Behavioral coaching helps family manage son’s ADHD
Dr. Terralon Knight shares how the Child and Family Behavioral Coaching program helped provide the care her son needed.
Although Terralon Knight is an M.D., she found herself struggling to find the help her 11-year-old son, Jackson, needed for a trio of conditions that included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and sickle cell disease.
“When your kid is suffering, and you feel like you don’t have any help, that’s a huge weight,” she said.
It’s often a weight that parents carry with them to the workplace. In fact, more than half of surveyed parents reported missing work at least once a month to help manage their child’s mental health, while 30% to 50% said their thoughts surround their children’s mental health and well-being even while they’re at work.1
Watch to hear Dr. Knight’s story
Coaching offers convenient care that involves the whole family
When Dr. Knight discovered the Child and Family Behavioral Coaching program was offered through her employer, much of the heaviness of managing her child’s mental health diagnoses was lifted.
Child and Family Behavioral Coaching provides coaching support to caregivers and children with low- to moderate-severity behavioral health needs. It’s an interactive process between a coach and family (parent/caregiver, teen and/or child) that involves a personalized, goal-oriented partnership based on evidence-based treatment methods to focus on behavioral, functional or other goals. Although coaching doesn’t replace therapy, it can be helpful in addressing a wide variety of concerns, including:
- Stress management
- Parenting skills
- Sleep or anger issues
- Social media and technology addiction
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders (general, social, obsessive compulsive disorder)
- ADHD
- Substance use (if mild-moderate) and more
Child and Family Behavioral Coaching includes up to 4 45-minute virtual coaching sessions per month with unlimited in-app messaging between sessions. Skill-building exercises between sessions help members put new skills into action in daily life. Since the program is fully virtual, it also allows for easier scheduling and convenience for busy families like the Knights.
For Dr. Knight, the program has been invaluable — and seeing Jackson’s marked improvement, she is considering starting coaching sessions with her other 2 children.
“I am happy to say through the coaching and the work he’s done, he can generally express now when he needs a break. He has coping skills,” she said. “He’s come a long way with that. I’ve definitely seen some improvement and I’m very proud of him.”
