Both by
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, President of the Child Mind Institute
NY, NY
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Unfortunately, Liza's [Long] story [I Am Adam's Mother] is not unusual. Some 15 million young people in the U.S. have a psychiatric or developmental disorder—and less than half will get any attention. There are three main reasons this public health problem exists: shame and stigma keep families from seeking help early on; institutional barriers limit access to mental health care; and there is not enough research focused on developing innovative, evidence-based treatments.
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We often place the blame on parents, teachers, the media, or the children themselves. We speculate freely about things like diet or immunizations being contributing factors. But the bottom line is this: we simply don't treat disorders that occur from the neck up with the same respect, compassion and scientific rigor as disorders that occur in any other part of the body. And we won't be able to change that until we are able to de-stigmatize psychiatric and learning disorders.
http://www.childmind.org/en/press/brainstorm/
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The amateur diagnoses to come out of this are very harmful. To my mind perhaps the worst is the suggestion that the unimaginable nature of this violence -- the fact that children were targeted -- somehow indicates a lack of empathy that can be associated with autism spectrum disorders. This is completely untrue. Individuals on the spectrum are in no way predisposed to this kind of violent behavior. Ample research proves otherwise. And while autistics may be less adept at picking up nonverbal social cues, they are just as capable of experiencing emotional empathy as anyone else. I have known many autistic children who would be crushed knowing that a sibling, a parent, or even a spider was suffering.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harol...-lanza-aspergers-mental-health_b_2316848.html
Website: http://www.childmind.org/
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, President of the Child Mind Institute
NY, NY
Snipped
Unfortunately, Liza's [Long] story [I Am Adam's Mother] is not unusual. Some 15 million young people in the U.S. have a psychiatric or developmental disorder—and less than half will get any attention. There are three main reasons this public health problem exists: shame and stigma keep families from seeking help early on; institutional barriers limit access to mental health care; and there is not enough research focused on developing innovative, evidence-based treatments.
Snipped
We often place the blame on parents, teachers, the media, or the children themselves. We speculate freely about things like diet or immunizations being contributing factors. But the bottom line is this: we simply don't treat disorders that occur from the neck up with the same respect, compassion and scientific rigor as disorders that occur in any other part of the body. And we won't be able to change that until we are able to de-stigmatize psychiatric and learning disorders.
http://www.childmind.org/en/press/brainstorm/
Snipped
The amateur diagnoses to come out of this are very harmful. To my mind perhaps the worst is the suggestion that the unimaginable nature of this violence -- the fact that children were targeted -- somehow indicates a lack of empathy that can be associated with autism spectrum disorders. This is completely untrue. Individuals on the spectrum are in no way predisposed to this kind of violent behavior. Ample research proves otherwise. And while autistics may be less adept at picking up nonverbal social cues, they are just as capable of experiencing emotional empathy as anyone else. I have known many autistic children who would be crushed knowing that a sibling, a parent, or even a spider was suffering.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harol...-lanza-aspergers-mental-health_b_2316848.html
Website: http://www.childmind.org/
