sessions will be tailored to meet your specific needs and incorporate the best evidence that exists on the issues with which you are dealing.

If determined to be an appropriate treatment modality at the initial evaluation, animal-assisted therapy can be utilized during individual or family therapy sessions to help people meet their therapy goals. A professional therapy dog is present during these sessions and can be utilized to address a wide range of concerns including depression, anxiety, trauma, difficulty with focus and attention, social skills, and much more. Some children and teens find it easier to engage in the therapeutic process when a therapy dog is present.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR Therapy) is an empirically supported therapeutic modality developed to treat trauma and distressing life experiences. For some people, memories of difficult life events can feel stuck and challenging to get past, leading to distress and trauma symptoms for individuals. EMDR therapy utilizes eye movements (or other forms of dual attention stimulation) to help the brain’s natural healing process and address these unresolved memories. After EMDR therapy, while the memory of the event remains in some form, the emotional charge associated with the event and related symptoms are often resolved. EMDR therapy with children often involves creativity and playfulness, weaving in play, art, and/or animal-assisted components.

These appointments last up to 60 minutes and focus on helping your family work through issues in a family context. Your family therapy sessions will be tailored to meet your specific needs and incorporate the best evidence that exists on the issues with which your family is dealing.

Medical check-ups and early detection have been the hallmark in the medical field for prevention and good care. We believe that these practices also hold true for our mental well-being. These evaluations will help the family focus on early detection and prevention plans to keep potential mental health issues from impeding positive life outcomes.

Do you have a member of the family who has a mental health issue yet is unwilling to get treatment? Our providers can help you work through and create a plan to help the reluctant person to get the mental health treatment he or she needs.

Does your community have some concerns about a mental health issues? Part of our FAMILY’s mission is to improve outcomes around mental health issues for families, through hosting trainings in the community.

Psychiatry

CU Anschutz

Anschutz Health Sciences
Building

1809 N Revere Ct
Suite 5240
Mail Stop F546
Aurora, CO 80045

Center Hours: 8:00AM - 5:00PM

Current Patients: 303-724-3300

New Patients: 303-724-4975

Fax: 303-724-4698

Email: depression.center@ucdenver.edu

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