By Nicole M. King
The News Story – Time running out on mental health bills
Wisconsin is one of many states considering legislation that would amend how mental-health issues are treated, but several of the proposed bills will
expire soon if not acted upon.
According to the Post Crescent of the Fox Cities, these proposed bills are primarily directed at children, and “involve a range of issues, including clinical work provided in
schools, tax credits for new psychiatrists, zoning rules for peer-run respites and new stipends for the mental health advisory board . . . ” State
Representative Paul Tittl identifies two bills in particular that he believes are particularly important. One “would allow contracted mental health
professionals to provide care at schools without a state-certified, on-site clinic,” and the second “would provide an income tax credit to new
psychiatrists who commit to practicing in the state for at least 10 years.”
Laudable efforts, to be sure, but research indicates that such expensive legislation is a mere palliative to a problem that runs much deeper,
and that perhaps state legislatures would do better taking a look at the family circumstances that put children and young people in need of such
services in the first place.
The New Research – Young adult minds coming unglued
America’s permissive divorce laws give children no voice when parents choose to part. But evidence continues to mount that those children suffer tremendously when parents fail to make an enduring marriage. That suffering takes a number of forms. In a study recently completed at Charles University in Prague, researchers identify serious mental disorders as symptoms of the suffering occasioned by family disintegration. Intent on identifying the “potential mental health risks related to stress influences associated with a mother’s marital status,” As they examine the data for the young men in their study, the Czech scholars detect psychopathology in significantly elevated dissociative The Czech scholars call for “further research . . . to explain to what extent psychodynamic factors play significant roles in these (Source: Bryce J. Christensen and Nicole M. King, forthcoming in “New Research,”The Family in America Vol. 30 Number 1, Winter 2016. |
This article has been republished with permission from The Family in America, a publication of The Howard Center. The Howard Center is a MercatorNet partner site.