Comments on: School Shootings: The Sad Reality of Mental Health Care For Children

By: Joni

Joni — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 02:16:27 +0000

Our mental health care system is abominable. I called our county mental health dept. to make an appt. for my clinically depressed (adult) son. Nope. He had to make it himself and they couldn’t help unless he hurt someone or himself. Does putting a bullet in your head qualify? That’s what he did.

My point here (and I wish I had known all of this at that time) is there is almost always a physiological reason someone is depressed – hypoglycemia, thyroid problems, allergies or sensitivities to man-made chemicals, heavy metal toxicity, excess histamines, nutritional deficiencies, and on and on. If doctors would do their job and look for these causes instead of handing out dangerous psychotropic drugs like candy, there would be many less depressed people.

BTW, did you realize these mass shootings were almost unheard of before 1989? Do you know what came on the market then? Prozac, followed by other SSRI’s.

By: Zachary

Zachary — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:48:57 +0000

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By: Usha Sangam

Usha Sangam — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:32:44 +0000

Hi Maya, Thanks for adding your post about Hand in Hand Parenting.

Hi readers,
Here’s an article by Patty Wipfler (Hand in Hand’s Founder and Program Director) on how to help children who are exposed to shocking events:
http://www.handinhandparenting.org/news/32/64/Helping-Children-Exposed-to-Shocking-Events

If you are interested in the free telephone support that Hand in Hand is offering this week to help parents release emotions they may be having around Friday’s tragedy, please email me at usha@handinhandparenting.org and I can share more details.

I also invite people to join the free Hand in Hand discussion group. This is a fabulous forum for getting free email support from experienced instructors and parents. See http://www.handinhandparenting.org/parent-support/online-discussion-group for more details.

Thanks,
Usha

By: School Shootings: Your Follow Up Questions Answered

School Shootings: Your Follow Up Questions Answered — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:04:37 +0000

[...] other posts in this series, School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable Tragedy and School Shootings: The Sad Reality of Mental Health Care For Children. Related posts …School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable TragedySchool [...]

By: School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable Tragedy

School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable Tragedy — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:58:43 +0000

[...] For more information visit my other posts in this series, School Shootings: Your Follow Up Questions Answered and School Shootings: The Sad Reality of Mental Health Care For Children. [...]

By: Dr. Polly Dunn

Dr. Polly Dunn — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:35:07 +0000

Hand-In-Hand Parenting sounds amazing! That’s just the type of system that is needed to revolutionize our mental health system. In our technologically advanced society, the sky is the limit with what can be done! Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing Hand-In-Hand with me. All the best.

By: Maya Coleman

Maya Coleman — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:14:48 +0000

Hi Dr. Dunn-
I’m a child clinical psychologist too (I specialize in working with parents of young children who have had traumatic experiences) and I agree that parents get nowhere near the support they need and deserve, especially around parenting children who are exhibiting challenging emotions and behaviors. I thought you might be interested in an organization I think is great called Hand-in-Hand Parenting (www.handinhandparenting.org) that offers a lot of free/low-cost support and helps parents set up this kind of support for themselves. Ultimately their vision is to have “Parent Rescue Squads” available when parents get into particularly sticky situations. Currently, they run a great moderated list serve that people can post questions to, a library of teleseminars, a huge but easily searchable archive of articles, a series of podcasts for parents of infants, an online course that addresses hitting/aggression, and also more in-depth 6-week in-person or by-phone classes. One especially helpful resource is their pamphlet on setting up listening partnerships with other parents (a way for parents to support each other where they basically swap time listening to each other, without the advice/judgement/confidentiality/cost that is sometimes involved with other sources of support). They also maintain a database of people who are interested in setting up listening partnerships, which many people do by phone or Skype. One thing they have offered just today are some free support calls moderated by their certified instructors (basically facilitated listening time) where parents can talk about their own reactions to the shootings in CT, clear out their own emotions, and be better prepared to help their children with whatever their reactions may be. Anyway, I think the work they do is amazing and I’d love it if all parents had access to that kind of support. Thanks too for your great post!