Concerns About Mental Illness

 In Children On The Rise

By Larissa Lytwyn

This July, Time magazine published “Spa Kids,” a reflection on children’s increasing penchant for adding facials, massages, and other spa treatments to schedules packed with soccer practices, homework, and dozens of other obligations.

“Stress knows no age,” echoed the subheading.

“There is a lot of stress, from emphasis on academic performance to puberty to social changes that can occur in preadolescence and adolescence,” noted Susan Connelly, a licensed mental health counselor at Newtown Middle School. “Early adolescence, in particular, is a time when there is a shift in social groups.” Girls who have been best friends since first grade, for example, may drift apart among an increasingly larger peer group.

According to a 1995 study by the American Adolescent of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), stressed youths who experience a loss or have attention or learning disorders are at a higher risk for depression. Further, almost one third of 6- to 12-year-olds diagnosed with major depression also are diagnosed with bipolar disorder in a few years.

“Parents concerned about the emotional state of their children should look for extreme changes in behavior,” Ms Connelly advised. A formerly excelling student or suddenly withdrawn “social butterfly” can raise those red flags, she said.

According to the AACAP, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds and the sixth leading cause of death for 5- to 15-year-olds, a figure that has nearly tripled since 1960.

In 1996, the Center for Mental Health Services reported that two-thirds of children with mental health problems do not get the help they need.

“It’s important for parents to talk openly and honestly with their children,” Ms Connelly said. “It’s also important that children know that parents are speaking to them in a concerned but not confrontational way.”

Substance abuse, poor school performance, low self-esteem, and substance abuse are all among the signs of early-onset depression, according to the Nation’s Voice on Mental Illness (NAMI). Regressive behavior in younger children, such as bedwetting toilet-trained children, also signal depressive problems. NAMI is a nonprofit support and advocacy organization dedicated, declares its mission statement, “to the eradication of mental illness and to the improvement of quality of life of all whose lives are affected by [mental] diseases.”

The Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation says that early-onset bipolar illness, marked by extreme fluctuation in mood, energy, and behavior, may emerge as early as infancy or early childhood. From a very young age, mothers of bipolar sufferers report, erratic sleep patterns, seizurelike tantrums, and extraordinary clinginess dominated daily behavior.

“I don’t think there has been an increase in the number of mentally ill children, but an increase in our ability to accurately identify them,” said Greg Jones, LCSW, clinical program manager at Danbury Hospital’s Center for Child and Adolescent Treatment Services (CCATS). “We now can help the child who may have always been considered sad,” he said.

The center has existed “in one form or another” for about 17 years, he said. “We’ve really evolved since then,” he continued. “We offer both an inpatient treatment facility and outpatient services for children and their families.” The center treats between 300 and 350 new patients each year. “We’ve been seeing an increase in referrals,” Mr Jones said. Also increasing, he said, is the ages at which patients are coming in.

“We’ve had several 12-year-olds come in with substance abuse problems,” he said. “And older patients with these issues tell us that they began drinking as 11- or 12-years-old.” Currently, he said, CCATS is focusing heavily on young foster-care children or children adopted from abusive households. The center works with adoptive parents on understanding their child’s misbehavior.

“For example, a young child who has been neglected may seek attention elsewhere, from strangers,” Mr Jones explained. “When that child reaches school age, they may have trouble with social boundaries.” Through role-playing exercises, group work, and other corrective techniques, the center helps teach the child appropriate social behavior.

“Otherwise,” he noted, “what may have been a coping mechanism [to avoid neglect] can become a potentially dangerous situation.” These vulnerable children can be kidnapped or otherwise exposed to the kind of childhood trauma they had subsequently strove to escape.

When asked to reflect on the numerous medications children as young as 5 years old may be put on to treat behavioral symptoms of larger problems, Mr Jones emphasized the “conservative approach” of the center’s psychologists. “Some parents believe that a single medication, or combination of medications, can itself correct the problem,” he warned. “But while this can certainly cut down on symptoms, it is only part of the change that needs to take place for the child to become healthier.”

The key, he said, was openness between family members and a willingness to work together. “It’s important for parents to establish consistency and predictability in the home,” he said, particularly in cases of children who may have previously suffered physical abuse or neglect.

Unfortunately, he said, there are somewhat limited resources on treatment centers for children suffering from mental illness. “I believe we are the only center in the region that provides this extent of services,” said Mr Jones. “We serve a large part of the western Connecticut region and New York.”

For more information on the Center for Child and Adolescent Treatment Services at Danbury Hospital, call 830-6082 or visit www.danhosp.org.

Resources on the web include: Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, www.bpkids.org; The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, www.aacap.org; Nation’s Voice on Mental Illness, www.nami.org’ and Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services, www.mentalhealth.org.