“Fifty percent of all mental health conditions start to appear before the age of fourteen, and 20 percent of children between the ages of three and seven have a diagnosable mental health condition.” This sobering statistic appears in the introduction of “You Are Not Alone for Parents and Caregivers,” the new book from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and authored by Dr. Christine M. Crawford, child psychiatrist and NAMI’s associate medical director.
The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the dilemma she writes, “causing a dramatic increase in the rates of depression and anxiety experienced by all kids.”
Early Intervention Is Key
Dr. Crawford notes that this guide is important to have early on because symptoms and signs of mental illness will show up in children. And, unfortunately, they aren’t getting the immediate help they need. “Opportunities for intervention are missed,” she writes, and for a variety of reasons. Parents can’t accept their child is showing signs of emotional distress; the adult believes it’s just a phase that will pass; mental health treatment is not available; or the adult doesn’t know where to start.
In the first part, “How to Think About Your Kid’s Mental Health,” parents are given a wealth of information about assessing and knowing when to act. This part of the book focuses on steps to take when there is cause for concern, when “you can’t just let them carry on functioning with the level of distress they have been experiencing.”
Work With Your Child’s Pediatrician
Acceptance and realizing there are no easy answers are powerful first steps. “And the most important thing you can do first is to be present for your child.” Dr. Crawford covers how and who to reach out to for help, how to assemble the team—the friends and mental health experts that come together to help the child meet treatment goals.
One tip provided by a pediatrician interviewed for this chapter was for parents to take the time to complete all the questionnaires that come at their child’s regular visits. “All those forms provide the pediatrician critical information about your child’s development, mood and behavior,” says the author, so parents should be as honest and accurate as they can when completing those questions.
Part 2 digs deeper into the common causes of mental health issues and how they manifest. For example, the impact of trauma, both in the physical sense and the injuries to the “psyche and the soul” which can be just as life-altering as blunt force. Typical behaviors of trauma include hypervigilance, jumpiness in response to something minor, or, if triggered, aggression.
Young People Share Their Mental Health Journey
In Part 3, Dr. Crawford reached out to a variety of young people about their mental health journey. Using transcriptions of their conversations, these individuals shared the early symptoms; their subsequent experiences, that is, hearing voices or treatment-resistant depression; and the coping strategies they put into place.
These stories are powerful in their honesty, and hopeful in showing how they’ve gone on with their lives, whether applying to college or serving as a peer-support advocate. These young adults were, Dr. Crawford writes, compelled to tell their story because they felt it could “make an impact on another young person’s life.”
When one sees the impact that NAMI has had on this country’s understanding and treatment of mental illness, it’s hard to believe it began in 1979 by two mothers who “both had children living with schizophrenia” and who met to support each other, and their children. The small group morphed into a community group and is now the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.
Dr. Crawford possesses an equally impressive history as a Harvard-trained psychiatrist. In addition to her affiliation with NAMI, she provides guidance to the Boston Public Health Commission’s school-based clinical programs.
With “You Are Not Alone,” Dr. Crawford, in collaboration with NAMI, has given millions of caregivers and parents of young adults with mental illness a shoulder to lean on. By highlighting the value of community, whether in the form of a team to work with a child or in the support provided by NAMI affiliates across the country, a heavy burden has been lifted.
In one of Dr. Crawford’s ending messages, we read: “While I hope you’ve found some helpful and practical tools, strategies, and ideas that you can implement in your own life, I hope the message you ultimately take from this book is you are not alone.”
