News, commentary, resources, and more about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
Four years ago today, I published the first entry on EBD Blog, so we’re starting our fifth spin around the blogosphere.
If you have your own sparkle (and yes, the contents of that glass are from Champagne), raise a glass. If you have recommendations for coverage for the next year, please pass ‘em along in the comments. Thanks!
Sphere: Related ContentIf you are a person who might have thought “facilitated communication” was too far out, think again. This one will probably make you shake your head in disbelief.
School officials called Colleen Leduc and asked that she go to the school of her daughter Victoria, an 11-year old who has Autism. When she got there, they told Ms. Leduc that they had allegations that Victoria was being sexually abused. Of course, the school officials had performed their legal duty and notified child protective services.
How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.
“The teacher looked and me and said: ‘We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of “V.” And she said ‘yes, I do.’ And she said, ‘well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.’”
What’ll folks come up with next?
Of course, you should read the entire story here or here (thanks, Mark), or track the coverage here. Flashes of the electrons to PZ Myers (Pharyngula), Janice Liedl, and BoingBoing.
Sphere: Related ContentI’m pleased to add a link to the Web Resources section of EBD Blog that points to the Web site for Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). MDRI is devoted to ensuring that people with disabilities can participate in society, regardless of the country in which they live. Among other things, MDRI has influenced laws and governmental agencies to promote the human rights of individuals with disabilities.
MDRI documents conditions, publishes reports on human rights enforcement, and promotes international oversight of the rights of people with mental disabilities. Drawing on the skills and experience of attorneys, mental health professionals, human rights advocates, people with mental disabilities and their family members, MDRI trains and supports advocates seeking legal and service system reform and assists governments to develop laws and policies to promote community integration and human rights enforcement for people with mental disabilities. The organization is forging new alliances throughout the world to challenge the discrimination and abuse faced by people with mental disabilities, as well as working with locally based advocates to create new advocacy projects and to promote citizen participation and human rights for children and adults.
Individuals with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders should enjoy the same basic human rights as anyone else. From this perspective, it is easy to see why EBD Blog endorses the efforts of MDRI. To save readers the need to locate the link in the side bar, here’s a jump to MDRI’s home page.
Sphere: Related ContentIt’s true. I must update the look of the blog. Changes in the underlying software that controls the general system (killer good WordPress) and the related software (as of this writing, I’m still using the wonderful K2 theme) that controls the look of the site (layout, colors, etc.) made some of my settings fail even worse than they were failing before I updated the software. I’m working on it, honest. Now that I have a little more air in my calendar, that’ll get easier.
Sphere: Related Content“Are we too quick to medicate children?” Melissa Healy asks this question in the headline of an article in the Los Angeles Times. She also weaves the related question—”Are we able to discriminate between normal and atypical behavior?”—into her article.
These are generally sensible questions. They reflect issues of real concern in the scientific community. But, when the headline asks whether we presrcibe medications too quickly, one can guess the answer pretty readily. Unless I’m way off base, would many readers expect the answer to be “no?”
Indeed, the article is nearly chockfull of critical concern about diagnoses, labeling, and treatment. Ms. Healy cites research results (without revealing some of the sources) and quotes at least a half dozen experts. Some of these experts would probably be consider advocates by some of the other experts.
As is de rigeur in contemporary journalism, Ms. Healy leads (and closes) with a case example. She tells the story of a 38-year-old mother who takes her 11-year-old daughter to a psychiatrist, because the girl’s “behavior and performance in school were exemplary, but an ill-tempered outburst had gotten the preteen kicked out of a Girl Scout troop she had joined at age 5. The girl was confused and heartbroken over her ejection.”
Katie’s maternal instincts tell her she must protect her child. But from what, she asks — a disease that threatens health, happiness and future? A bogus label applied to an admittedly challenging kid? Or drugs with potentially harmful and little-studied side effects?
And protect her exactly how — by resisting or by medicating?
In general, this is not a dispassionate examination of the question under which Ms. Healy’s article appears. I say this not because I disagree with her slant, but because the treatment is sensational and poorly informed. Had she gone more deeply into the topic, she would have learned about effective behavioral treatments that provide viable alternatives to medicaiton for many child behavior problems. Instead, she stuck with the hidden-mysteries view of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of children.
Link to Ms. Healy’s article.
Sphere: Related ContentPrepare to open your browser window wide: The Autism Calendar for August 2007 is available here.
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