Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges

Parents Forum
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<p>They ARE still in the process of “revamping” it. It won’t be finalized/printed until, IIRC, 2012 and not available to buy for a year after that–right in the middle of my grad school tenure (lucky me :wink: ). To look at the changes they are considering for the DSM 5, go to [Home</a> | APA DSM-5](<a href=“http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx]Home”>http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx)</p>

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<p>Yes, and when you fill out your insurance paperwork :eek: (!) you will at least know where to find the right codes…sigh.</p>

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<p>Don’t you love mental health jargon? I love the idea of deciding how to quantify something to keep “rates” to acceptable levels. Aren’t these issues a matter of science? Sounds more like policy to me and a lot like what poetgrl seemed to be eluding to.</p>

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<p>It is. It’s actually incredibly political, unfortunately.</p>

<p>There was a great book written about this by one of the major contributors to the DSMIV…but, it’s a book, so I won’t link it.</p>

<p>So, what you do is you find the right code, for insurance purposes, and then you set about treating the person…as a person. Or, at least, this is what most of us do.</p>

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<p>I remember in 1983 when I started counseling for alcoholism that the counselor started to discuss how he was going to classify the “problem” to get it within my insurance. Luckily I did not need to have insurance pick it up so I suggested we forget all that.</p>

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<p>Raising 3 kids, I can’t tell you how many times I honestly felt each of them were at some point crazy, depressed, mentally disabled, autistic, had anger/rebellion issues, ADD, learning disabled, antisocial, strange, odd, manic-depressive, narcissistic, and more. Each time, I fretted, lost sleep over it, swore I would get them (and me) professional help for it, and then either I didn’t know who to call or was in denial or things got in the way so I never managed to follow through and in the meantime they grew up and got better. In the end, the kids turned out fine.</p>

<p>I have wondered whether some doctor would have labelled them and treated them for some mental condition if I had managed to get them there.</p>

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<p>“Aren’t these issues a matter of science?”</p>

<p>No, they are strongly related to policy and public health in EVERY medical specialty. This does not distinguish psychiatry in any way. At the same time that psychiatry was diagnosing people as homosexual, surgeons were removing healthy female organs because they were “useless” and might become cancerous. Yet there is no movement to discredit or abolish the profession of surgery because of wrongheaded procedures it followed in earlier generations, or because surgeons vote on the criteria for “stage 3” vs. “stage 4” growths instead of conjuring some objective scientific truth, or because policy considerations come into play when they decide whether to operate. There is such a movement to discredit and abolish psychiatry. It has cost some people their lives, and will cost a lot more if we don’t fight it effectively.</p>

<p>Being “labelled” (aka diagnosed properly) after a decade of nameless suffering was the best thing that ever happened to me.</p>

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<p>Bay, I think all of us parents have been there, but I’ve also had the same kind of experience from the other way around–thinking that a child’s issues were something that they’d grow out of, that it was a normal part of living, but things didn’t get better. In the end, we learned that there was a real diagnosis, and a need for treatment, and it’s made all the difference in the world, thank heavens. It’s not a cut-and-dried issue to know that yes, this child is going through normal angst and just needs time vs. no, this child’s issues are significant and require professional help.</p>

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<p>“Don’t you love mental health jargon?”</p>

<p>I would translate that as “Theres lots of ***** that correlates with suicide, and those folks need help. But if we write a potential DX for EVERYTHING that correlates with suicide, the number of folks who could get a DX will be so high as to bring the whole DSM into disrepute which would be a BAD thing”</p>

<p>That sounds like a real dilemma to me, and I dont know how I would fix it. My hats off to the PDocs trying to address it.</p>

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<p>“In the end, the kids turned out fine.”</p>

<p>My kid would probably have survived and turned out fine without her ADD meds. But she suffered more when she was off them. Including humiliation in school, when she got bad grades even though she did the best work - but forgot to hand it in, did it late, etc. </p>

<p>Kids who dont get aspirin for headaches usually turn out fine. Why is only suicide, or total life failure, the only justification for psychiatric treatment?</p>

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<p>[Psychiatrists</a> Propose Revisions to Diagnosis Manual | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 10, 2010 | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/mentalillness_02-10.html]Psychiatrists”>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/mentalillness_02-10.html)</p>

<p>here is dr frances discussing this stuff with someone who disagrees with him.</p>

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<p>Attack on psychiatry? What I understand to be the reality is that the profession is rapidly aging and, not only is it not growing, it is not even replacing itself. </p>

<p>Those trying to address how to achieve an acceptable level of mental health coverage are arguing in favor of expanding the ability to write prescriptions to psychologists. </p>

<p>Here is a paper addressing the profession and its problems as a viable field.</p>

<p><a href=“http://abbhp.org/survey.pdf[/url]”>http://abbhp.org/survey.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>poetgrl,</p>

<p>What the…? I was just responding to a question about if the DSM 5 was fully revised…</p>

<p>I’m no champion of the DSM myself, although modern mental health care does have to function within it’s context, for better or worse! In fact, every bit of education I’ve had on it in grad school or undergrad has spent more time discussing it’s flaws than it’s virtues and the importance of NOT using it as a “Bible” for dx or treatment. I’m kind of baffled that you seemed to have assigned that mentality to me. All I was saying was, in the article mentioned in the OP, they discuss things like suciduality, self-injury, mania, eating disorders, etc., which are different from “typical” adjustment issues (which I agree are not psychopathology in and of themselves). No?</p>

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<p>07Dad, if you attend any FDA hearings on psychiatric drugs, you will see the anti-psychiatry crusaders out in force. You will also see the protesters outside (and within, if they can get in) psychiatric conferences. They aren’t all scientologists, but the movement gets a lot of financial support from scientology. They mean business. There isn’t any other medical specialty that is under attack this way.</p>

<p>The psychologists-prescribing issue is a totally separate matter and not what I’m talking about.</p>

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<p>psych–</p>

<p>I was making a joke, colleague to future colleague, about the pain in you-know-what of getting insurance reimbursements. (Also, that for those of us used to IV, it will be a pain to figure out the right coding, but you will be lucky to know it.)</p>

<p>Sorry if it came across as something other than that. I’m aware that since you are in an excellent program, you will be more than well aware of the uses and drawbacks of the DSM. :)</p>

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<p>Best to err on the side of getting a DX in my opinion, hopefully with someone who knows about meds but isn’t med-happy. Worse case the kid talks to a psychologist for a little while and figures out a few things, which rarely hurts anyone. JMO</p>