Mental Health In A Failed American System: What Every Parent, Family, & Caregiver Should Know

Families of an individual with a mental health diagnosis or special need are often the most frustrated and powerless among us. These individuals experience a host of fears and have concerns regarding diagnoses, what to expect, and how to secure financial support to cover costs. Mental Health In A Failed American System is a step-by-step personal guide that will offer the type of "companionship" parents, families, and caregivers need to develop knowledge about the mental health system. This brief guide highlights problems such as politics, universal lack of knowledge, and fear of stigma that contribute to poor policies, systemic barriers, and lack of resources. Millions of families identify with feeling alone, uninformed, and confused about the future. Hill cautions all families to dedicate themselves to developing independence and empowerment through self-knowledge. She explains that self-knowledge is not simple rote memorization, but the objective investigation and comparing of information. She guides families to multiple resources and encourages in-depth evaluation of the field itself. Hill discusses the challenges inherent in the mental health system such as political control, ineffective science, and inadequate treatment protocols, state laws, and diagnostic measures. Carefully charting the continuing problems of mental health including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, she evaluates widespread problems that are becoming burdens to society. Bonus: A bonus chapter of the book offers resources on how to protect children with special needs from bullying within the school system.

Author: Tamara Hill
Publisher: Hill-Sage Press
Published: 04/22/2014
Pages: 134
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.36lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.51w x 0.29d
ISBN: 9780615870328

About the Author
Támara Hill, MS is a therapist specializing in child and adolescent mental health. She works with youth suffering from behavioral and mood disorders. Although she has worked with trauma and autism spectrum disorders, she gleans most of her expertise from working with parents, families, and caregivers within the mental health system. While working to help troubled kids utilize their strengths in the home, school, and community, she became well known for her thought-provoking verbal and writing skills, interest in seeing change, and motivation to speak on the behalf of those in need. Through this passion she was invited to speak on a variety of radio shows, nationally and internationally, and contribute to multiple articles, blogs, and other media outlets regarding parents and families caring for a loved one with a mental health condition. As a family consultant and advocate, Támara aims to empower families to re-discover authentic living outside of a complex and unfair system.

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