Watch this video to meet Quinn, posted by his mother.  Quinn is like any other child:  adorable, loved, and happy.  He is also autistic.  Thanks to his mom for sharing her beautiful child with us!

A recently completed study by the Rand Corporation found a connection between teen pregnancy and watching TV.  Teens who viewed television with sexual content were more likely to get pregnant, even when other variables were controlled.  The study:

• tested the cross-sectional and prospective relationships between exposure to various kinds of televised sexual content and sexual knowledge, expectancies, perceived norms, and behavior among adolescents;
• tested whether relationships between sexual content on television and the sexual beliefs and behavior of adolescents vary according to viewers’ gender, age, race/ethnicity and sexual experience;
• identified the process(es) through which television depictions of sex may influence sexual behavior–specifically, whether knowledge, expectancies, self-efficacy, and perceived norms mediate any relationship between media exposure and behavior.

The continuing study is now examining whether viewing sexual content on television is also associated with unprotected sexual activity, infection with sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, and poorer quality romantic and sexual relationships in young adulthood.

Most teens who try methamphetamine say they started when they were age 15 or younger. Nearly a quarter of teens say that it would be “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to obtain meth. One in three teens believes there is only a “slight risk” or “no risk” in trying meth once or twice.

These national results were published yesterday by the Meth Project, a nonprofit organization based in California. They received wide coverage in national news outlets yesterday and today.

However, even our local press failed to research usage statistics in our own community. Had they bothered to look, they would have found that the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project reports meth use has declined slightly in recent years among 12th graders in Kansas. In 1999, 7.7 percent of Kansas 12th graders reported some use of meth in their lifetime. By 2006, that number dropped to 5.3 percent.

The number of children and youth labeled as bipolar increased 40 times from 1994 to 2003. The frequency of the diagnosis has increased even further since then.

The numbers come from a study just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many believe the jump comes from more aggressive diagnosis. Because of the size of the increase, some question the validity of the diagnosis.

Bipolar teens and children experience massive mood swings. During their manic stages, they may feel surges of energy and confidence. They might make grandiose plans that never come to fruition. They might also make impulsive decisions that violate the law.

These manic stages are soon followed by debilitating depression. They fail school. They might self medicate using alcohol and illegal drugs. As in their manic stages, they may make poor choices which lead to trouble with the law.

Families with bipolar children often retain my firm for representation in juvenile justice proceedings and special education. These families often find that the juvenile justice system offers little help. In many cases, inappropriate responses from juvenile justice might actually obstruct the family’s efforts.

Punishing teens for bipolar behavior won’t cure their disorder. Fortunately, a combination of medical intervention with mental health therapy can help these children become productive.

However, the pace of the medical and legal interventions might contradict each other. The juvenile court demands immediate compliance with its orders and conditions of probation. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist might need time to experiment with different combinations of drugs. Some of the medicines might need several weeks to take effect. Concurrently, your family needs training and community resources. Your child may require talk therapy over several months.

At the same time, the school system should evaluate your child for eligibility for special education and related services. If the bipolar mood disorder interferes with school, your child might need an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to receive a free, appropriate public education.

Our firm helps families with bipolar children in all these systems. We ensure that the juvenile justice system coordinates with the mental health system to keep your child safe and compliant. We advocate for the school to provide an appropriate education so your child can succeed and stay out of trouble. We refer your family to public and private resources to learn how to manage your child’s behavior while interacting with larger social systems.

You can get more done for less effort by acting before disaster strikes. If your child may be experiencing symptoms of bipolar mood disorder, seek early professional help.

I received this post from the Mental Health Association of the Heartland, along with a request to circulate it widely:

Kansas law adopted in 2001 requires health insurance companies to cover up to 45 in-patient days and 45 outpatient visits on an annual basis for treatment of biologically-based mental illnesses. However, recent data from the top 10 health insurance providers, as reported by the Kansas Insurance Department (KID), reveal that policyholders typically receive an average of six in-patient days or outpatient visits regardless of diagnosis.

The 2006 Mental Health Parity Task Force of the Governor’s Mental Health Services Planning Council suggested that there must be a significant number of health insurance policy holders who have had one or more of the following experiences which have resulted in the denial of adequate, appropriate or timely treatment since the 2001 Mental Health Parity legislation:

• Denial of claims for treatment of mental illness

• Excessive co-pays or deductibles for mental health treatment
• Refusal to authorize an adequate number of in-patient days and/or outpatient visits
• Inability to obtain or understand the standards and rationale used to deny authorization of treatment by an insurer
• Insurers recommending that “difficult” cases be referred to law enforcement or public mental health services
• Other problems with authorization of treatment of a mental disorder

We want to hear from individual policy holders, group health care administrators and mental health providers who have experienced any of these problems. Please share with us your personal written and/or oral accounts of your experiences.

