School Refusal
from Practice Update, Summer 2004
The Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Day Treatment Program aids patients and their families with a wide range of services, from clarifying a learning disorder diagnosis to implementing a medication adjustment. The staff has developed a specialty niche with its School Refusal Program.
School refusal often starts with a child or teen creating excuses to avoid school with frequent complaints of headaches, stomach aches or dizziness, unsubstantiated by medical providers, and therefore, suggestive of psychosomatic or psychogenic pain. This initial reluctance can snowball, leading to outright refusal to attend school, and, in turn, create conflict at home.
Children’s Psychiatric Day Treatment program offers a unique venue for families to address School Refusal. Day Treatment medical and nursing staff can monitor the physical complaints; and, thereby remove a roadblock to recovery by ensuring that patients attend every day. This allows the staff, patient and family to begin work on the often complex, emotional components of School Refusal.
Facts About School Refusal:
- It is the third most comon cause of children missing school.
- Fifty percent of children refusing school have other behavioral problems.
- Often occurs in families with strong parent-child bond
- May involve undiagnosed learning problems
- May involve an underlying mood or anxiety disorder
- If left untreated, habitual school refusal may result in academic deterioration, poor peer relationships, increased fears or phobias, panic attacks or other psychological problems
- A complete medical exam is necessary to rule out and identify any true physical problems.
- School refusal can be successfully treated with a consistent, coordinated plan of action
Update: The School Refusal Program is now part of the Psychiatric Day Program. For more information, please call The Children's Hospital at 720-777-1234.
