:rbp:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

[Muddy]

[fricnjay]

[Teh One Who Knocks]

[Teh One Who Knocks]

[Muddy]

"self-diagnosed".... Ohhh boy. smh

[fricnjay]

In the CDC's first-ever study of mental disorders among children aged 3 to 17, researchers found childhood mental illnesses affect up to one in five kids and cost $247 billion per year in medical bills, special education and juvenile justice.

[lost in melb.]

In the CDC's first-ever study of mental disorders among children aged 3 to 17, researchers found childhood mental illnesses affect up to one in five kids and cost $247 billion per year in medical bills, special education and juvenile justice.

the fact that it is the first study of its kind says a lot. We are just beginning to wake up to this stuff now.

I should add that I think this is one area where the free market falls short of its ideals...

[fricnjay]

It was really pretty predictable when you consider states across the board have been slashing their mental health budgets for years. In some cases up to 60% and the really sad part is school councilors, teachers and administrators still are not properly trained to recognize or deal with it properly. My wife is the director of counseling for a large ISD and the president of the Texas chapter of ASCA and the big push right now is to deal with this exact issue. If there was ever an epidemic this is it.

[lost in melb.]

Thanks for the reply fricnjay, your wife is doing a great service I'm sure.

Sometimes a little bit of targeted professional help can make all the difference. I actually have that line of work in Aus for 6 months next year at a group of Catholic schools that have what appears to be that exact problem

[fricnjay]

Thanks for the reply fricnjay, your wife is doing a great service I'm sure.

Sometimes a little bit of targeted professional help can make all the difference. I actually have that line of work in Aus for 6 months next year at a group of Catholic schools that have what appears to be that exact problem

Honestly its really interesting and they have actually shifted their strategy. Historically Democrats have been very pro education and Republicans tend to rape education budgets but you might be seeing a shift in that. Because of SJW gender politics and the anti gun lobby Dems are not interested in funding mental health. So they are going after Republican support with the angle if we can combat mental illness we will see a decrease in these pointless "mass shootings" and strengthen the 2nd amendment which will in turn strengthen their voting base and they seem to be biting. Lots of interested politics going on in Texas right now and because of my wife's position I have a front row seat. For example she and others are getting a lot of Conservative support for college tuition using the angle that if we better educate native Texans these big tech companies that are moving here will no longer have to import employees from hard left states and thus keep Texas Red.

[RBP]

I don't really buy it. Why would we see an "epidemic" level shift to juvenile mental health? Over-diagnosis and WAY over-medication of normal child behavior, driven by the complete failure of self-esteem-first parenting, minimal culture expectations of resilience, minimal effective socialization. How in the hell did having a kid diagnosed with ADHD, Austism, or gender dysphoria become a parenting badge? I am not implying it isn't real, it is, but we are driving the problem from the bottom up, and expecting drugs and schools to fix it. That's a recipe for disaster.

Ask your wife something for me, Jay... what is she seeing as the gender distribution in the mental health caseload? Curious.

Unquestionably, community mental health services have been gutted by politicians and psychiatrists have been compelled by insurance schemes to become pushers only. The largest inpatient mental facilities in over 40 states (from memory), including mine, is a jail. We have shifted mental health treatment to corrections where it does NOT belong, and given the politicians an irresponsible out to be both budget hawks and tough on crime. Complete and utter failure. And nobody gives a shit because those crazy people are off the streets. But I digress...

[brah pitt]

[lost in melb.]

I don't really buy it. Why would we see an "epidemic" level shift to juvenile mental health? Over-diagnosis and WAY over-medication of normal child behavior, driven by the complete failure of self-esteem-first parenting, minimal culture expectations of resilience, minimal effective socialization. How in the hell did having a kid diagnosed with ADHD, Austism, or gender dysphoria become a parenting badge? I am not implying it isn't real, it is, but we are driving the problem from the bottom up, and expecting drugs and schools to fix it. That's a recipe for disaster.

Unquestionably, community mental health services have been gutted by politicians and psychiatrists have been compelled by insurance schemes to become pushers only. The largest inpatient mental facilities in over 40 states (from memory), including mine, is a jail. We have shifted mental health treatment to corrections where it does NOT belong, and given the politicians an irresponsible out to be both budget hawks and tough on crime. Complete and utter failure. And nobody gives a shit because those crazy people are off the streets. But I digress...

I agree with most of this. I don't like diagnostic labels, but they can open access to funding and therefore help.

Diagnosis can be useful to shape treatment in the right direction - but we still have a long way to go with understanding what fixes what best. Especially with young children. Intuition is one thing but true science is slow and is dominated by certain schools of treatment that may have simply had more active 'inventors' rather than be what works best.

Agree with medication. But sometimes it can be a lifesaver. It's not so clearcut RBP. One thing we can be certain of though the younger the $$ are targeted the more money appears to be saved in the long term. "Give me a child until he is 7 and ye shall shape the rest of its life"

Finally, mental health is built into the human condition - how we live, what we eat, the air we breath, the homes we inhabit, the hours we work...

[RBP]

I agree with most of this. I don't like diagnostic labels, but they can open access to funding and therefore help.

Diagnosis can be useful to shape treatment in the right direction - but we still have a long way to go with understanding what fixes what best. Especially with young children. Intuition is one thing but true science is slow and is dominated by certain schools of treatment that may have simply had more active 'inventors' rather than be what works best.

Agree with medication. But sometimes it can be a lifesaver. It's not so clearcut RBP. One thing we can be certain of though the younger the $$ are targeted the more money appears to be saved in the long term. "Give me a child until he is 7 and ye shall shape the rest of its life"

Finally, mental health is built into the human condition - how we live, what we eat, the air we breath, the homes we inhabit, the hours we work...

This is a useful debate and there is nothing in your comments to disagree with. However, I am concerned that we have incorrectly defined the core issue.

What I highlighted from your comments is my concern. Start with the last statement about the human condition and assume that includes how much control we exercise over our lives and our children, and how much responsibility we take for same.

If we then focus on the solution in the first statement, i.e. diagnose and publicly fund (because as you said, the former brings the latter) we by design send the message and reinforce the process of abdicating parental, family, and community responsibility to "professionals" (usually the government). (The courts have also played a large role in mandating that parents aren't responsible for children, the government is... which is scary to me.)

I don't doubt your statement about setting the course by age 7. But that's called parenting.

It seems to me that the "external help" approach has massively accelerated the whole system where solutions become only external, "professionals" are better than family/community, diagnosis is required (which drives funding), which increases diagnosis (for more funding), which increases prescriptions (can't not medicate the diagnosis, just ask big pharma), which justifies social workers and IEPs, etc etc... rinse, repeat...

There is your epidemic.

But alas (sigh) the response is closer to, "wow, look at all the resources available to address this epidemic, we never had this when I was raising you guys". No, you didn't, because we we outside playing and burning off that energy before parents told them they were perfect in every way, let them stay inside playing video games while developing no social skills, then became aghast when they were hyper and awkward, so parents give them Ritalin and developed an IEP with the school when they had (completely predictable) "behavior problems". But sure, glad we created a multi-billion-dollar scheme to fix it.