Child with anger and sadness

My 11 yr old son has an appt on Tuesday for an evaluation. He has been experiencing profound sadness, crying, anger in the last months, and feeling like everyone hates him so be hates everyone and threatens to run away or hurt himslef. The bouts of anger has escalated when he was give. A. iPod touch two months ago for his birthday. Setting limits on its usage turns him into an angry and also very sad child. We are open to all kinds of therapy options including medications especially if he could live more happily. But what can we expect fr our first appointment? Does the clinic must do its own diagnosis or does it take and rely on a diagnosis from someone outside of the clinic? After our first appointment, when would therapy (medication) start?
Thank you.

First, you should contact Brittany Matkevich (310-825-2836) about individual appointments at CHAMP, since this is a public blog. You can also contact me directly at (310.267-2659).

The evaluation at CHAMP is a multi-step process. We begin with a diagnostic evaluation by a clinical psychologist, who will interview the child and the parent separately. This process can take 2-3 visits over a few weeks. A child psychiatrist will do a separate evaluation. At the end of the prrocess, we meet with your family to share our conclusions and recommendations for further care, which may include our clinic, other clinics at UCLA, or providers outside of the UCLA system. Best wishes.