The Boys-Will-Be-Boys Defense

R

runawaybunny

Guest
The Boys-Will-Be-Boys Defense - Huffington Post

A recent front page New York Times article about the lack of psychiatric care for adolescent boys at an upstate New York juvenile detention center shouldn't surprise us. The juvenile justice system, in a sense, has become the largest child mental health system, and the child and adolescent psychiatrists there are in short supply. The question we should be asking ourselves is, why are so many teens with psychiatric disorders in jail?

In fact, 80 percent of incarcerated young people have a psychiatric disorder, and most of them, boys, have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well as a conduct disorder. Girls tend to have ADD, not ADHD, and without the hyperactivity component, they are far less likely to develop the conduct disorders that lead to illegal behavior. We know this much, and yet we struggle to identify the children with ADHD and comorbid conduct disorders because of the myths and stigma surrounding psychiatric diagnoses and treatments.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
This guy has a good take on this, however I see a LOT of young women who are part of the juvenile justice system (including my own dear, darling sweet Onyxx).

Also, he differentiates between ADD and ADHD. I've been given to understand that they are the same thing, really. Although I can understand the differentiation.
 

klmno

Active Member
RB- that is a BIG issue in this state as well. It goes back to this- tax payers (in general) are more apt to vote for those who want crime off the street than spend what few dollars are left here on mental health treatment. In order to address the outspoken advocates, though, commissions were formed a couple of years ago to "study what could be done". The people submitted a report and were sent back to study it all for another year and another committee was formed to study the "implication on the state resources if the original recommendations by the first commssion were to be accepted and followed". Then this year, they have just voted to shelf it for one more year, due to budget issues. in my humble opinion, this is a way for the politicians not to make a stand on it that might cost them votes while appeasing the child advocates, at least for a few years. They claim it's budget, but frankly this started before the economy plummetted and let's not forget, there were highly educated specialists on those commssions for over two years and of course, getting paid by the state. All to put a report together that has gotten shelved for yet another year, while they have closed inpatient state phosps for kids and put them all in Department of Juvenile Justice or leave them on probation yet have just cut funding for services thru that route. I can tell you, the people in Department of Juvenile Justice aren't happy about it either- they are expected to do more with less and are basicly turning into psychiatric Residential Treatment Center (RTC)'s- which is probably why the judge just went ahead and sent difficult child there. She had been on one of those commissions and probably saw the inevitable. I'll get off my soap box now. LOL!

Step, it's my understanding that ADD can be either inattentive in nature or hyperactive in nature. I think that's my simplistic way of looking at it though.
 
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