TDMHDD Services for Children and Youth

Serious Emotional Disturbance

Mental health problems can interfere with the way children think, feel and act, just as they do for adults with mental health difficulties. These problems are real and painful. They can lead to school failure, family conflicts, drug abuse, violence or even suicide. A young person’s current and future ability to be productive can be limited by mental health problems. In addition, these problems can be very costly to families, communities and the health care system.

Mental Health Problems Can Be Severe

At times the severity of the mental health problem disrupts the child’s ability to function at home, in school or in the community. This child is then said to have a serious emotional disturbance. Usually the impaired emotional, behavioral and mental functioning continues for a year or more. In some cases, the impairment lasts for a shorter period of time, but its severity is high or life threatening.

What are Serious Emotional Disturbances? (SED)

Serious emotional disturbances are mental health problems that severely disrupt a child’s or adolescent’s daily life and functioning at home, at school or in the community. Serious emotional disturbance affect one in twenty youth at any given time. Tragically, an estimated two-thirds of the young people who need mental health services are not getting them. Without help, these problems can lead to school failure, alchohol and other drug abuse, family discord, violence or even suicide.

Definition of Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)

• Child or adolescent birth to age 18
• Currently or anytime in the past year has a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder to meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria
• Functional impairment substantially interferes with family, school or community activities
• Excludes DSM-IV V codes, substance abuse and developmental disorders unless they occur with another diagnostic DSM-IV disorder

What Causes Serious Emotional Disturbance?

Biology, environment, or a mix of both can cause mental health problems in youth. Examples of biological causes are genetics, chemical imbalances in the body and damage to the central nervous system, such as head injury. There are many environmental factors that can put children at risk of developing mental health problems. Examples include exposure to violence, stress related chronic poverty, discrimination and other hardships or loss of important people in the lives of the youth through death, divorce or broken relationships.

For further information regarding Serious Emotional Disturbance and efforts of the TDMHDD Children & Youth Services, please contact Lygia Williams.