You & Your Family

Making The Most Of Summer Vacation

Summer vacation might not seem like the most likely topic for a blog that focuses on demystifying psychiatric challenges in kids. Sure, we write about families, children, and parenting, but what in the world could we have to say about that blessed time off that is integral in American tradition?

We might start by asking where it went.

Learning Over The Summer

When parents of school-aged kids think about summer vacations, what would you expect their favorite part to be?  Taking the kids to the beach?  Sleeping in late?  Foregoing the school year’s rigid schedule?  Nope.

Summertime: Making The Livin’ Easy With Kids

When I was a kid, there weren’t what you’d call choices when it came to summer. I could go to camp, or, well…I could go to camp.

‘But don’t worry,’ my mom told me, ‘when you get older, that’s when you’ll have choices.’

Right.

Father’s Day And The Evolving Role of Dad

There is a quiet revolution occurring before us in the U.S.—it’s hiding in plain sight. We are told that the YMCA in Spokane, Washington, was the site of the first Father’s Day celebration in 1910; that Lyndon B.

Helping Your Kids Following The Orlando Tragedy

Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost their lives and were injured in the recent terrorist act in Orlando—an event that is being called the most extensive mass shooting in this country’s history.

Mental Health Needs Of Teen Moms

We know that adolescents get depression.

We also know that adolescents are a lot more likely to get depressed than pre-adolescents.

And, we know that pregnancy is associated with a higher risk for depression both during the pregnancy itself, and at least three months following.

Parents’ Untreated Mental Illnesses Affect Their Children

We wrote earlier this month about the growing acceptance of psychiatric illness among the general population. A number of studies demonstrate that more and more Americans are accepting psychiatric illnesses as equal to other illnesses, and therefore actively seeking treatment.

The Implications Of Poverty On Children’s Mental Health

In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a new policy statement in which it encouraged all of its members to screen pediatric patients and their families for economic hardship. This announcement made national news and was later published in Pediatrics, the flagship journal of the AAP.

Decreased Stigma Of Mental Illness Among The American Public – But Not Among Clinicians

Let’s talk about stigma and psychiatry.

I know.

Yawn. 

You’ve heard all this before. We never seem to stop, you’re thinking, with our worried hand-wringing about the pernicious and dangerous biases that relentlessly dog psychiatric illness and especially those who suffer from psychiatry syndromes.

When You Have An Explosive Child

“When You Have an Explosive Child” is part of a series entitled Real Lives, Real Stories: Personal Experiences With Mental Illness.