Child Anxiety Therapy Across Michigan via Telehealth
FAQs
Q: What do you mean by "medical setting anxiety?"
A: When we talk about medical setting anxiety at Brave and Balanced Children, we're using this as a blanket term to cover anxiety to quite a number of things: fear of going to the doctor, fear of going to the dentist, fear of getting "shots" (more formally called "injections"), fear of needles, fear of blood, fear of medical procedures of almost any sort, fear of blood draws, fear of dental procedures or dental exams, and even at-home medical-related procedures like taking pills or taking a temperature. This is not a fully inclusive list, but covers a broad range of examples that would be included in this. Anxiety often will include tantrums and refusal behaviors in young children.
Q: What are some ways to address medical setting anxiety?
A: There's that old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Given that around half of all grown-ups are experiencing ongoing medical and dental anxiety that often developed in childhood (half of children are reported to have this anxiety by ages 2-5 in medical settings and one-third have this anxiety in dental settings by ages 2-5), there is a lot of benefit to be had by addressing this anxiety preventively! At Brave and Balanced Children, we believe that parents-to-be, parents of babies, and parents of young children are the best candidates to learn how to support their child from developing the range of anxieties described above. Parents of school-age and older children, however, can still make beneficial changes that will support their child(ren) and child(ren)-to-be in medical and dental settings. What can be done lies with the parent - how they interact with their child before, during, and after a medical or dental visit or procedure. A parent does not cause this anxiety, but a parent can indeed have an impact on its development and maintenance.
Q: Can we actually prevent anxiety?
A: This is an important distinction - it is true that we cannot prevent anxiety in its purest form, a feeling of heart racing and feeling on-edge. Nor would we want to - anxiety is a useful signal, very functional to humans, and highly beneficial overall in life. What we are able to impact, however, is what happens with that natural anxiety state. In the cases we're referencing, anxiety has become non-functional. It is actually impeding a child from getting the medical or dental care that they need to be healthy. This is often a diagnosable anxiety disorder, a diagnosable phobia, or even the result of some medical trauma. This is where we can be effective. With the proper set of skills to support your child, you can indeed set them up for the best success to prevent natural and functional anxiety at medical visits and procedures from becoming diagnosable phobias. As parents, we have the capacity to negatively impact our children (e.g. make anxiety worse), have neutral impact (i.e. do nothing to change the outcome either way), or to positively impact our children. At Brave and Balanced Children, we believe there are so many things parents can do to positively impact their children's medical and dental experiences - especially if there is anxiety in the family (genetic predisposition) or the child's parents tend toward their own medical and dental anxieties where they children may already be more likely to struggle.
Q: Can medical setting anxiety training be helpful for a child that is already highly anxious around medical or dental visits or procedures?
A: While the number one recommendation for a child who has already developed medical setting anxiety or phobias would be to work directly with that child and on that child's phobias and anxieties, the training would still be beneficial. Parents are going to be highly impactful in helping their child and any siblings with anxiety during and after direct treatment for their child. It is important for the entire system to make changes to support the child's newfound bravery - parents, child, and often subtle changes in even the medical professionals.
Q: Where can I get more information about the preventive medical setting anxiety parent training offered by Brave and Balanced Children?
A: Click here for an overview of our service, click here to reach out and contact us to schedule, and click here for some Blogs about this service.
Medical Setting Anxiety Training for Parents at Brave and Balanced Children: a training aimed to equip parents-to-be, parents of babies, and parents of young children with the skill-set to best support their child from developing full-blown medical phobias and debilitating medical and dental anxiety
Brave and Balanced Children's specialized medical setting anxiety parent/caregiver training is aimed toward expecting parents to parents of young children (generally most helpful up to about age 5). This training is for parents wanting to feel equipped to support their child's emotional wellbeing at doctor's appointments, blood draws, injections/vaccinations, and other medical care (including dental appointments).
Goals of this training include gaining a better sense of how to manage your child's big feelings in a medical setting, such as a doctor's office for well-child visits from birth onward, in blood draw/laboratory settings where your child will be pricked with a needle, for injections such as vaccinations or allergy injections, in eye doctor settings, in dental office settings, and in a variety of other specialized medical office settings (e.g. sleep studies, EEGs, MRIs, allergy testing, etc.). This type of training is helpful even before you have birthed your child to prepare you for how to approach everything from heel pricks in the hospital at birth and early vaccinations through initial well-child visits, dental visits, and other expected or unexpected medical visits.
All children will have contact with medical professionals and many adults still carry their own traumas and anxiety surrounding these types of visits. Training will build the knowledge, skills, and courage you need to be a strong advocate for your child and support their emotional wellbeing to equip them and you to manage medical setting anxieties of their own.