Parent Resources

From The New York Times: Future generations will look back on the tactics used in the troubled teen industry and ask: How did we allow these practices to pass off as mental health treatment for so long?

Two experts offer do's and don'ts on "being there" during the challenging and sometimes time-consuming process of safely discontinuing mental health medications.

From the Washington Examiner: I learned the hard way that doctors can be remarkably casual about things patients can’t afford to be when it comes to putting people on, and taking them off, antidepressants.

From The Daily Mail: Patients on antidepressants are not being warned of the risk that the pills could permanently ruin their sex lives, experts say.

Babies born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy were more than six times as likely to have neonatal withdrawal syndrome—including breathing problems, irritability/agitation, tremors, feeding problems, and seizures—than those born to mothers taking other types of drugs.

From The Joe Rogan Experience: "The so-called experts say that ADHD is 'the most heritable mental illness there is,'" says renowned physician Gabor Maté. "But I say, it's neither an illness, nor is it heritable."

From the BBC: 'Patients' are being locked away, abused, and neglected in the formative years of their lives, as one of the UK's biggest mental health 'hospitals' actually makes them worse.

From the BBC: Humiliated, abused and isolated for weeks - patients are being harmed due to a 'toxic culture' at one of the UK's biggest mental health 'hospitals.'

Schools are rolling out programs and services intended to safeguard students’ emotional well-being. They are full of potential—and pitfalls.

From The New Republic: If you measure in terms of the power to coerce, surveil, and inflict lasting harm, social workers are, thanks to the nature of the job, cops by another name.

From WPSU Creative Services: What would happen if we could speak the truth about our pain, and hear the truth about other people's pain? What if we got better at grief?

Anyone detained and then formally committed under Wisconsin’s civil mental health laws can initially be held and forcibly drugged for six long months. Yet, for years, not a single person has been able to appeal the six-month commitments in court.

Homebirth was a reflection of how the mental health system should work: Informed person-centered care while respecting your agency.

There is a secret to the programming of these games that seems to stir children to a level of greatness. Fortunately, that magic is completely transposable to our interactions with them.

From The Imprint: Youth and Family News: A new study indicates statewide reforms have freed thousands of abused and neglected children from the lasting effects of the most powerful psychiatric drugs, but concerns about other medications persist.

It’s time to change the conversation around guardianship. The question is not “When do we remove someone’s rights?” but “How can we best support them?”

From TODAY: "Corporal punishment signals to the child that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain," said the American Academy of Pediatrics in a 2014 statement.

From Project NoSpank/The New York Times, December 22, 1940: The aggressiveness which adults exhibit, said Dr. Ashley Montagu, is originally produced during childhood by parents, teachers, nurses, or whoever else participates in the process of socializing the child.

From the New York Post: The New York Times' splashy story about the overmedication of children was 20 years too late. Why does obvious damage to children go ignored for so long?

MIA's Family Resources and Arts sections are co-sponsoring an online teen multimedia art exhibition with the theme “Beyond Labels and Meds: What It Feels Like to Be Me.”

From The New York Times: The problem of multiple medication use, or polypharmacy, that first emerged a decade ago among young people in foster care and low-income settings, has now gone mainstream.

From drgabormate.com: Most addicted people use no drugs at all, and addiction cannot be understood if we restrict our vision of it to substances, legal or illicit.

I’ve often been told I shouldn’t have kids because I’m “bipolar.” But since my twins’ birth, I’ve been way more stable than I thought I would be, and I’ve found what I’ve always been looking for.

From the BBC: Evidence suggests these medications can hinder the body from regulating temperature properly, cause people to sweat excessively, not register thirst or make skin more sensitive to sun.

I never questioned the adults around me or wondered if the medications were necessary. Of course they were necessary. A doctor said so.