This should scare the hell out of every parent in this country, URGENT

[MYSONSDAD]

If this goes thru Illinois, other states may follow. We can not jeopardize the mental health of children. Take action now.  A strong support might devert a disaster.

Here is the summarized plan to implement the New Freedom Commission
on Mental Health in Illinois that was put on the Governor's desk on
June 30.

http://www.ivpa.org/childrensmhtf/pdf/ICMHP_Exec_Summary063005.pdf

It's to develop a mental health system accessible to children ages 0-18.

That means they're rolling out the red carpet for TeenScreen:
//www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen.html

If you have any way to contact parents and the press in Illinois to
alert them, please do so and get them active in stopping this.

You can also e-mail Gov. Rod Blagojevich here:


http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Office of the Governor
State Capitol
207 Statehouse
Springfield, IL 62706
217/782-6830

This plan should not be allowed to move forward



"Children learn what they live"

[futureuselesseater]

BULL CRAP!  This is scary!

[awakenlynn]

I'm sorry, I tried to read through the pamphlet, but sometimes I can;t comprhend as well reading on the computer.  What is it trying to say?

[MYSONSDAD]

Mental screening for every child.


"Children learn what they live"

[jaylind]

(gee, look at me, stepping right back into the fray after about 3.5 years hiatus LOL)

While I will agree the tactics of the TeenScreen thing are aggressive, at least from what the site you linked outlined, I have to take issue with anyone who thinks children's mental health reform is absurd.  And I'm not sure you think that but that's what I gather from your posts.

As the mother of at least one mentally ill child, I can vouch for the fact that early intervention and screening for this is NIL.  NADA.  NOTHING.  This country is living in the dark ages with its preconceived notion that children, by virtue of their small amount of time on this earth, cannot be mentally ill.  

How silly is is the idea that children cannot have, say, bipolar disorder but the moment they turn 18 they are eligible for this diagnosis?  

That's only one ridiculous example, there are hundreds more.

I will agree that pharmaceutical companies have been aggressive in marketing and lax in testing for children.  However, my child in particular would still be suffering were it not for the help of pharmaceutical treatment.  She is quite ill, and will likely remain so for the rest of her life and that's something we just have to deal with.  

Reform of systems that are supposed to assist mentally ill children is the only way to get help for children sooner rather than later and stop the needless suffering of children and their families.

[MYSONSDAD]

Did you take the time to read thru this?
http://www.ivpa.org/childrensmhtf/pdf/ICMHP_Exec_Summary063005.pdf

Every problem stated in this pdf, can be disputed by statistics showing the involvement of BOTH parents.  I just recently posted an article on shared parenting indicating the exact problems.

I do agree that some children could benefit from this. I also have a great concern over the program being overloaded, not enough case workers and the children who really need the assistance, would not get the personal help they truly need. And what does this do for the parental rights? A childs health issues should start with both fit parents and the childs doctor. And then a second opinion when there is need for more information.... or dispute.

And as you yourself said,
"While I will agree the tactics of the TeenScreen thing are aggressive,"

And I do not beleive I said it was absurd. Posting for public awareness, so that many can judge for themselves. Everyone should be made aware, when an issue like this is directed at their children. Every parent should be informed on ALL issues pertaining to their child.

The State is flexing it's muscle, and we all know how DCFS was set up to protect children and what that has turned out to be....This too, could be taken to the extremes.
 
"Children learn what they live"

[jaylind]

I read the pdf pamphlet and found it to be a LOT more reasonable than the TeenScreen (at least the info that was provided on the TS).

That said, children's mental health initiatives and issues are WOEFULLY underfunded and understaffed in this country.  My own experience was completely frustrating to navigate through to get my child help.

She was sent home from preschool with a note saying, "we agree with you, something isn't quite right, please have your child evaluated."  And that was IT.  Nothing else.  I didn't even know where to begin.  I'd already begun 18 months earlier with our family doctor, who sent her to a pedi for evaluation and the pedi told me it was my parenting and that I needed to tighten the screws on her.  This was the advice he gave me for a TWO YEAR OLD.

So I had let it go, until she entered Head Start, and they sent me the note.  I called the family dr again, to no avail.  She's just a difficult kid, he told me.  I called a local counselor who had a rep for helping families and young children.  He told me he didn't deal with very young children at the time (she was 3-4 at the time) anymore but he gave me one name of a colleague who might help me get started.

I called the other counselor, who didn't return my calls after over a week of leaving messages.  So.  Family dr no help, family counselor no help.  I had had another counselor myself during my divorce but she'd closed up shop so she was not available for even a referral.

