JFActivist

Report Estimates 1 in 12 Teens Experienced Major Depression in Last Year

Press Release from SAMHSA:

Date: 5/13/2008
Media Contact: SAMHSA Press Office
Telephone: 240-276-2130

New Nationwide Report Estimates One in Every 12 Adolescents Experienced Major Depression in the Past Year
Survey reveals adolescent females are twice as likely as adolescent males to suffer a major depressive episode

About 2.1 million teens aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, according to a new nationwide report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. For almost half of the teens, depression drastically reduced their abilities to deal with aspects of their daily lives, the report said.

Overall, 8.5 percent of adolescents, the equivalent of one in every 12, experienced a major depressive episode, but there were striking differences by gender, with 12.7 percent of females and 4.6 percent of males reporting the conditions.

“Fortunately, depression responds very well to early intervention and treatment,” said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, Ph.D.  “Parents concerned about their child’s mental health should seek help with the same urgency as with any other medical condition. Appropriate mental health care can help their child recover and thrive.”

The report defines a major depressive episode as a period of two weeks or longer of depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure, and at least four other symptoms reflecting a change in functioning (for example, problems with sleep, energy, concentration and self-image). This is the definition established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association.

Major Depressive Episode among Youths Aged 12 to 17 in the United States of America:  2006 also reveals the often devastating effect these major depressive episodes can have on adolescents.  Nearly half of adolescents experiencing major depression (48.3 percent) report that it severely impaired their ability to function in at least one of four major areas of their everyday lives (home life, school/work, family relationships, and social life).  Adolescents reporting the most severe impairment reported that they were unable to carry out normal activities on an average of 58.4 days in the past year.

The report is based on combined data from the 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) involving responses from 67,706 people aged 12 to 17 throughout the United States. The survey is based on a scientific random sample of households throughout the United States, and professional field representatives personally visit each household to conduct the survey.

The full report is available on the Web.

For related publications and information, visit http://www.samhsa.gov/.

~SAMHSA is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation's substance abuse prevention, addictions treatment, and mental health services delivery system.

Pope Offers Blessing to Children with Disabilities

Last Saturday , Pope Benedict XVI met with approximately 50 children with disabilities in the chapel of St. Joseph's seminary to give them a blessing

In Yonkers, Pope Offers Blessings to Children
By PAUL VITELLO (The New York Times, April 20)

...Read this article (registration may be required).

Students with Autism Leave School After Bullying

From the Washington Examiner, Washington, DC (April 24):

Autistic students pulled from school after bullying
By Leah Fabel

WASHINGTON - As the number of autistic students in Montgomery County swells, the district has funneled some of them into programs where the most socially vulnerable students sit in desks alongside the most emotionally disturbed.

The situation at a program at Gaithersburg High School has proved dangerous enough for some parents to pull their children out of the school system and to seek legal counsel.

According to his mother, Alec Carlson, diagnosed with high-functioning autism, started to be bullied on his first day as a ninth-grader...

...Read more.

Student with a Disability Beaten Unconscious on School Bus

From KDKA (CBS affiliate in Industry, PA) - April 22:

Local Special Needs Student Beaten On School Bus

INDUSTRY, Pa. (KDKA) ― Cell phone video recorded by students captured the beating of a special needs student in Beaver County on a school bus.

A 17-year-old student allegedly beat a 16-year-old student unconscious on a Western Beaver school bus last week.

"It was just shocking and appalling that students would videotape it and that someone would even think about hitting someone who was disabled," Linda Lamantis, a parent, said...

...Read more.

Maryland First State to Pass Sports Equity Law for Students with Disabilities!

From The Baltimore Examiner (April 10):

Blazing new trail

By Dave Carey

April 10, 2008

BALTIMORE - Atholton senior and wheelchair athlete Tatyana McFadden has won races against some of the best competition in the world, but her most recent victory came away from the track.

