Mental health care for kids is improving.Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Debra Depew For The Register-Guard A parent remembers the first time the school calls because her child is spending too much time in the principal's office. I remember the day, and so do many other moms and dads. We are trained to recognize chicken pox chicken pox or varicella (vâr'əsĕl`ə), infectious disease usually occurring in childhood. It is believed to be caused by the same herpesvirus that produces shingles. , measles and fevers, but we aren't trained to identify mental health disorders. Often the first time problems are called to our attention is when the child is introduced to the structure of the classroom. The child doesn't raise his hand to speak. Or he gazes out the window when he should be learning addition. Or he needs to leave the room for a few minutes to reduce his frustration. Handle this wrong, and the kid gets a Swiss-cheese education with lots of holes in it. Treat it right, as Oregon is now preparing to do, and children with mental health issues will get the help they need to be successful. This is important, because an estimated 105,000 Oregon children require at least moderate mental health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract , while another 7,000-plus experience serious mental illness. I applaud a teacher at Cascade Middle School in the Bethel School District Bethel School District may refer to:
If you're the parent of a child with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit disorder Psychiatry An inability to control behavior due to difficulty in processing neural stimuli, resulting in ↑ motor activity, ↓ attention span Epidemiology ADHD is the most common or Attention Deficit Disorder attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADD or ADHD) formerly hyperactivity Behavioral syndrome in children, whose major symptoms are inattention and distractibility, restlessness, inability to sit still, and difficulty concentrating on one thing for any , you know what it means to be talked down to by professionals. Talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to the psychiatrist or therapist can be like dealing with the auto mechanic An auto mechanic or motor mechanic in Australian English is a mechanic who specialises in automobile maintenance, repair, and sometimes modification. A mechanic may be knowledgeable in working on all parts of a variety of car makes or may specialize either in a specific area who talks over your head, paying no attention to you even though you know the car's every quirk quirk n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. . Even state officials admit that parents have sometimes been blamed for the mental illness of their children. Or that parents too often aren't included in treatment decisions, even though they're with the child all the time except during school. Or that children are put into residential treatment with what the parent who knows the child best hears as, "We'll take your child for a year and see how it goes." Two years ago, the Oregon Legislature adopted a budget note that said this had to change, hastening an initiative on which the state Department of Human Services had already begun working. It is designed to involve families more in treatment planning In radiotherapy, Treatment Planning is the process in which a team consisting of radiation oncologists, medical radiation physicists and dosimetrists plan the appropriate external beam radiotherapy treatment technique for a patient with cancer. Typically, medical imaging (i.e. , deliver more child and teen treatment in nonoffice settings, and encourage better interagency in·ter·a·gen·cy adj. Involving or representing two or more agencies, especially government agencies. cooperation. Parents and family members are being viewed as part of the solution. It's a huge shift in thinking. From my experience, I believe agencies are ready to collaborate and to do more for kids with various levels of mental illness. The educators I know seem hungry for knowledge. People recognize that we all need to combine our efforts to improve kids' lives. The goal is to bring services closer so children or teens in Eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon is a geographical term that is generally taken to mean the area of the state of Oregon east of the Cascade Range, save the region around The Dalles and sometimes Klamath County. The area around Bend is considered to be Central Oregon rather than Eastern Oregon. - or in Eugene-Springfield - don't have to go to Portland for treatment, further disrupting an already stretched family. Imagine a scenario where the therapist actually comes to the child or teen's home, providing help in a natural family setting (hint: lots of kids fight going to the therapist). To many parents, it's a fantasy. It's also one piece of where Oregon is headed. Once, before I spoke to a group, I asked a son what he would like me to say about him. "Don't think of me as stupid," he said. A powerful answer. I believe Oregon is headed in a direction where not only kids - but also parents - will be treated as smart and valuable players in improving child and adolescent mental health. Debra Depew of Eugene serves on the Lane County Mental Health Advisory Committee, the Lane County Commission on Children and Families and on several LaneCare committees. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion