One of the many exceptional professionals on our staff is Dr. Marlena Achim, a child psychiatrist. Dr. Achim sees mainly children and adolescents for diagnosis and treatment of issues like depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety and cutting, among others.
Unless you’re a mental health professional or otherwise acquainted with the differences between treating children and treating adults for challenges like the ones I’ve just listed, you may not be aware that a psychiatrist who works with adults likely won’t treat children due to liability issues, and that pediatricians typically won’t prescribe psychiatric medication to children. A child psychiatrist like Dr. Achim, however, is able to treat children with medicine, and her treatment is often covered by insurance.
In addition to being able to prescribe a course of treatment that includes medicine, Dr. Achim is also easier to book an appointment with than a child psychiatrist in a hospital might be. If you’ve experienced seeking psychiatric treatment for a child or adolescent after a traumatic episode like a suicide attempt or cutting, you know that calling a hospital for an appointment with a child psychiatrist can lead to a weeks-long wait. It can be far quicker to book an appointment with a private-practice child psychiatrist like Dr. Achim.
Finding the right mental health professional to address your needs involves a lot of choices, some of which are about your comfort with the person providing treatment or practical concerns like driving distance. But sometimes choosing the right doctor has more to do with finding someone qualified and available to do what is needed.
We’re glad to have someone like Dr. Achim on our staff, and if you’re looking for a child psychiatrist in the greater Cleveland area, we hope you’ll consider her. If you’re outside of the Cleveland area and wishing you knew a good child psychiatrist with a practice outside of a hospital, try contacting the local hospital or your insurance provider for a recommendation.