Parents summer 😎 is here and school is almost out. Please note that at SHINE, we create more access for sick visits during the winter and late fall and early spring due to the numerous illnesses 🤒 in daycare and schools.
As the summer approaches, we now have more appointment availability for preventative care or wellness visits. During these visits, if your child is pre-elementary, these visits will address nutrition 🍱 concerns from parent or the healthcare provider, screening for concerns with brain 🧠 health or other emotional concerns. Ultimately with these visits we want to achieve optimal brain health while addressing your vaccination 💉 questions and administering it to those parents who give us consent. Another critical point of emphasis, these visits also help to prepare you in the event that your child becomes ill. Many families do not have the “tools” ⚒️ during illness and therefore are frustrated when there is lack of appointment availability when their child is sick. We want you to have a plan 🧭when your child is ill.
As your child is moving into elementary school, we are assessing school readiness. We need to re-evaluate hearing 👂(not just raising your hand if you can hear a sound) and vision 👁️ (this is more than just looking at an eye chart) but our providers assessing how the eyes follow and scan in multiple directions along with assessing balance and coordination. We are continuing to evaluate vaccination status and the decisions that parents want to make with their children in the public school and private school sector along with our homeschool families. We are also beginning to assess extracurricular activities and which children will benefit from a more detailed sports screening 🏅or baseline concussion screening or more assessment into potential learning disorders 📚 that may have context with nutrition or other biochemistry problems.
In our post elementary youth, we are focusing on mental health with screening with the PHQ-9. Our elite athletes need to have an EKG 🫀on file and continue to do yearly baseline concussion screenings for those athletes whose school districts don’t offer baseline concussion screening.
We continue to look at the impact of current culture with technology 📲 on the mental and physical health of our youth. We need to prepare our youth effectively to drive 🏎️ as car accidents are the number one killer of children this age. We need to discuss proper boundaries and protective measures for our youth to ensure proper brain and physical development during a time of notable hormonal changes. Sleep sleep sleep 💤 is critical during this time of adolescence. Creating the habits and sensitivity to sleep will benefit our children as they become adults and will advocate for that themselves when older.
To our older high school and college patients, it is a time to be independent without a parent in the exam room. There are needs at this age of youth where being a young man or woman brings on different psychosocial stressors that young men and women just need affirmation of what the parent has reinforced at home. We believe that for a young man or woman to schedule a preventative appointment with their physician speaks to proper influence at home. It is also preparation for a patient who is exiting from college and will need to see an adult provider for their future care. Can we help to facilitate finding a provider who has a consistent philosophy as we have at SHINE?
So the summer is here. Please 📞call 469-333-1KID or 💬 KLARA our office to schedule your wellness exam.