Aims: Recently, flexible support for school refusal depending on individual cases have been provided in various areas, and psychologists are actively involved in this effort. On the other hand, there are still many children that have not received support. This study introduces a female student with school refusal, and reports on the support provided by psychologists based on a clinical approach to life, and examines skills required of psychologists in outreach programs, as well as future issues.
Methods: A Case study was conducted from late May of …. to mid-March of ….+1 for approximately ten months, during which support was provided during 79 sessions.
Discussion: Effects of a “new object” on long-term mother-child cohesion and skills required of psychologists and related problems are discussed. Though interprofessional collaboration was one objective, there was only cooperation in this case. Psychologists are required to comprehensively perceive the whole family as a group, and not individuals, as well as accept the clients’ unstable feelings by continuously supporting them so that they would not recreate their “scapegoat” experience. In the case of young people, one goal should be to set prior to beginning support. Psychologists are required to have high assessment abilities and proper judgment in outreach, by taking clinical psychologists’ and licensed psychologists’ code of ethics into consideration and flexibly accepting the needs of clients and other professionals. There are few psychologists involved in psychiatric outreach, however, the demand for them is expected to increase in the future when psychologists become nationally certified professionals. Psychiatric outreach is a new field and future studies are required to identify its possibilities.