I didn't know what else to do so I called Head Start back and asked, "what kind of an evaluation, what do you think I should do?  I've done xyz and not gotten anywhere..."

They told me they couldn't help me, they just wanted "an evaluation" and that it was up to me to get help.  Not even a referral to Early Childhood Intervention!!!  Grrrr

Eventually, I called back the local family counselor and said, "HELP, I can't find any other help and I need someone to get us off in the right direction."  He agreed to see us but couldn't schedule us for a month out.  During that month, he called several times and sort of interviewed me by phone and also was able to hear dd's psychotic behavior freakouts over the phone...

Eventually, by the time it was time for us to see him in person, he called with a referral to a pedi specialist who specializes in children with mental health problems.  He had obviously been taking copious notes and making phonecalls on our behalf.  Eventually we were seen by the specialist and dd was started on some medications.  Now, about 18 months later, she is doing MUCH BETTER.

I have spent the last year appealing to Social Security to get her benefits from them as our medical coverage leaves us with $260 a month of copayments for her meds.  I had to appeal them TWICE to get her covered and to tell you the truth, the SSI money is nothing to me, what really counts is the extra medical coverage.  She is a very ILL little girl.

I cannot understand why I had to break the doors down of various professionals and agencies to get help for my child.  I am appalled that in the middle of it all I was told my parenting was to blame because of this ridiculous paradigm of "children cannot be mentally ill unless they are mistreated."  

I have the equivalent of a Master's degree in education...someone with lesser schooling and experience with dealing with agencies (I am a former public schoolteacher of very disadvantaged kids) would have given up far before I did.  And to what end?  The children and their families are the ones who suffer.

I don't disagree that the idea of extremes is daunting and scary.  I fear Big Brother just as much as the next person.  But SOMETHING in our mental health system has GOT to change.  Children are not getting the help and care that they need.

We were lucky.  I know of many families not so fortunate and the only difference between me and them is a few years of experience in the trenches.

How are average families supposed to get help?  I think this is a swing in the right direction, personally.  But I am heavily biased by my negative experience with 'the system.'  

[MYSONSDAD]

Sharing your experience can only help others in this situation. What an ordeal. I would think that schools and doctors would have the necessary means to help parents in this case and provide the contacts that need to be made.

My concern, is that it will go to extremes, understaffed, uneducated personal and an overload of cases. Children will become nothing more then a number and branded as a problem child. They may have their intentions in the right place, but thru some research into previous programs, this could be a disaster waiting to happen. And doing research into the very same problems in regard to shared parenting, it basically slaps you in the face. Exact same problems, almost following the same order. Is it coincidence? Maybe more research on their part could avoid some children being misdiagnosed.

There has also been much information in the news lately about ritalin. Concerned parents need to educate themselves, know their options and consult highly trained professionals.

After checking local papers in my area, there has been no word of this to the public. Many are not aware of what is taking place. The public has a right to know. So much is being slipped in when we are not looking.

Glad you shared. Do you know of any state that has a similar program in place? Has it been sucessful? If so, what made it work like it was intended?

[jaylind]

>Sharing your experience can only help others in this
>situation. What an ordeal. I would think that schools and
>doctors would have the necessary means to help parents in this
>case and provide the contacts that need to be made.

Ideally, yes, this would be an assest to mental health services for children.  In reality, though, right now, the prevailing school of thought is that children don't *get* mentally ill...unless poor parenting or childhood trauma is involved.  Poor parenting and trauma certainly exacerbate exising problems, but the reality is that children predisposed to mental illness will present with symptoms when their genetics dictates.  There is a HUGE stigma against parents of children with mental illness, that somehow they have damaged their children.

Additionally, ALL mentally ill in this country are encouraged to just 'pull it together' and if they cannot, they are somehow at fault for their shortcomings and disabilities.  We would never tell a diabetic child to just 'try harder' so that s/he doesn't have to take insulin, nor would we tell a orthopedically impaired child that if s/he would just put her mind to it, s/he could use his/her body in the same way as any other average person.  Why on earth do we tell children with neurobiological differences to just 'behave better?'

The problem is not a lack of contacts and referrals, it's a lack of BASIC UNDERSTANDING that a problem exists.  THEN there is the problem of referral or lack of existing agencies to deal with the problem.  One cannot be achieved without the other, KWIM?




>
>My concern, is that it will go to extremes, understaffed,
>uneducated personal and an overload of cases. Children will
>become nothing more then a number and branded as a problem
>child. They may have their intentions in the right place, but
>thru some research into previous programs, this could be a
>disaster waiting to happen. And doing research into the very
>same problems in regard to shared parenting, it basically
>slaps you in the face. Exact same problems, almost following
>the same order. Is it coincidence? Maybe more research on
>their part could avoid some children being misdiagnosed.

