Children's Mental Health

The Journal News (Westchester, NY): The Westchester Children's Association has set its sights on the alarming problem of children with mental-health problems, and the current inadequacy of understanding, treatment options, community resources and insurance coverage to meet them. The WCA must confront the very same realities that parents of emotionally disturbed children do: overt and subtle stigma against mental illness, emotional disorders and behavioral problems. After two years of study, the association recently completed and released a 32-page report, "No Time To Lose: Rethinking Mental Health Services for Westchester's Children,'' that calls for changes in the way children with social and emotional problems get help. The report estimated that as many as 11,500 children in Westchester could be affected by serious emotional illness. Like the stigma against those with mental or emotional disorders, the systemic symptoms can be subtle: Try, for example, to find a child psychiatrist in the region who is a) taking new patients and b) affordable. Watch the efforts in New York state to pass Timothy's Law, which requires parity in insurance coverage for mental illness, and it doesn't take long to see the institutional bias against those people, let alone children, who need sustained treatment. Evaluate the increasing number of children who are suspended for behavioral problems from school and even nursery school, and those being classified as "emotionally disturbed'' for special-education purposes, and the situation is untenable.