Courtesy Well Child Pediatric Psychiatric Services
By Susan Elise Campbell
By educating and supporting children, their families, and teachers, Melissa Seale, PMHNP/BC aims to promote mental and emotional wellness for the entire community system around Glens Falls.
According to Seale, the need for pediatric psychiatry is even greater in the North Country than the nation in general, and she is facing the challenge through her new private practice, Well Child Pediatric Psychiatric Services.
Seale is a board-certified nurse practitioner who said she is “very vested in the mental wellness of the Glens Falls community. I live here, raise my family here, and want to give back.”
The practice is less than two months old and appointments have filled quickly, she said. Many patients followed her from Glens Falls Pediatrics, which she joined after starting her career at the Center for Children and Families, also based in Glens Falls. Well Child is Seale’s first independent practice.
Seale said she knew of one behavioral center in the area with a wait list of 500.
“Pediatric psychiatry is gaining more focus as a discipline,” she said. “The pandemic has been a huge stressor in adults and the effects have trickled down to kids in the form of anxiety and depression.”
Practices are facing a growing litany of issues ranging from toddler tantrums to school shootings, she said.
“Because of social media and all the news outlets, I see kids inundated with negative information,” said Seale. “Bullying has long existed. But children used to be able to go home and escape it. Not today.”
“Social media disconnects young people from the face-to-face interaction that human beings need,” she said. “Even parents are on the phone more, disconnected from their children.”
Seale said they are seeing a rash of mood disorders in children from the use of electronic devices and video games.
“But reactions to taking those things away are extreme, like withdrawal from an addiction,” she said.
Well Child is at this time an all-female practice with Seale as the nurse practitioner who diagnoses the child and a licensed social worker on staff, Tia Ruggiero, with whom she collaborates to prepare a care plan.
“I diagnose and prescribe, but our schedule does not allow me time for treatment or therapy,” Seale said. “Tia takes over and we work together to determine wellness goals for the child, sharing these with the family and sometimes the school so all involved can work together toward these goals.”
Seale said the practice sees patients from age three to 18 years old and that it does not just work with the children, but also closely with the family system.
“We may need to educate the parents and involve the whole family to get the child the support they need,” she said.
Consequently, the initial consult is with the parents or caregivers and then with the child alone, as the practitioner builds trust and a working relationship using a range of tools, said Seale.
“There’s a playroom and a sensory room where the child’s treatment is through play,” she said. “We use a variety of tools to teach patients how to manage their behaviors, to deal with anxiety, and not be scared of their emotions.”
Seale said her practice is “not so much a focus on mental illness as on dealing with the state of mental wellness.”
“We have changed the focus to bring them to a functioning state,” she said. “It is good for children and for adults to practice this focus.”
Seale is formalizing plans to get the broader community involved in mental wellness, too.
Seale is offering regularly scheduled parenting classes and a series of blogs with links to relevant topics, including dealing with traumatic events, pets as therapy, music therapy, the benefits of nature, and many others.
She is planning a trauma group specifically for adolescents. And because there are not enough providers like herself, she is reaching out to schools to help educators determine needs in their particular school community.
Seale said she has also contracted to consult with BOCES students and that several projects are in earlier stages. One big challenge, though, is “wearing the multiple hats of a business owner.”
“I provide and run a business of three other practitioners now, oversee the financials and have responsibilities that someone else used to handle,” said Seale.
“But I was willing to take it on to create something to mold into what I thought a practice should be, which is to help children in achieving mental wellness,” she said. “The future looks bright for what we’re doing,. We are making a dent in the support and education of mental wellness locally when nationally there is a struggle to fill these needs.”
Visit wellchild.info for more information about services and accepted insurances and to access the blog. To register for classes or make an appointment, call Well Child Pediatric Psychiatric Services at (518) 480-4002.