Behavioral Health

What is Behavioral Health?

The term Behavioral Health encompasses many components that contribute to overall health and well-being. Patients experiencing the following concerns may benefit from Behavioral Health care. The process for diagnosing Behavioral Health concerns may begin with the child’s primary pediatrician and often requires additional care by specialists in the community.

Allegro Pediatrics is here to support you and your child in all aspects of their growth and development.

Your child’s behavioral health is important to their overall health. We welcome the opportunity to assist your family in evaluating common behavioral concerns such as challenging behavior in toddlers and children, academic concerns, attention and concentration concerns, and mood disorders such anxiety and depression. 

Behavioral or emotional concerns are often distressing for your child and your family. Please start the evaluation by scheduling an appointment with your child’s primary care provider to discuss your concerns. We will do our best to ensure that you can meet with your child’s primary care provider for the initial appointment and any follow-up visits. This consistency not only allows the provider to have a greater sense of your child’s overall health and history, but more importantly, provides a familiar, caring guide for your child when dealing with complex emotional concerns. Please read our guide on The Process of Evaluating Your Child for Academic and/or Behavioral Health Concerns in order to prepare for your child's initial behavioral health visit. There is no easy blood test to diagnose behavioral conditions, so identifying and treating these conditions will require several appointments, ongoing follow-up, and potentially a referral to a specialist.

If your child is prescribed a medication for behavioral health, it will be especially important to follow up with the same provider for medication refills. Specific appointment monitoring requirements will vary depending on the type of medication and your child’s diagnosis. In additional to your child’s recommended monitoring schedule, Allegro requires that all patients on long-term medications are seen in person for a Well Child Check-up once a year by their Primary Care Provider (PCP). We offer a combined Well Child Check-up + Med Check that will allow these two appointments to be done more conveniently, in one visit to our clinic. Please read our Behavioral Health Prescription Refill Guidelines handout for more information on medications prescribed for ADHD, anxiety, depression, or other behavioral health concerns.

If you are new to our practice, please make a check-up appointment to establish primary care with an Allegro provider. This check-up allows us to make sure there are no other medical problems which may influence the behavioral symptoms you are seeing. This is also the start of a journey to better health with a provider that your child can learn to trust. We do not accept patients for behavioral treatment who are receiving their primary care outside of Allegro Pediatrics.