Getting Information about childhood bipolar disorder

April 23, 2016
A reader asked:

As a mental health clinician and grandmother of a 19 year old diagnosed with BiPolar at age 16, please tell me where I may seek professional training of this diagnosis/treatment, and to further my own understanding as a grandma.

Answer:

There is no formal program for being trained as a clinician to treat adolescent or young adult people with bipolar disorder. Depending on where you live, you might try volunteering at a research program in your area that specializes in early-onset BD. Try googling your hometown and "child bipolar research" or something similar. If you find a research group that is studying bipolar illness, you could try contacting the research staff and asking if they are looking for volunteers or whether they run seminars you could attend.

Learning about this disorder as a clinician usually requires some training in diagnostic interviewing. Try Googling "Kiddie SADS" or "KSADS" training to see whether there are any seminars offered nearby.

Of course, you can learn a lot from books and websites. Go to the 'Resources' section of this website where a number are listed. Good luck to you..