A wake-up call to the necessity of listening to children

Regarding the Feb. 9 news article “Experts hopeful mother’s conviction will help deter other school shootings”:

The American epidemic of mass shootings by young people is a reflection of the problems to which we have turned a blind eye: isolated adolescents and parents who dismiss the depths of the problems of the children in their care. Jennifer Crumbley’s conviction is a wake-up call to everyone to the necessity of listening to children with a sensitive third eye.

In my book, I provide context to adolescent shooters’ complicated backgrounds, the gross neglect in their care and, in many instances, the misdiagnosis of severe brain illnesses.

Children struggling with brain illness continue to fall through the cracks. We need to pay special attention to the friendless, rigidly “good” child of few words. They might have a secret life, might have early symptoms of brain illness. And their condition is often ignored. An interdisciplinary approach is needed by parents, schools, mental health clinicians and law enforcement to secure psychiatric treatment. We also must better educate parents to demand psychiatric treatment for their children with psychosis or suicidal or homicidal ideation.

Decreasing the stigma of mental illness will help enable those suffering from brain illness to receive essential psychiatric treatment.

Nina Cerfolio, New York

The writer, a psychiatrist, is the author of “Psychoanalytic and Spiritual Perspectives on Terrorism: Desire for Destruction.”

A wake-up call to the necessity of listening to children

Темы и теги