As things are, children are ALREADY branded as 'problems' and shuffled through the skeleton system we have.  I hate to say it, but anything is better than this.  I don't expect CPS to be busting down anyone's door...they certainly haven't come knocking here although there have been MANY times I thought my dd's psychotic fits would elicit a phonecall to 911 by my neighbors. 

I know CPS and other public agencies have been heavy-handed in some examples but in my experience, those cases are few and far between....they are already understaffed, overburdened, and generally don't get involved without just cause.  I know there are exceptions, though.  Having been a mandatory child abuse reporter since 1995 now, I have NEVER seen personally one of those kinds of cases.

Re: The Big Brother scenario of building yet another public safety net to address this problem...this is a problem inherent in ANY public system...and frankly, there is an overload of cases right now, and it's only going to get worse with programs being cut like they have been.  Addressing the problem head on might at least give policymakers a freaking CLUE about the lack of mental health services available to children and young adults SO THAT *maybe* funding might be allocated to alleviate some of this.  As it is now, should my child need to be hospitalized (to get her under control and get her meds regulated under tighter supervision), and this is a strong possibility for her in the future, there may not be a bed immediately available closer than 300 miles away. 

This is appalling and embarrassing to me as a citizen!  I live in the country but am within an hour of a major metropolitan area with a nationally known teaching hospital...yet they have no beds available for mental health treatment.  AND the *treatment* available is woefully inadequate in many cases. 

A good book on this is _Acquainted with the Night_ by Paul Raeburn.  He places too much blame on parents, IMHO, but he aptly illustrates a grossly underestimated problem with our current mental health system and the inadequacy of insurance coverage for mental health treatment.  It also illustrates the nightmarish problems that can happen with families when the parents separate and have custody issues...His children were teens when he and his xw decided to divorce but he still had great difficulty with access to his children on a regular basis.


>
>There has also been much information in the news lately about
>ritalin. Concerned parents need to educate themselves, know
>their options and consult highly trained professionals.

Here, here.  I agree with that 100%.  Ritalin and its spawn and other stimulant cousins are wonder drugs for some of the population, there is no denying that.  Are these drugs overprescribed?  Perhaps.  *Any* drug on the market stands a reasonable chance of being Rx'ed at inappropriate times.  This is called human error.  I think if parents were more educated, however, these errors would be lessened.  AND if insurance companies gave doctors the ability to meet with their patients for more than 10 minutes at a crack, that would greatly reduce these errors. 

ANY parent who goes to the family dr asking for something to help with their suspected ADD/ADHD child and then walks out with a Rx for a stimulant drug after a 10 minute 'exam' is asking for trouble.  There is no universal diagnostic test for all mental health issues, or something as easy as a blood test...but the right interviewing process can eliminate or at least lessen errors or misuse of some drugs.  Again, this has to do with pressure from insurance companies to keep costs down, however.  Raeburn also illustrates this in his aforementioned book


>
>After checking local papers in my area, there has been no word
>of this to the public. Many are not aware of what is taking
>place. The public has a right to know. So much is being
>slipped in when we are not looking.
>

Remember that mainstream news organizations only tell us what we want to hear and what the government wants us to hear.  To find this information, we have to dig deeper and find the source. 


>Glad you shared. Do you know of any state that has a similar
>program in place? Has it been sucessful? If so, what made it
>work like it was intended?

I don't know of any statewide programs right now but that doesn't mean they don't exist.  Frankly, I've been in survival mode for the last couple of years and I only sporadically find the time and energy for activism on the issue.  I know of a couple of grassroots efforts in a couple of states but they are few and far between.  There is no unified system that helps equitably...which is why those parents in my boat are calling for HELP from a national or at least statewide program. 

With my dd as she is, it is hard to get started with anything.  Right this moment as I type this, she is in a pretty good place and has been for a few days.  If you'd asked me the same questions 3 weeks ago, I would have not been able to even think of an answer much less found time to log on and type it out coherently. 


jaylind, who apologies for her laziness in HTML formatting ;)

[MYSONSDAD]

I can see and understand where you are coming from. But I do know of several parents who felt their children had ADD/ADHD. After a change of diet and stricter discipline, the children improved greatly. Everyone has a different situation. I have also seen children misbehave just for attention that is lacking at home. Many differents angles to be looked at. Thank you for sharing yours. I am sure it will be of help to someone who feels their child may have the same outcome. Let's hope they take every precaution possible.

Not intended to undermind, but I prefer the term mentally challenged.

"Children learn what they live"