I’m not a parent yet…so my nieces & cousins are the closest things I have to kids I adore. If you look at the stats below about decision made by parents for our kids, there are a few alarming things to take note of, that I believe are tied together.
I got this research from our director of college programs, who is a psychologist at Drexel. According to the study he shared, amongst the top 5 reasons why parents wait to get MH help for their kids even after symptoms begin to show:
1) 83% say it’s bc they wouldn’t want to overreact/waiting for symptoms to resolve themselves
2) 11% say they don’t want their child to be labeled as “mentally ill”
Now…first & foremost, there’s that term mental illness again. It labels ppl. It creates an in or out of the box scenario. It creates a line btwn “normal” & “sick.” It’s abt as far from the concept of MH on a spectrum, or #SameHere as it gets. Labels have enormous impacts.
2nd, & potentially even more of a head turner – there is no doubt that amongst that 83% “waiting” are in fact parents who actually belong in the 11% group (which would shoot the actual % way up) – ppl who don’t want their kids labeled. When waiting for symptoms to resolve themselves, let’s ask:
Would we wait on treatments if our kids had symptoms of a broken ankle! Chicken Pox? Food poisoning? Pneumonia? I can safely say the answer is no, bc parents who adore their kids drop everything when something is wrong, to get it checked out, & to make sure the proper care is given.
So what as a society are we “waiting” for when it comes to MH symptoms showing. Just like turning an ankle, picking up a bug, or eating undercooked food, when it comes to MH, our kids do not get to choose what caused them to have these symptom or conditions. Why then do we care for them differently than when symptoms of physical ailments arise?
I’m sorry for the direct message but: Would we rather our kids be diagnosed w a MH condition & get treatment, or would we rather them suffer w symptoms that may only get worse, make them feel alone, & potentially as awful as it sounds, risk losing them? If we love our kids, let’s love them & care for them regardless of what they’re facing. They don’t choose the physical or the mental. In life it way more often than not chooses them.
#SameHere🤙 #kids #care #help #unconditionallove
