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Originally Posted by Ms. B. Havin
I'm wondering what happened there, too, and who is more accurately reflecting the chain of events, the parents or VIHA. At any rate, something went seriously wrong.
I'll tell you one thing that I would criticize in the local approach to teen mental health: it's very difficult to get a psychiatrist here. The psychiatric care that is available seems to come from practitioners who are more oriented toward treating substance abuse, which doesn't necessarily apply to kids suffering from psychosis, depression, anxiety disorders, etc.
I first heard this complaint from my family doctor. She was quite dismissive about the options available, if you have a kid who is troubled but drug-free, since (according to what she said) mental health for teens is geared toward addressing drug abuse.
Again, I have to add that this was my doctor's opinion, not my own from experience with the mental health system. But just anecdotally, it does seem to me that we don't have a tradition of sending kids to the shrink here, the way parents do much more readily in the US. We only seem to get around to it once the youngster is clearly psychotic or has a drug addiction.
Drug addiction is such a bug-a-boo and there's a lot of light shining on it, media-wise, so perhaps it's natural that the mental health providers also seem focused on it.
But as the recent tragedies involving (apparently drug-free) teens indicate, you don't need to abuse drugs to develop a mental illness.
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I would venture to say, it is hard to get a psych assessment here regardless of age. In my experience as an advocate, it takes a crisis situation,such as self harm. Drug use/mental illness is considered a crisis. Until you deal with any use, you don't know if the illness is brought on by a drug psychosis and can be resolved by detox, abstaining and treatment, or if there is a brain disorder/ disease, or both. Determining drug use, if any, is the first line of defense.
For example, the drug psychosis of a crystal meth user mimics symptoms of schizophrenia. The typical age of schizophrenic onset for males, who statistically show signs earlier than females, is teenage years- also the age of experimentation...not far off to consider drugs as a potential trigger, in any case.
Considering his Dx already, I hope a concurrent Dx for schizophrenia is not the case for this young man. It is a horrible disease, and he has a terrible burden already.
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