Update on Children’s
Mental Health, 2005
By Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D.
|
Harold
S. Koplewicz, M.D. |
This month’s issue
of Education Update highlights the tenth anniversary of a publication
that has been integral in informing school professionals about
important health, education and parenting issues. In partnership
with the NYU Child Study Center, Education Update has been
at the forefront in disseminating information about child mental
health. Their comprehensive coverage of the diagnosis and treatment
of psychiatric disorders in relation to learning issues, social
interactions and family well-being can have a profound effect
on enhancing a child’s
overall psychological development.
Similar to families
throughout our country many children in New York City have
psychiatric illness. Whether as complex as autism; as disruptive
as attention deficit disorder or as debilitating as Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) these children require their
parents’ and teachers’ time
and attention. Every two minutes another child is diagnosed
with a psychiatric illness. The diagnosis is often made after
years of despair for parent and child. Millions of other children
are never properly diagnosed or treated. These disorders rob
children of the ability to learn, make and keep friends and
enjoy life.
Over the past year our children have been exposed to extensive
suffering from a tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes, bombings
and many other human tragedies. Thousands of children survived
these disasters while millions of others around the world have
observed horrific sights via media coverage. Many children
have been separated from their families, lost their homes,
their neighbors, pets, and friends. These situations put children
at high risk for developing PTSD, anxiety and depression.
These disasters can
have a particular effect on children in New York who lived
through the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. Exposure
to one traumatic event renders a child more likely to experience
a negative reaction to future traumatic events. Watching
disasters on television can be detrimental to a child’s mental health, as indicated by research
that children who viewed more television news of the attack
were two times as likely to develop symptoms of PTSD than children
with less TV exposure. Teachers and other school personnel
play a key role in the care of children after traumatic events
and need to monitor their own mental health and stay alert
to students’ needs during difficult times.
Helping children feel safe in unsafe times should be a high
priority for parents, teachers, mental health professionals
and all those caring for children. Our hope is that with increased
awareness of child mental health issues, the stigma of having
or being a child with a mental health problem will be diminished
and someday completely eliminated. We congratulate Education
Update on their 10 year anniversary and look forward to the
next ten years of working toward this goal together.#
Dr. Koplewicz is Founder and Director of the NYU Child Study
Center and the Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry.
