Facts on Children's Mental Health in America

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http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Sectio ... ntID=43804

The above is an article entitled "Facts on Children's Mental Health in America" from the website of an organization advocating help for those with mental health issues.

I have openly admitted that my children both have serious mental health issues (selective mutism and OCD) treated by a child psychiatrist and that their functionality and well-being have improved as a result. I personally consider myself an advocate for mental health treatment of children based on the risks posed by non-treatment.

Again, not all individuals with autism have mental health issues or benefit from medication, and medications should be used cautiously and carefully managed.

I have read the article and agree with it, Mental health issues in my family, my husband's family and extended family is very strong.

I work hard with my children, but my siblings whom have there own mental health issues and ASD and their children also undx conditions have been school drop outs, alcohol and drug use, anti social behaviour and in the end prison.

Society see's these family circumstances as dysfunctional, but its due to underlining mental health issues etc.

Ireland has one of the biggest rate of suicide in Europe and we are a small country and my feeling is that is due to the lack of intervention for children and their families with mental health issues or ASD dx's. We have the answer but there is so much ignorance within the mental health services also, I have witness this myself continually telling me my children did not have any mental health issues and discharged them.

I battled for my children but also with my personal experience I know that my extended family were not just dysfunctional. My son now dx with ASD, ADHD, OCD, and my daughter ADD, GAD I suspect ASD.

If I didn't have personal experience I would have thought that my children's problems were down to my parenting skills or the lack of them. The mental health services see my children as looking normal and that how they decided that the problem must be at home.

Thank you very much for understanding and sharing. There are a lot of mental health issues in my family and my husband's family, causing much pain that could be avoided through better treatment.

I feel that a lot of people are either ashamed to admit to having a mental health issue or ashamed to have a child with such an issue. This contributes to people failing to seek treatment and diagnoses.

I also fear that some of the kids on the spectrum with mental health issues are being put through strange, useless, and even dangerous treatments rather than getting properly diagnosed and treated.

I agree there is shame associated with mental health issues, but I also feel that especially the local services are reluctant to give dx. I am at a lost to this as we all know that early intervention whether its regarding Autism or mental health issues is paramount.

I feel this is a worldwide problem from reading posts on this forum, awareness is improving but I feel that services need to come together to really tackle this. The criteria for diagnosis is full of flaws they seem to indicate that teachers should pick up on children's difficulties but this does not happen if the child is able to mask his/her problems. Also teachers are not psychologist, psychiatrist etc.

This was a big difficulty for my children, they are well behaved in school as no behavioural issues but there anxiety levels were/are very high. Where there difficulties are only apparent at home, on the other side of the coin if they are having behavioural issues outside the home this is seen as a problem within the home and down to parenting.

Whilst I agree with the shame argument but its also very difficult when you look for intervention and are informed that you don't require it. We were blessed to be able to afford private consultation but for members of my family that couldn't they were left unsupported. Also for so many that struggle to provide for their family or are on welfare and depend on local services have no where else to turn.

The shame should be with the services, I feel its at crisis point and it will not change until attitudes change and professional within the services especially for the members of society that struggle, low paid, and on welfare don't interpreted their circumstance as an excuse to blame.

I wholeheartedly agree about the public services and the schools. I have had a terrible time getting decent school services for my older son with high functioning classic autism. The attitude seems to be that there are not enough services to go around, so those who are the lmost disabled or have parents who complain a lot should get the services.

This is legally wrong, by the way. Everyone, at least in the U.S., is entitled to a free and appropriate public education. If there are not enough services to go around, taxes need to be raised in order to fund needed services or other programs need to be cut.

Parents should not have to empty their savings accounts or go into debt to pay for services that a child is legally entitled to receive for free from the state.

There are kids who are non-verbal in Texas who are only getting speech therapy for 30 minutes twice a week through their public school because their parents cannot provide more. Some parents choose not to provide private services or help at home. Two 30 minute speech therapy sessions per week is not enough to promote speech in a non-verbal child with classic autism.

Then some programs are so underfunded that the teachers don't have enough supplies, supervision, staff, and training. So the child ends up at school in special ed but not really getting help.

A child should not be denied the ability to talk, to use his or her hand, or to appropriately interact with others because the government, school districts, and taxpayers don't want to pay up.. Yet, it happens every day.

I think what I struggle with in this area is not whether or not children can have mental health issues, but how you make sure they get positive and effective treatment. There are so many stories of mis-diagnosis (which can be destructive), over-medication or inappropriate medication (which can cause more severe issues than what you are attempting to address), and unecessary hospitalization (a highly negative experience, if you listen to adults on this forum). I know fear of incompetence shouldn't keep one from pursuing what is needed, but you really have to walk into the process ready to trust your instincts ... And ready to avoid short term band aids in favor of the slow process that is usually called for.

I'm also struggling with the fact that study after study shows the popular classes of medication to be only marginally more effective than placebos ... Do we really know what we're doing here?

