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About Pediatric Bipolar Disorder This lengthy article appears on the web site of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. It provides a detailed and jargon-free body of information for parents, families, or anyone who deals with children with bipolar disorder. The article emphasizes how difficult it is to properly diagnose children with this disorder. ++++++++++ Antidepressants a Suicide Risk for Young Adults Widely used antidepressants double the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults, from around three cases per thousand to seven cases per thousand, according to a huge federal analysis of hundreds of clinical trials. The highest risk was found in patients 18 to 25. ++++++++++ Special Needs of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Implications for Effective Practice A manual to assist judges, attorneys, and other practitioners in their work with youth in the juvenile justice system that have mental health and/or other disabling conditions. A product of the Children’s Law Center, Inc. in Covington, Kentucky, the manual is a downloadable 170 page pdf file. Judge Orders Mental Health Services for Child
A North Carolina judge ordered December 22, 2006 that the state must get a four-year-old autistic and bipolar boy the help he needs. Judge Fred G. Morrison, Jr. wrote, “The state may not fail to provide a medically necessary service to a Medicaid-eligible child because it is too expensive, not listed in the state plan of services, or difficult to provide.” The boy’s case highlights the lack of specialized mental health services for children in the state’s rural communities. The state Department of Health and Human Services may reject Morrison’s order. ++++++++++ CHAPS (Children with Horses Achieving Productivity and Success) Academy
CHAPS Academy provides equine therapy and counseling services to children and teenagers struggling with mental illness, special needs, trauma and loss, and emotional or behavioral issues. Services also extend to children’s families and include opportunities or individual and group sessions.
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New Research on the Causes of ADHD
About one-third of attention deficit cases among US children may be linked with tobacco smoke before birth or lead to exposure afterward, according to new research. Lead levels considered acceptable appear to increase a child’s risk of having ADHD. New research build on previous research linking attention problems, including ADHD, with childhood lead exposure and smoking during pregnancy offers one of the first estimates of how much these environmental factors might contribute. ++++++++++ Understanding and Dealing with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
This page will take you to information and resources on these two disorders whether you are a patient or a healthcare professional. ++++++++++ Katie A. v Bonta
This California foster care case on the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law In Court section of its web site includes links to a number of documents of interest. Click on the link above for a review of all the documents in Katie A. v Bonta or click on the links below. I found both these to be useful: Wraparound and Therapeutic Foster Care and Their Implications for Taxpayers
Katie A Practice Principles ++++++++++ Blueprint for Change: a Comprehensive Model for the Identification and Treatment of Youth with Mental Health Needs in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System. The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ) has just published the Blueprint, a practical framework for juvenile justice and mental health system use when developing programs and policies aimed at improving mental health services for youth in the juvenile justice system. It consists of: Core Principles that represent the foundation on which a system can be built. Four Cornerstones which provide the infrastructure of the Blueprint and reflect the most critical areas of improvement to enhance the delivery of mental health services to youth in the juvenile justice system. Discussion of Seven Critical Intervention Points within the juvenile justice continuum.