We will listen to your experiences and help you, as appropriate, to file a formal complaint with the Kansas Insurance Department. To initiate a complaint with the KID, you may click on the following link to their website: http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/complaint.htm.

You may also put your concerns in writing and address them to the KID using the following contact information:

Kansas Insurance Department
Attn: Consumer Assistance
420 SW 9th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66612-1678
Phone: (785) 296-3071
Toll-Free: 1-800-432-2484
TTY/TDD: 1-877-235-3151
www.ksinsurance.org

Please let us hear from you if decide to file a complaint with the KID. We are collecting this information to better understand how to help Kansans get the care and treatment they need.

Senate Bill 380 was introduced during the 2007 session of the Kansas Legislature to provide health insurance coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses that is equivalent to coverage for other illnesses. Equal coverage is known as parity. We are hopeful that the bill will be considered in the 2008 session.

The lack of parity in coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses is a major factor in the perpetuation of the stigma associated with mental illness and a clear barrier to accessing treatment and moving toward recovery.

Thank you for your assistance with this effort.

Rick Cagan
For the Kansas Mental Health Coalition

Rick Cagan, Executive Director
National Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI Kansas
112 SW 6th Avenue
PO Box 675
Topeka, Kansas 66601
785-233-0755
785-233-4804 FAX
800-539-2660
rcagan@nami.org
www.namikansas.org

A Johnson County, Kansas court yesterday sentenced Andrew Ellmaker to life in prison for the murder of his mental health worker, Terri Zenner. He won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years.

The defendant was 17 years old when he killed the victim. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the incident he was not eligible for the death penalty.

Sue Ellmaker, the defendant’s mother, pleaded for mercy because of her son’s mental illness. The victim’s husband, Matt Zenner, would have nothing of it.

“I’m sick and tired of hearing about mental illness,” he said at the sentencing hearing. “Stand up and be a man. You sit there and stare at the floor…. It’s beyond my comprehension that you were able to do this.”

As the husband of the victim, Matt Zenner is entitled to his feelings of loss, anger and bereavement. The family of Terri Zenner deserves all our compassion.

However, as a society we must overcome our prejudice that mental illness is both incomprehensible and inexcusable. Otherwise, we could face even more tragedies like Teri Zenner’s.

More than seventy percent of youth in the juvenile justice system suffer from at least one mental health disorder, according to the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. For many of their families, juvenile justice provides their first and only access to mental health services.

Families raising a child with mental illness feel frustrated, overwhelmed and exhausted. In my law practice, we help these families by coordinating special education, juvenile justice and mental health services.

Andrew Ellmaker deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. The rest of us must work even harder to prevent future tragedies from happening.

Scott Wasserman is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He practices special education, juvenile law and child custody litigation in Kansas and Missouri. His web site is www.yourchild1st.com .

In my law practice I see the delayed results of problems which could have been prevented by early intervention in a child’s first years. Early childhood intervention could prevent later issues involving special education, school discipline, and juvenile delinquency.

A Kansas audit released yesterday found that state agencies could better coordinate programs for such young children. The study found multiple agencies offered similar programs for the same population. However, the auditors found no indications of wasted tax dollars or failed programs.

The programs serve 40 percent of Kansas children under the age of 5. The 23 programs provide immunizations, therapy for special-needs toddlers, abuse prevention efforts, parenting training and assistance to poor mothers. The services cost $310 million last year.

Legislation passed in Kansas this year will create an Office of Early Childhood Education by 2009. The new agency could have a role in coordinating services; however, the specific authority of that agency has not yet been clarified.

I support any effort to ensure services reach the children who need them. At the same time, Kansans should feel assured from this audit that these essential services already work mostly as intended.

On Monday the U.S. Court of Federal Claims began hearing the first of nine test cases to determine if vaccines cause autism in children. The test cases could ultimately determine the outcome of 5,000 similar claims.

In the first test case, the parents of a 12 year old contend that their duaghter’s vaccines contained a preservative called thimerosal. This preservative, they allege, weakened their daughter’s immune system. Consequently, their daughter now suffers from severe autism.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This video provides instruction about mental health issues in children and adolescents. Although the production quality is not great, it contains some information that might help a child and a family. It addresses:

• Understanding Of Mental Health

• Causes
• Families Assisting
• What To Look For

Impoverished children who experienced high quality child care incurred less depression as young adults than their peers. These findings were reported in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Washington at Seattle.

Research shows a connection between childhood poverty and later mental health issues. Providing impoverished children with high quality child care protects them when they become teens and adults.