By Clark Hall
Special to The Daily News
Published June 1, 2007
The burgeoning problem of mental illness among our youth presents us with many questions and a few solutions.
The problems many parents face are when, where and how to seek professional help for youngsters suffering mental illness.
The reason why signs of mental illness among our children are increasing is not surprising in that we are living in a highly complex society.
At home, youngsters are killing one another and their parents. The foundation of the family structures is being undermined. At school, the youngsters exacerbate the academic problems through the interruption of classes. Guns are taken to school, where students and teachers are being shot. Policemen and monitors are stationed throughout school buildings to protect students and teachers.
Many private psychiatric children’s clinics have sprung up throughout the county during the past few years, as evidenced by commercials, TV, billboards and other media. Hospitals have increased the number of adolescent psychiatric beds and profit from a declining patient enrollment. We do have state hospitals. But they are too often overcrowded and understaffed. There are some facilities for the boys, but less for the girls.
Simply stated, the troubled teens are becoming a big business. The significance of that is that the aspects of some of the programs need to be questioned. It is noted that an adolescent’s stay in a psychiatric facility will often be twice as long as an adult patient’s. This sometimes involves the amount of insurance on the adolescent and not the diagnosis.
Dr. Derele Miller, a leading child and adolescent psychiatrist at Northwestern University, said: “The truth is that too many people are making money and not enough concern about the effects on children. Many parents have forgotten to be parents.”
Everybody wants two Volvos and a suburban home. The narcissism of the ’60s has led America to abandon limits for their children and disregard the concept of self-sacrifice. Americans are now searching out experts for every kind of thing, how to manage their children.
In 1989 research at the University of Michigan found that as many as 75 percent of adolescent psychiatric hospitalizations are inappropriate during a long-term stay in a hospital.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommends making sure you have some appropriate answers to some questions toward hospitalization for child behavior problems:
Why is psychiatric hospitalization being recommended for your child and how will it help the child?
What are the alternatives to hospitalization?
Is the adolescent psychiatrist a physician, with five years of additional training beyond medical school, admitting your child to the hospital?
How long will the child be in the hospital and how long will the family pay for services? These questions and many more should be asked regarding each child’s case.
In any case, there should be a lot of investigating before a child is placed with the services of many of the burgeoning clinics.
Clark Hall, a retired educator, lives in Texas City.
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