The Blueprint includes descriptions of over 50 Programs illustrating how communities across the country have begun to develop services or programs for youth with mental health needs at key stages of justice processing. The Blueprint can be downloaded at the link above in its entirety, 142 pages. Readers can also download Blueprint for Change: Improving the System Response to Youth with Mental Health Needs Involved with the Juvenile Justice System, a 12 page brief summarizing the Blueprint. ++++++++++ People With Mental Illness
This new COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) publication addresses problems associated with people with mental illness. This guide describes the problems and reviews factors that increase the challenges police face in relation to the mentally ill. It then identifies a series of questions that might help analyze local policing problems associated with people with mental illness. 70+ page pdf file. ++++++++++ Positive Support: Mentoring and Depression Among High-Risk Youth
P/PV (Public/Private Ventures) has just published this new report on the potential benefits of matching high-risk youth with faith-based mentors. Loadable at the site. ++++++++++ Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome and Real People Who Cope
NPR reported on the autism movement this week. You can read the article and/or listen to the interview of a man who didn’t know he was autistic until he was 36 years old, following the diagnosis of his son’s diagnosis of autism. Michael John Carley started the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership (GRASP) three years ago. It is a national autism advocacy group that nowt has 11 support groups around the country. The report includes a timeline on autism. This story gives the reader the opportunity to learn more about autism from people who experience it. Click here for another article about a young teen with Asperger’s and his father’s daily efforts on his behalf. ++++++++++ Alaska Native Leader Says Culture Aids Suicides
William Martin, chairman of the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council thinks he knows why Alaska Native villages tend to suffer waves of suicide. Martin says the problem is entwined with family violence, alcohol and drug use, and cultural disconnection. Approaches that address these broader issues are more effective. He praised the behavioral health aide program as an effective way to establish mental health services in distant communities. +++++++++ Returning Soldiers and Their Families
When soldiers return home there are adjustments to be made. Children have grown and changed, soldiers bring PTSD home with them, and the entire family may have struggled with depression. This article from Connect for Kids examines soldiers and their families, the resources the military has for them, and a has special section on children and reconnection. ++++++++++ Use of Antipsychotic Drugs to Treat Children and Adolescents Increased More Than Fivefold From 1993 to 2002
Researchers analyzed data from a national survey of doctor’s office visits to find a sharp rise over the last decade in the prescription of psychiatric drugs for children. The drugs are prescribed by child psychiatrists who say that they are the best therapy available for children in urgent need of help who do no respond well to other treatments. Experts say that little is known about the use of antipsychotics in minors. Only a handful of small studies have been done in children and adolescents. ++++++++++ New Survey Says One in Five College Students Practice Self-Injury
Self-injury, self-mutilation, is an extreme coping mechanism that seems to help relieve stress. It can also be a call for help. The results of a new survey at Cornell and Princeton are similar to what counselors say is happening at middle schools, high schools, and colleges around the country.
This latest information comes from 2,875 randomly selected male and female undergraduates and graduate students at Cornell and Princeton who completed an internet-based mental health survey. Seventeen percent said they had purposely injured themselves. Of that 17%, 70% had done so multiple times. ++++++++++ Adolescent Brain Development
Powerpoint presentations from the recent Coalition for Juvenile Justice Conference on the implications of adolescent brain development for juvenile justice are available to look at the CJJ web site. At the “Conferences & Events” page scroll past the DMC conference information. ++++++++++ National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health
Lots of resources at this web site from the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. I looked at Products and Publications, but there is much more than this. See Evidence-based practices, cultural and linguistic competence, evaluation, MIS and more. ++++++++++ Kids Who Murder Their Parents Kathleen M. Heide, a Florida professor of criminology, says in a newspaper interview that most parents who are killed by their children are killed by adult children. When the killer is a child, she said, the child most often kills out of desperation or terror. A second category involves children with severe mental illness and appears more often in cases involving adult children. The third category Heide found was that of children with severe antisocial tendencies. Heide says the killing of parents is about 2% of all homicides. She said most commonly, children who killed a parent were abused at home, particularly among parricides involving a child under 18. ++++++++++ Giving Kids Adult Antipsychotic Drugs
New antipsychotic drugs, unapproved for children, are being prescribed for kids as outpatients at increasing rates. Outpatient prescriptions for children ages 2 to 18 jumped about fivefold – from just under half a million to about 2.5 million – from 1995 to 2002. Reports of deaths and dangerous side effects are increasing. Particularly unsettling is that oversight of prescriptions for foster children is scarce. This article from USATODAY includes a chart of six atypical antipsychotic drugs and their reactions in children and teens. ++++++++++ Psychiatric Disorders of Youth in Detention
OJJDP’s latest Juvenile Justice Bulletin examines the prevalence of alcohol, drug and mental disorders among youth at the Cook County (Illinois) Juvenile Temporary Detention Center by gender, race/ethnicity/ and age. The Bulletin finds that nearly two-thirds of males and three-quarters of females studied met diagnostic criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders. Contains information to help the juvenile justice system detect youth psychiatric disorders and respond with an integrated system of services. 16 page pdf file. ++++++++++ Clark v. Arizona
On Wednesday (April 19, 2006) the Supreme Court took up the case and the issue of just how difficult states can make it for criminal defendants to prove insanity. Eric Clark was a 17-year-old high school senior when he shot and killed a Flagstaff, Arizona policeman. He had been a popular, gifted athlete when he began the descent into behavior later diagnosed as schizophrenia.
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