I read an article in GQ mag yesterday about the safe haven law in Nebraska. Briefly, the safe haven law in Nebraska allows a parent to drop off a child at a hospital there with no questions asked. The intent was to assist a parent of an unwanted infant, apparently to prevent babies being left in dumpsters and such; however, the legislators didn't attach an child age limit. So parents have been dropping off children of all ages, even coming from other states to do so. I had heard/read of the situation there previously, but had not paid it more than passing notice. Working with problem kids and having raised a couple of normal teens has given me enough insight to figure that there was more to the issue than the administrators and politicians in Nebraska were revealing. Sure enough, as referenced in the links below, the majority of the kids being dropped off at the hospitals have emotional / behavioral issues.
The article in GQ gives a much more pervasive and insightful picture of the situation than some of the others I have read. The general public has no idea of the challenges for parents who are dealing with kids with mental health issues. I work with teens with severe emotional / behavioral issues. Our facility is a lock-down residential, re-education center. Our kids have mental health issues and this is their last chance to find a way to integrate into society before they reach adulthood. Ours is an intensive program that focuses on re-education through social skills, therapy, peer-groups, and constant consistent interactions with adults in a teaching environment.
Some of our kids have been abused in ways that most of you can't comprehend. All of our kids are mentally ill. All of our kids have been passed around between family members, group homes, foster homes, other institutions, psychiatric hospitals and the list goes on. None of our kids have had quality consistent care during there short lives.
Our society does not acknowledge the need for quality mental health care. It has been our tradition as a country to keep our crazies in the closet. We don't talk about them, we are embarrassed by them and we're afraid of them. In terms of treating them, it's not an exact science. Most conditions can't yet even be definitively defined. One student we recently admitted, over drugged, was diagnosed with the standard youth diagnosis of oppositional defiant, adhd, etc. Our treatment team disregards previous diagnosis and does new thorough testing. The kid is autistic and with the appropriate treatment regiment, he made amazing progress and was able to function very well. Turns out he's a really likable kid!
Adults do not receive adequate mental health care in this country. So what do you think children get? Often, kids are labeled as spoiled, a bad seed, or a bad kid. Parents are blamed, or chided for not doing a good job or taking responsibility. The reality is that kids left untreated for mental health issues can wreck even the most determined parent and household. The GQ article profiles what one woman was experiencing with her kids and is fairly typical in my experience.
Imagine one of your kids, biting, kicking, breaking, setting fire, sexually abusing your other kids or peers, cursing like the devil, stealing, hoarding, getting mad and defecating on whatever, the list goes on. And you probably have other kids, a job, maybe you're a single parent. Now, what do you do? There are very few treatment facilities and organizations that treat children.
I work in a treatment facility in North Carolina for these kinds of kids. There is another here, for young children. Due to budget cuts, both of theses facilities are on the chopping board to be closed at the end of the year. Ours is a short term program for teens 13 to 17 and we have the capacity to treat only 18 kids at a time due to previous budget cuts (18 kids for the whole state). The only other places for these kids is jail, psychiatric hospitals, or the street.
It's time to start getting help for people who are mentally ill. Many can be treated and transition into the community. Mental illness is an integral component of a host of societal ills, not the least of which is poverty. Can we take it out of the closet, from under the carpet, put it in the sunlight, see it for what it is and deal with it? Please? I'm going to stop now, because this had gotten to long. But I have more to say, and I will.
http://tinyurl.com/cq5cnw (GQ post)
HTTP://tinyurl.com/cr6j3b
HTTP://tinyurl.com/c3tf6d