At The Clay Center, we find ourselves writing often about how seeking psychiatric treatment is stigmatized in the United States. We especially worry about this issue when it comes to children and adolescents.
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.
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.
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.