I know that you are a caring mom, and I appreciate your concern.

I've really done my homework, though. I know my science, and I'm happy with the way that things are going with my kids--absolutely amazing progress by all accounts.

I feel that you are probably a biomedical mom and I am obviously not. I know that you have a whole lot going on (and so do I). Let us not get into an argument over this.

DW_a_mom my brother whom was not giving any support by the services, by the way we were brought up in care took his own life when he just turned 17yrs. He had attempted suicide on many occasions at a very young age. Couldn't cope with school, life etc. I would suspect mental health issues here.

My son cannot cope with school or the demands of daily life without the help of medication, he gets very depressed and makes suicide statements.

From personal experience and family experience I couldn't watch my children drop out of school and follow the path that so many of my niece and nephews did. We have a large extended family and its heartbreaking to see this they are all bright and intelligent but couldn't cope with school primary ok post primary all drop outs at very young ages. What is the path they follow then anti-social behaviour, drugs etc.

My daughter will be the first out of 18 children (nieces & nephews) to complete post primary that is a shocking statistics. The reason for this is that I had the means to get them the support they needed, also I have the fight in me.

I can't say that all my family (but do suspect) suffer from mental health issues but it seems if mental health issues don't effect them when they are young they develop it later as a life long illness.

I feel these life long mental health illness can be prevented if they are supported as children whether is through medication or other interventions. But without interventions their life and those of there children are a huge struggle and the cycle continues. I can only hope that the action I have taken will help my children to be successful and understand their needs.

I was very general in my concerns, and I stand by saying that people need to factor them in. I wasn't talking to you, but to the issue you chose to raise.

But when you throw labels at me, it looks like you have an agenda. You seem to have read and understood precious little of what I've tried to say, but you've got a label - one that is FLAT OUT WRONG - none-the-less. If you didn't want an argument, you should have kept the Jenny McCarthy label to yourself, for surely you know that is the association, and how it would play on this board.

You know how I parent? By paying attention to my child, learning what he needs, and doing my best to give that to him. I'm not off running to medial interventions of ANY sort.

Yes, I think you throw around medication as a recommendation to others way too easily; I won't challenge the decisions you made in your unique situation, just how often it may apply to someone else's. You want my story? I ran, didn't walk, but ran to medication for myself when I had post partum depression and at the time it seemed like a life saver. I didn't have many options, two kids depended on me, so I know why I made that choice and I'm not sure regret would be the right word looking back. But ten years later, who knows how many pounds, and less able to pull executive function together than ever, I'm eying some recent books about the false bill of goods we've been sold on anti-depressants and wondering if they don't have a point. With kids, there is almost always an option, and time to try it, and I think it is critical that parents exhaust that before doing to kids what I did to myself.

There are times for medication, and if you've been paying attention to my posts - which you clearly have NOT been - you would know there are times I recommend medication be strongly considered. But there are no magic pills in this life and we cheat ourselves and our kids when we try to pretend there are. It just isn't true. Everything has a cost, and I am stunned at how little anyone is willing to talk about the cost.

I do believe in straight up talk therapy, when you have the right therapist. We've had that at key points and it very much changed things for the better for our whole family. But it still was an imperfect process, because as much as I loved one of those therapists, my son's AS was under her nose and she never caught it. Which is fine, I don't expect anyone to be all-knowing, but it's a good thing I didn't close my mind at that point and think "case closed."

The tide in our society is to solve everything with a pill or a visit to the doctor. Given how easy it is to go with that flow, I think voices of caution are needed much more than voices of recommendation. Something has to slow the tide.

I take a dizzying array of pills every day. My kids, on the advice of their doctor, take none. They hesitate to even take a little ibuprofen for a fever, Sometimes I think my kids are smarter - and braver - than all of us.

All I wanted to say here is that people need to be careful to get the RIGHT mental intervention for their kids. Which is difficult, because too often the professionals themselves aren't agreeing on what that is. Local pediatric mental health professionals have seen kids with nothing worse than minor ADHD turned into violent, hazed out nightmares of themselves because someone treated them for the wrong condition.

Like I said in my first post, I don't think fear of incompetence should keep a parent from seeking treatment if it is necessary, but they definitely need to keep a skepticism hat on.

Antibiotics were a miracle intervention, but got way over-used, and there are long term fall outs science is only just discovering. Society is headed down the same path with anti-depressants. It's just too easy to repeat that pattern, and too hard not to.

I don't fit any labels. Never have, never will. I'm just trying to figure it all out like most of us are. I can tell people what I've seen work, and what I've heard issues on. There isn't anyone among us who can do an any more than that.

Last edited by DW_a_mom on 01 Nov 2011, 3:24 pm, edited 5 times in total.

I think family history is an important guide in figuring out which direction you have to go. I don't think I posted anything to close off recognizing when interventions are need; what I see more often is rush to interventions To solve issues that come from nothing more than trying to fit square pegs into round holes; that is the tide I want to keep at bay. Which isn't the tide you are in, as far as I can tell.

