Category Archives: Mental Health

Articles relating to mental health are in this category. Typically they will fall into one of two categories. Yours, or your child’s. Yes, your mental health is important.

On Suffering Childhood Abuse

Suffering childhood abuse, it’s a topic that is in the news every day. Especially now with all of the celebrities that are speaking out about the events that happened in their lives when they were first starting out. On social media, people are asking, “why wait 20, 25, or 30 years to talk about it?”  It’s simple really.  For most, it boils down to shame.  For others, fear.  I think, for celebrities, it would include their desire to continue to work in their chosen field. How do I know? I was abused for a period as a child.  I don’t broadcast it from the roof tops, in fact, I rarely speak about it.  When it happened, I disavowed anything happening to me at all.  Talking about such a thing as a child is rarely done until the person is into adulthood and trying to figure out why their life is

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Where is the failure? Thoughts on FASD

A year ago, David was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). It’s a developmental disorder he was born with because of the birth mom’s drug and alcohol usage during the pregnancy. If he had been diagnosed before age 3, he would have DD services. Right now, because he didn’t have that diagnosis, he doesn’t qualify. It is their belief that he is capable of being entirely self-sufficient. and he isn’t. He may be 16 physically, but he is about 6 or 7 in most ways, and 8 or 9 in others. In every other way, he qualifies for DD services.  Except, depending on the day and his affect, his IQ scores too high.  I make the argument that an IQ score alone doesn’t indicate self-sufficiency. FASD   Initially, for the first 9 years, we fought to keep things “normal” for him, which meant that while we saw doctors, we

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Compliance – Continued Medication Issues

Compliance – Continued Medication Issues We are in week two of David’s not getting his medication as prescribed.  Thus, he is out of compliance, though it appears to be a systems issue.  Today, I contacted the detention unit, asked to speak to the medical person, and was transferred to him. When I asked what the issue was, the nurse said “he is not in compliance.” I asked, if he was refusing to take the medication, and rather than providing me an answer, he said “who is the probation worker?” (I use probation worker as a loose descriptor for the person involved in David’s case.) I explained who we are working with, and gave the nurse that information, as well as contact information for the worker. The nurse then said “thank you” and ended the call. So I called and left a message for the probation worker.  I also called our

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