|
|
 |
 |
|
| HBIGDA STANDARDS OF CARE - 1998 (version 5) |
SECTIONS |
|
|
|
IV. The
Treatment of Children
The
initial task of the child-specialist mental health professional is to
provide careful diagnostic assessments of gender-disturbed children.
This means that the individual child's gender identity and gender role
behaviors, family dynamics, past traumatic experiences, and general
psychological health are separately assessed. Gender-disturbed children
differ significantly along these parameters. Since many gender-disturbed
children do not meet formal criteria for GID of Childhood and many that
do will not continue to do so later in childhood, hormonal and surgical
therapies should never be undertaken with this age group. Treatment for
these children, however, should be offered based on the clinician's
assessment. Over time, this may involve family therapy, marital therapy,
parent guidance, individual therapy of the child, or various
combinations. Treatment should be extended to all forms of
psychopathology, not simply the gender disturbance. Effort should be
made, even with mild forms of gender identity struggles, to follow the
family. This allows the child and the family to benefit from continuing
services as the gender identity problem evolves and allows the clinician
to rethink the validity of the initial assessment.
| Some
of the resources in this section contain differing viewpoints comprising
a variety of authors, committees, and interest groups. Additionally,
some of these materials are delivered in an advisory context, covering
legal, ethical, medical and social issues. These materials do not
necessarily represent the guidelines of TransGenderCare or
the philosophies of our staff. |
|
|
