A Mom's Perspective on Mental Illness
July 7, 2014
“Accidental advocate” Long, whose blog post “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother” went viral, expands on her ideas for improving the lives of mentally ill children and their families. Long emphasizes that people with mental illness are generally not violent, and that cultural stigma and fear leads to treating mental illness differently than physical ailments, which can lead to shame, isolation, and even suicide. Long highlights problems in the education and mental health systems, such as limited financial resources, difficulty obtaining diagnoses, and policies that do not allow intervention until a problem has occurred, which gives rise to a “school-to-prison pipeline.” The judicial system is often the only way to ensure the safety of family members and the public and provides the mentally ill with access to services. She prescribes earlier interventions, community-based care, whole-family approaches to juvenile justice, and integrated education. Although Long uses her child, who has bipolar disorder and is sometimes violent, as an example throughout, the book is more of a policy opinion piece than a memoir. However, she effectively reminds readers that the people most affected by the treatment of mentally-ill children should have a voice, and that including even the most difficult members of our society in the discussion is a first step.
July 15, 2014
The mother of a mentally ill son who suffered from uncontrollable rages proves to be a powerful advocate for children with mental illness and their families.When Long worked at Boise State University, she maintained a Facebook blog to which she posted anonymously. In December 2012, when she learned about 20-year-old Adam Lanza's murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School, she was fearful for her son's future. Until then, she had kept details of her son's violent episodes secret from friends and co-workers due to the stigma attached to mental illness. After the Sandy Hook episode, she shared her cry for help in a blog post in which she revealed her own circumstances: "In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness." Her post went viral and was subsequently published by Boise State's online journal Blue Review with the title, "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother." This led to a highly viewed Huffington Post repost and invitations to appear on national talk shows. In her book, Long cites statistics that estimate the extent of mental illness in children to be "one in five children in the United States," many of whom have few opportunities for treatment. She writes of the toll this takes on parents and her own yearslong struggle to get effective treatment for her son and how, after exhausting other options, she was forced to turn to the juvenile justice system for help. The author reviews advances in diagnosing childhood mental illness and unraveling the "complex cocktail of genetic predisposition, environmental facts, and family dynamics" that contribute to mental illness in children and adolescents. Only in 2013 was Long's son diagnosed with bipolar disorder, compounded by problems of sensory integration.A searing indictment of the lack of affordable care available for the treatment of mentally ill adolescents.
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September 1, 2014
As recent mass shootings have shown, mental illness can wreak havoc on society. This book dispenses practical guidance for affected families and suggests reforms for the mental health care establishment in the United States. The author, an educator, writer (her 2012 essay "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," about mental health treatment in the United States, went viral), and parent--her child is diagnosed with juvenile bipolar disorder--argues that prison and poverty are often the only pathways to treatment for mental illness, which affects one out of every five children in America. The book is organized around the author's family's journey through the mental health care system. Topics include social stigma and its devastating effects; mental health care; education; criminal justice issues, including a frank acknowledgment of the relationship between violence and mental illness; and family involvement. The current science of mental illness and the shift of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) toward a search for "biomarkers" identifying mental illness are discussed in a readable manner, and common myths are gracefully debunked. Specific programs and treatments are recommended based on cited research and personal experience. VERDICT As a courageous story and a timely warning about the present mental health care crisis, this book should appeal to parents and others seeking to build a more compassionate and safer society.--Antoinette Brinkman, formerly with Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville
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