McFadden’s testimony in front of the General Assembly was pivotal in it unanimously passing a bill that requires schools to provide disabled students with access to high school sports teams, either among themselves or with able-bodied students...

...Read more.

Report Shows Children with Disabilities More Likely to be Victims of Maltreatment

A report from the Administration on Children and Families within the US Department of Health and Human Services, called "Child Maltreatment 2006," is now available online. This annual publication has the national and state findings on referrals for child maltreatment, substantiated cases, and types of abuse and neglect. Information on perpetrators of maltreatment, child protective services (CPS) workload, and preventive and post-investigation services is also included.

Highlights include the following:

• Children who were reported with any of the following risk factors were considered as having a disability: mental retardation, emotional disturbance, visual or hearing impairment, learning disability, physical disability, behavioral problems, or another medical problem. In general, children with such risk factors are undercounted, as not every child receives a clinical diagnostic assessment from CPS agency staff.
• Nearly 8 percent (7.7%) of victims had a reported disability. Three percent of victims had behavior problems and 1.9 percent of victims were emotionally disturbed. A victim could have been reported with more than one type of disability.
• Children who were reported as disabled were 54 percent more likely to be considered a victim of maltreatment than children who were not reported as disabled.
• Child victims who were reported with a disability were 52 percent more likely to experience recurrence than children without a disability.

For more information, contact:
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)

California State Senator Writes Bill to Restrict Restraint & Seclusion of Students with Disabilities

From Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (CA):

State Senator Sheila Kuehl Authors Bill to restrict restraint & seclusion of California pupils in schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Evelyn Abouhassan
Senior Legislative Advocate
Protection & Advocacy, Inc. (CA)
Phone: (916) 320-7997
E-Mail: Evelyn.Abouhassan@pai-ca.org

Monday, March 24, 2008

A 10 year old boy with significant disabilities was tied to his wheelchair and left in a school van for much of the school day on two separate occasions. One school built a seclusion room where an 8 year old boy with psychiatric and developmental disabilities was routinely locked away. Other children were dragged by their teachers into seclusion areas and barricaded from leaving.

These are just a few of the more serious findings of a year-long study by PAI's investigations unit of the use of restraint and seclusion of children with disabilities in six California public and non-public schools.

Bill introduced on February 21 In response to this report, Senator Sheila Kuehl introduced a bill (SB 1515) that would prohibit the use of seclusion of pupils in California schools and limit the use of their restraint by educational providers to clearly defined emergency situations and only with adequate safeguards.

Educational providers who use behavioral restraint as an intervention would be required to have annual training. The bill also calls for the establishment of a data system to track the use of behavioral restraints.

Senator Kuehl stated, "I was surprised and outraged to discover that these dangerous and damaging practices are still in use in California schools, especially with children who are disabled, and I'm proud to author what will be the first state law in the nation to comprehensively address the situation."

Report publicly available Released in June 2007, the 55 page report concluded that in general, school personnel are not complying with existing regulations, but, the heart of the problem is that current law neither explicitly prohibits these practices in schools nor requires adequate reporting and monitoring of their use. (The report, Restraint and Seclusion in Public

Schools: A Failing Grade, can be read on the web.

Leslie Morrison, head of the PAI investigations unit, said that many interventions involving restraint or seclusion of pupils with disabilities had become routine, instead of being reserved for the rare occasion when a pupil was at imminent risk of causing serious harm to him or herself or others.

Plastic Surgeon Ponders Plastic Surgery for Daughter with Down Syndrome

From the UK's Daily Mail:

Should We Use Plastic Surgery
to make our Down's daughter beautiful like us?

March 2, 2008

Chelsea Kirwan is brutally frank about the moment she learnt her newborn daughter had Down's syndrome.

"I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach by the world," she says.

The news also devastated her husband Laurence, a plastic surgeon well used to the horrors of working in burns units and with victims of earthquakes.

"This was the first time I'd seen him actually need to sit down because he was so shaken," says Chelsea.

