Paper Example on New Family Therapeutic Approach for Sexual Minority Youth & Evaluated Interventions

Throughout the life of an individual, there are challenges that people encounter, and interventions and measures are developed to help to cope. However, for children and young adults dealing with such problems can be difficult. They require guidance, assistance, and protection in their developmental processes.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

A New Family Therapeutic Approach for Parents and Families of Sexual Minority Youth by Christopher J. Doyle and A Scoping Review of Evaluated Interventions Affecting Developmental Transitions for Youth with Mental Disorders by Rezze et al. are an example of a study of medical and social interventions that can be taken to ensure healthy development and transition of youth. The two articles give dense findings to enable families, medical practitioners, and communities to understand and handle children of sexual minorities and with mental disorders. They provide examples of several developmental challenges faced by mental disorders and those with unaccepted sexual appeals. The scoping review brings to attention the available programs and interventions that will help clinicians understand the encountered challenges of youth when transitioning to adulthood and, more so, give an insight into the development and implementation of such programs to children with mental health. The New Family Systems approach explains the reasons behind the legislative restrictions by different states towards the change and conversion therapies for minority sexuality youth.

Both articles tend to follow a sequence of agreement that when resolving the challenges faced by the youth of sexual minorities and with mental disorders, counselors need to develop a relationship for effectiveness of the process. To transition and to participate in adult roles effectively, children with mental disorders need to be understood and appropriate counseling offered to them. Sexual minority youth also need some advice to help them cope with the challenges of depression that result from individual and family rejection. The researchers in both articles found out that the relationship between therapist and client is key to the counseling process's effectiveness.

The client-practitioner relationship is one of the critical factors in ensuring effective therapy of mentally disordered and sexual minority youth.

Several states passed legislation to restrict 'change' or 'conversion' therapies for children with unwanted sexual attractions. The reason behind the legislation is that such treatments may be ineffective, abusive, and harmful to children. This argument by the state government, however, has not been verified by researches. The author seems to take a stand that psychotherapeutic interventions are essential to these youth. Children identified as transgender, bisexual, homosexual, or any unwanted sexual attractions tend to be rejected by their families and peers. And this rejection has been identified as the leading cause of depression, drug abuse, and high suicide rates among sexual minority young adults.

The transitioning process has been categorized in two ways. Developmental transitioning entails the children gaining greater independence and autonomy in life being the most crucial one for any counseling intervention. The second type is institutional transitions, which involve the young adult transferring within and between different services. Although these two transitions are difficult to separate, the author seems to emphasize that personal counseling and guidance is required to enable achievement of therapy goals. The transitioning process is hard for all youth with disabilities but is even harder for those with mental illnesses. The reason is that they are faced with depression, severe emotional disturbances, autism, and psychotic episodes. Such challenges require intensive care from family, community, and health personnel.

Both articles prove that the risk of children experiencing mental and emotional disorders is high, and young adults aged between 15-24, mostly face mental health challenges. With the absolute rejection from families, especially those with religious beliefs and social expectations, and the many challenges faced by psychologically disordered youth, health services such as therapies need to be uninterrupted to ensure the comprehensive and psychosocial development of such a child. These therapies care to require to be from people and professionals with positive relationships with the youth to be effective. As proved by both articles, paraprofessionals such as parents and teachers, together with client-centered therapy, result in positive effects.

More research is required for determining the effectiveness of psychotherapies in adolescents as it is in children. Most interventions in mentally disordered youth are focused on vocational development like how these youth can be assisted in the application, maintaining, and compelling performances on their jobs. More personal and interpersonal interventions need to be developed in guiding therapy practices and developing policies and ethical considerations. These interventions, such as family system therapeutic approaches, may reduce the anxieties in families when dealing with children and young adults. These approaches focus on making the family adopt to changes in and out of the family and increasing their levels of differentiation rather than focusing on changing one individual with unwanted sexual attractions.

The client practitioner relationship is one of the critical factors in ensuring effective therapy of mentally disordered and sexual minority youth. It is important to note that the articles are not trying to persuade an individual or family that the psychotherapeutic process is superior when dealing with sexual minority and mental disorder youth. However, personal and interpersonal therapy is essential in developing transitioning skills and understanding among families rejecting unwanted sexual minorities. These articles enable one to develop a clear perspective that treatment does not just result from changing or conversion but slightly affects positive mental growth of the youth and confidence in mental disordered youth.

References

Di Rezze B, Nguyen T, Mulvale G, Barr NG, Longo CJ, Randall GE. A scoping review of evaluated interventions addressing developmental transitions for youth with mental health disorders. Child Care Health Dev. 2016;42(2):176-187. doi:10.1111/cch.12306

Christopher J Doyle. (2018). A new family systems therapeutic approach for parents and families of sexual minority youth. Authentication error - ProQuest. Retrieved July 3, 2020, from https://search.proquest.com/openview/5ab91101b4c3fce814e8f4416d4394de/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=29990