It is perhaps a parent’s worst nightmare – to have a child display uncontrollable, violent behavior patterns. Not that any medical problem is easy, but at least with a broken arm or even an infection, you know where to turn. You see your pediatrician and the problem is generally solved. A cast or an antibiotic will do the trick.
But it is so different if the disease affects the child’s brain. Then it’s considered a mental illness and solutions are much more difficult to obtain.
Liza Long’s son Adam had experienced outbreaks and “rage attacks” since a young age, but it wasn’t until he was 13 and had been in and out of juvenile detention centers that he was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder and received proper treatment. Liza is a writer, educator, mental health advocate and mother of four children. She has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs trying to encourage meaningful conversation about how we handle mental illness in the United States.
“Mental illness is treatable if diagnosed properly,” Liza says. “My son is not a bad kid. He is a sweet, bright, sensitive child who has a mental illness.”
Liza will be the keynote speaker at the Brighter Tomorrow Luncheon sponsored by Jewish Family & Children’s Services on Feb. 27 at the Arizona Biltmore.
Dr. Micahel Zent, PhD, president and CEO of JFCS says they are pleased to have Liza speak at the annual fundraiser. “Childhood mental illnesses affect one in five kids and cost $247 billion a year in medical costs, juvenile crime and other socio-behavioral problems,” he says. JFCS provided mental health and social services to more than 20,000 children, teens and adults in Maricopa County last year.
Dr. Zent is especially proud of a relatively new program called the Child Crisis Hospital Team. “The program represents a proactive and innovative way to help families whose children are taken to the emergency room for emotional crises or psychotic episodes,” he explains. “In many ways, this is the kind of help that Liza Long was seeking for her son.”
Liza recently published a book The Price of Silence: A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness.