All the joy the couple should have felt at the birth of their new baby failed to materialise.

Instead, they were overwhelmed by shock, as would any new parents on being given such news.

Yet their story comes with an extraordinary irony.

For the couple make their fortune from the quest for physical perfection - to become parents of a daughter with Down's syndrome may have, to say the least, profoundly challenged their ideas of what beauty is, whether it resides in the spirit or the body and whether cosmetic surgery is truly worthwhile...

...Read the rest of the article.

Older Youth Fall through Foster Care Cracks

NEWS RELEASE

 

NCD #08–555
February 26, 2008
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004

 

National Council on Disability Says Older Youth with Disabilities Falling Through Cracks in Foster Care System

WASHINGTON—The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released Youth with Disabilities in the Foster Care System: Barriers to Success and Proposed Policy Solutions. The report focuses on the unique challenges older youth with disabilities face as they negotiate the foster care system.

According to NCD Chairperson John R. Vaughn, “The goal for our country’s youth is to live healthy, happy lives and to become self-sufficient, contributing members of society as adults. However, there are subsets of youth who cannot reach these goals with ease. These youth need additional supports to assist them in their journey toward a healthy adulthood, as they are more vulnerable than the ‘average’ youth and thus are more apt to fall through the cracks during their journey. Youth development researchers have determined that some specific youth populations are more vulnerable than others. This report examines one exceptionally challenged group in particular: older youth (specifically, preteens through young adults) with disabilities who are involved in the foster care system."

“The child welfare community generally accepts the fact that, while the American foster care system has come a long way in recent years, there is still much to be done to ensure the health and well-being of the children and youth it serves. Likewise, the disability community has seen great improvements in recent years but still advocates for additional needed change. But what is often overlooked among experts in both of these realms is the idea that foster care is indeed both a child welfare issue and a disability issue. This is due to the alarmingly high numbers of foster youth with mental, developmental, emotional, learning, and physical disabilities. The purpose of this report, therefore, is to shift the lens through which youth advocates and service providers view the importance of ensuring the well-being of foster youth. This new lens asserts the importance of understanding the prevalence of disability among foster youth and better ascertaining who should be held accountable for this uniquely challenged and often underserved population,” Vaughn concluded.

NCD is an independent federal agency and is composed of 15 members appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. NCD provides advice to the President, Congress, and executive branch agencies to promote policies, programs, practices, and procedures that—

(A) guarantee equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability; and

(B) empower individuals with disabilities to achieve economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society.

For more information, please contact NCD’s Director of External Affairs at (202) 272-2004.

# # #

Phony Ransom Notes Can Have Real Consequences

The following column comes to us from Ari Ne'eman of The Autistic Self Advocacy Network:

Guest Column
By Ari Ne'eman
President, The Autistic Self Advocacy Network

“We are in possession of your son…We have your daughter…We have taken your son… We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him… We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation... It’s only going to get worse…This is only the beginning…Autism…ADHD…Asperger’s Syndrome…OCD…Bulimia…Depression” –Excerpts from the NYU Child Study Center’s “Ransom Notes” Ad Campaign

“Individuals with disabilities are not replacements for normal children that are stolen away by the disability in question. They are whole people, deserving of the same rights, respect, and dignity afforded their peers.” –An Open Letter to the NYU Child Study Center, December 11th, 2007

The second set of words above comes from a joint statement from twenty-two disability rights organizations, in response to a new advertising campaign by the NYU Child Study Center and produced by one of the nation’s largest advertising and public relations firms, BBDO. The ad campaign, entitled “Ransom Notes,” depicts phony ransom letters signed by six different disabilities. Each disability is purported to have ”kidnapped” a previously normal child from his or her parents, threatening to turn the child into a terrible burden unless parents seek the help of the NYU Child Study Center and similar medical institutions is sought. The ads launched last month, but were quickly withdrawn after immense outrage from people with disabilities, family members, professionals and others.