No matter what choices you make, there are no guarantees. The funny thing about mental illness is that it can also put up the right screen at the right time, to lull everyone into thinking the issue is mitigated, when it isn't. I think that is what really terrifies me with my daughter (the one I worry for the most), because I've seen what a good act she can pull. I honestly think the best tool I have with her to build the strongest bridge possible, so there is some chance of her letting me see. I do want professional therapy for her, as well, but right now she says "no," and defeating that could fracture the trust thing ... We have a family history of depression, and severe mood swings, but not suicide, and I'm factoring that in, too.

Like I said, I'm too busy to get into things with you. Good luck in handling your own situations. You are entitled to your own opinions and beliefs.

I've realized that I should have asked you what you meant before letting a word send me off. But since you used the word, if you didn't mean what I assumed you meant, I don't care how busy you are, you have a responsibility to clarify. And if you meant what I thought you meant, your use of it was either irresponsible or uniformed, which you should also take responsibility for.

We all sometimes say things we don't really mean when in a rush, or when certain emotional triggers hit, i get that, but those words can have echos, we have to take responsibility for where it goes.

I do wish I hadn't let you set me off. I thought long and hard before making that first post, and you completely misunderstood it, and tried to incorrectly box me to boot. I would much rather let the first post stand on it's on. With people actually reading it for what it was, and not what you tried to get them to think it was.

You are building yourself as a resource, and using this site to cross-promote your own site, so you have at least twice the normal responsibility to get things right and to read properly what is in front of you. I'm trying to help people make fully informed choices whether I agree with them or not. If that is your goal, as well, we should be on the same page. If not, then I think we should know what your goal is.

Where I live, most people that are strongly against the use of medication are into biomedical treatments and proud to say so. (I assume that biomedical is the word that set you off). I apologize for assuming that you are into biomedical treatments. I have not read all of your posts.

Take care.

Where I live, most people that are strongly against the use of medication are into biomedical treatments and proud to say so. (I assume that biomedical is the word that set you off). I apologize for assuming that you are into biomedical treatments. I have not read all of your posts.

Take care.

Then you live where people don't understand what I think is the best way to deal with AS : none of the above, turn conventional parenting on it's head, learn and mitigate triggers, etc. How can you have been on this board this long and not picked that up? It's pretty much all of what I do here, "the" one thing I know works and is a MUST do. There are amazing up success stories from people who have done nothing else. More often than not it is exactly what is the needed, the real reason a child improved, and not any of the other gazillion things parents were doing at the same time.

I "get" that people are so desperate to make sure they've done all they could, that they layer a whole mess of other things on top of it, but with a high functioning child I never had that drive, so I think I've seen one approach in it's most pure form. And it WORKED.

I am not strongly against all medication, I am strongly against the apparent over use of it, and use of it in situations where it isn't necessary, and before parents have given basic sensory diets, behavior plans, mitigation techniques, et al a chance to work. There is no medication for ASD, just medication for certain co-morbids, but people aren't even bothering to make that distinction; it's all right to, "what treatment are you using for your child?" I'm using common sense, spun Aspie style, start to finish, and wish more people would.

We are lucky that my ASD child does not have anxiety or depression; I got those in my non-ASD child, but since we don't have the ASD layer or any learning disabilities with her, it seems we can manage those environmentally, too, to date at least.

You'd be amazed at what a parent can do just by knowing their child and a little bit about how AS individuals (or someone with any condition X) thinks.

When I was a child, the school district had never dealt with a child with AS. They had about 350 "problem" students and in the entire county, which had a population of close to 1 million, and the district psychologist told my parents she had never seen a child like me in all of her 30 years of practice.

The school district was not initially forthcoming with services or information on services and their solution to what they wished to consider a truancy problem was to have the county put me into state care...either a group home, juvenile hall, or some other institution despite the fact that I had been under the care of psychologists and psychiatrists for OCD and what amounted to AS related issues. My mother only found out about IEPs and the responsibility of the school district and county to provide services, from another parent who had already been through the system and had lost custody of her son for a time.

My particular school district had never done an IEP, and while they eventually became very cooperative and more than generous in their willingness to work with me, most of the accommodations they could provide did not resolve the issues I was having and I on top of all the things I was already struggling with, I was forced to live under the fear that I would be taken out of my home, away from my parents and my beloved cats, and placed in a completely foreign environment which I would not have been able to cope in.

I'm going to be bluntly honest. Most state care facilities are at least somewhat abusive towards children due to their use of restraints and forceful medication for minor infractions or normal and understandable behavior. In state care facilities, children are disciplined in ways that would get them removed from their homes if their parents disciplined them in such fashion, and the system is infested with pedophiles.

I was fortunate that I had parents who understood my struggles and limitations so well, and who knew how to obtain what they should have never had to fight for in the first place.

Had I ended up in the child care system I doubt I would be anywhere as successful or functional as I am today.