Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 36 : Child Guidance Clinic

Introduction

The services necessary to meet the physical needs, physical care, treatment for different ailments and preventive services through a clinic, dispensary or a hospital, child also 'needs clinical services and treatment in case of mental maladjustments and behavior problems. Such services are provided by a Child Guidance Clinic. Stevenson and Smith 1934, defined the term Child Guidance Clinic as "attempts to marshal the resources of the community on behalf of children who are in distress because of unsatisfied inner needs or are seriously at conflict with their environment­ children whose development is thrown out of balance, difficulties which reveal themselves in unhealthy traits, unacceptable behaviour or inability to cope with social or scholastic expectation”. The aim of the Child Guidance Clinic is to help in understanding of children and to enable them to make satisfactory adjustments.

In India, the child guidance movement is of recent origin. There are only a few psychiatric social workers and fewer psychiatrists in the country. Uttar Pradesh government in India was the first state government to set up psychological bureaus run by trained psychologists. Some of the organizations, like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Bombay, Central Institute of Education, Delhi Bureau of Child Welfare and Research, Lucknow and some other private organi­zations have set up Child Guidance Clinics.

The clinics serve children with behaviour problems and nervous conditions. In India, because of various reasons, it has not been possible to focus the attention on mental ill-health and the need for treat­ment. Parents curb the free expression of children by dictating to them adult standards which it is difficult for them to fulfill. The need for mental hygiene and treatment of mental and behaviour disorders cannot, therefore, be over emphasized.

Psychological principles, methods and techniques are difficult to formulate. They lack precision of the other sciences as they deal with, human beings who are complex and are always changing. But child guidance is as technical a process as engineering and medical science, and, therefore, it needs the services of a trained and qualified psychiatrist and other members of the team. lf a chemical process is supervised by an untrained scientist, the likely result is a dangerous explosion. Similarly, it is very dangerous for untrained workers to practice psychiatry lest they do more harm than good.
A child guidance clinic should be run by a trained psy­chiatrist. Apart from professional training, he/she should have the knowledge of local, socio-economic, psychological and cultural factors. He/she should be assisted by a psychologist and psychiatric social workers.