For those of you familiar with the disability community, it is probably not hard to understand why these ads were viewed as horrendously offensive. The notes resurrect old and dangerous stereotypes about people with disabilities; the idea of the child or person with a disability as a changeling, or a stand-in for a supposedly more “real” or “whole” human being stands out as a common theme in countless instances of violence and discrimination. Furthermore, the ads included information that was just plain inaccurate. Claims that an individual with a disability such as ADHD, autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or others will be a “detriment to himself and everyone around him'” or live “a life of complete isolation” do not reflect the reality of people with these disabilities. This type of fear-mongering sends a dangerous message, increasing stigma and diminishing respect for the lives of America’s millions of citizens with disabilities.

The ads were expected to garner over 700 million impressions over the four months they were to be up in New York City on kiosks, billboards, magazines and other locations, before expanding into five major markets across the United States. Instead, they were withdrawn in their entirety, a mere sixteen days after the start of the campaign. What caused the change?

The answer begins and ends with the disability community, which showed remarkable unity in responding to these offensive ads. Twenty-two disability rights organizations, including AAPD, ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, TASH and my own organization, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, came together to call for the ads’ withdrawal in an unequivocal joint statement. We didn’t stop there, however. By organizing people with disabilities, family members, professionals, educators and countless other supporters, we arranged for thousands of calls, e-mails and letters to be sent to the NYU Child Study Center and the other supporters of the Ransom Notes ad campaign, calling for the immediate removal of the ads and an apology to the disability community. By the time our campaign had concluded, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal Online, the New York Daily News, United Press International, PR Weekly, Mental Health Weekly, Inclusion Daily News and many other venues had covered our response. Television and radio stations in the New York City area, as well as dozens of bloggers, addressed the controversy, raising greater awareness of the need for respect in advertising and public discourse about people with disabilities.

Responses like these are important, and not just because they provide an unrivaled opportunity to showcase the power the disability community can have when we act in unison. The depiction of people with disabilities as broken or kidnapped has practical consequences that are terrifyingly real. 

“Maybe I could fix her this way, and in heaven she would be complete,'' said Dr. Karen McCarron in a videotape played at the murder trial of her three-year old autistic daughter, Katie McCarron, this past Thursday. Dr. McCarron believed that her daughter was broken. To “fix” her, she asphyxiated Katie with a plastic garbage bag as she struggled to get free. Karen McCarron saw children with disabilities as less than whole people, and the atrocity that ensued was the result of that terrifying misconception. The “Ransom Notes” ads spread similar mischaracterizations of disability.
 
It is instructive to note that a mere four days before Katie McCarron’s murder, a fundraising video for a group called Autism Speaks premiered. In the video, entitled Autism Every Day, another mother of a child on the autism spectrum announced how she had “actually contemplated putting Jody [her autistic daughter] in the car and driving off the George Washington Bridge.” With Jody in the background of the camera shot, the woman, an executive Vice President at Autism Speaks, went on to say that “it’s only because of Lauren, the fact that I have another child, that I probably didn’t do it.” It is very clear the low value groups like Autism Speaks place on the lives of children and people with disabilities. Fortunately, the efforts of disability rights advocates stopped the NYU Child Study Center from continuing on the same ill-conceived path. As the trial of Dr. Karen McCarron continues, it behooves us to remember both that stigmatizing advertising has consequences and that we can and must do something about it.

Ari Ne'eman is the Founding President of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a non-profit organization of adults and youth on the autism spectrum that was the primary coordinator of the disability community’s response to the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign. Ari is an Asperger's autistic and a frequent speaker on autism spectrum and disability politics, special education, transition, service delivery and other topics relating to the disability community. He serves on the board of several disability rights groups and is currently studying Political Science and Economics at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County as a Sondheim Scholar of Public Affairs. To find out more about the Autistic Self Advocacy Network or to find useful information for self-advocates of all kinds, please visit our website at http://www.autisticadvocacy.org.