Opinion
Focus on mental health fix
Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.
Also by Ruth Windberg:
- Website will fall victim to laziness (February 15, 2008)
Sharing tools:
E-mail this article:
Calling all parents with young children: Don’t forget to schedule your 5-year-olds for their mandatory mental health checkups with a therapist or psychiatrist.
This might not be a reality yet, and if the notion of kids having regularly scheduled appointments to keep tabs on their mental health is troubling to you, you probably aren’t alone. But if this proposal sounds like a bad idea and a waste of time, you might want to reconsider.
The issue of mental health has come to the fore of the collective American psyche in recent months. Tragic events at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech University and a recent report in The New York Times highlighting a drastic increase in suicide rates for middle-aged men and women have brought the issue into the national discourse.
But things might not be this way if clinics and hospitals start screening mental health in young children as part of an annual or semi-annual checkup. That way, mental health could be handled more along the lines of eye exams or dentist appointments, with the idea that mental wellness needs regular care rather than specialized treatment.
Commonly, therapy and psychiatric care are only available to those who know they need it and actively seek help themselves. Or, in some cases, a family member or friend intervenes on behalf of the person in question. Presently, society looks at mental health as requiring reactive rather than preventive care.
But that still leaves out all those people who need help for a mental health condition and either deny they have a problem, refuse to seek help for it or have their condition written off as an adolescent phase. Two such people were Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who were considered outcasts at Columbine High School in the late 1990s.
Routine, mandatory mental health care starting at an early age and continuing through adolescence could have helped people like Mr. Klebold and Mr. Harris. The advantage would be that if anyone showed any trends of having problems early in life that otherwise would have remained undetected, that person could be monitored and treated. Perhaps only three or four mandatory therapy sessions per year for children and adolescents could drastically reduce suicide rates or untreated problems with depression for people of all ages.
Since BadgerCare Plus was passed — legislation that ensures affordable health care to virtually all Wisconsin children and their families — the issue is even more relevant in the Badger State. Like most other health insurance plans, BadgerCare Plus provides mental health screening and a certain number of counseling sessions every year at the patient’s request. Most people agree this program is a giant leap for health insurance in Wisconsin, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Similarly, health care is a huge issue in the race for the White House, but the central talking points are too focused on how we can achieve universal health care rather than the type of care that is necessary.
We all seem to be obsessed with providing everyone everywhere in this country with health care, an idea that seems next to impossible to achieve because of the way huge insurance companies relentlessly throw their weight around. Yet issues we could easily improve upon, like that of mandatory mental health care, slip right under our noses. Maybe that’s because it is much easier for politicians to give poor, young mothers the promise of better health care coverage at a lower cost than to stress the importance of taking their kindergartners in for a visit with a psychiatrist.
These issues are both important, but they are not mutually exclusive. State lawmakers should pair their promise of extending health care to virtually all minors (i.e., BadgerCare Plus) with the promise of accompanying mental health coverage.
This is not a call for all preschool-aged kids who might have eaten the sand in the sandbox one too many times to be admitted to the psych ward. It is a precautionary measure to make sure children and adolescents with real psychological problems get the help they need.
Hopefully before another high school or college student opens fire in a classroom, lawmakers will address not only the universality of health coverage, but also the scope of its provisions.
Ruth Windberg (windberg@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in history and economics.
7 Comments | Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Herald Blogs
The Beat Goes On
Muckrakers
President’s Visit Marked a Speech to One of the Last Groups Not Critical of Him
Extra Points
Top Classified Ads (view all)
HOUSES FOR Fall 2010. All houses are on W Dayton or N Bassett. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 bedrooms. All have parking. madisoncampusrentals.com
Mental and developmental health is already part of the well child check that children attend yearly between 2 and 12 years old with a pediatrician or family practice doctor. Addition of a psychiatry appointment would be unnecessary and further overwhelm the already thinly spread mental health system.
There is a psychiatric / pharmaceutical plan to “suicide screen” every child in the United States before they graduate from high school. Evidence exists that shows massive pharmaceutical backing that will result in even more overdrugging of kids with psychiatric drugs .
Can you take a moment to view this very short video? Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
And then sign and forward this petition http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html to your associates and everyone you know? It already has almost 25,000 signatures.
It’s simply a race to inform enough parents so something can be done about this.
Federal Bill to ban funding for screening here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h2387_ih.xml
Didn’t Suchita write about this a while ago?
Ya gotta love the chutzpah of the socialist Universal Health Care supporters. If they can make visits to the doctor (physical, mental, witch, etc) MANDATORY, why then it is only FAIR that the GOVERNMENT should cover the COSTS of certifying you and your family HEALTHY by GOVERNMENT STANDARDS. It is yet another transparent ploy to justify government run socialist health care. UGH!!!
Now, let’s suppose that I am deemed not to be mentally fit, perhaps because I didn’t show up for my manadatory mental inspection or I openly stated that the Freshman Senator Barack Hussein Obama wasn’t qualified to change his own diapers let alone be elected as the President of the United States. Would my “here to help” Central Scrutinizers of Cerebral Sanity have to dope me to the gills and confine me (for my own safety, of course!) until I saw the error of my ways? That is exactly the way Vladmir Putin handles the political opposition in Russia today, using their government controlled Socialist Health Care system. Call me crazy if ya like, but I want no part of Government Regulated Mental Health Care. You gotta be nuts to drink that Kool-Aid!!!
4:11— zOMGz Barack Hussein Obama socialism Russia Putin terrorists France 9/11 health care Stalin Kool-Aid. After reading your post, maybe mandatory mental screenings wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Is it realistic to think that the parents who may be the primary cause or unknowing influencers of the mental health of their children will bring their child in for a mental health check, even if mandated by law? Only if they can somehow be assured the diagnosis will not be self-incriminating. Besides, if the resulting “perscription” were to “show your 5 year old some unconditional love,” who is going to help the parent with that? Unless the premise of your position is that all mental illness is biological, at which point I would refer you to Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.
How to Reduce Anxiety Heartbeat, dizziness, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain or discomfort… heart disease, heart disorders and breathing disorders…anxiety symptoms. Anxiety disorders and panic attacks can be cured with medications and psychological therapy like cognitive and behavior therapy. Tips to reduce anxiety disorders and panic attacks: Learn relaxation techniques, meditation, yoga and muscle relaxation will help reducing panic disorders. Half an hour exercise a day can make a better psychological well being. Sleeping all night is a very important variable for anxiety disorders. Seredyn, natural herbal supplements, can produce anxiety relief for panic attacks and severe stress. Relora® was developed as an ingredient for to use in stress management and for stress-related appetite control where it has an excellent natural stress management properties without causing sedation. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy CD’s for anxiety. You will love the deep relaxation you will experience from each of these Hypnotherapy CD’s for Anxiety. If you suffer from Anxiety, Stress, Panic, Worry, or Post Traumatic Stress, then Hypnotherapy CD’s are for you.