Faulty Child Mental Health Myths
(Myths which make it tough for families raising kids with severe mental illness)
Michele K. Nigliazzo, Esq.
Attorney and Parent
Here are some faulty assumptions often made which make it very difficult for families raising children with severe mental illness.
1. Good parents can correct any serious mental issues of their child with proper structure, love and encouragement.
2. There are residential services that take any violent child and keep him or her indefinitely.
3. When tragedies happen, the parents didn't seek help that could have changed things.
4. A parent of a mentally ill teenager/young adult still has control over his or her actions such as whether the child holds a job, plays video games, etc.
5. Parents of severely mentally ill children could change things if they tried harder.
6. From the outside, friends, family, and even the hairdresser and plumber, can tell us how much a mother or father tried to help their child.
7. If a parent is afraid of, or can't handle a mentally ill child, someone else will take care of that child if they just ask.
8. All mentally ill children are potentially violent.
9. A parent who is physically abused by his or her child is to blame if he or she doesn't control the child properly.
10. If a parent is not safe at home with a child and places that child in residential or disrupts an adoption, that parent has failed and should feel shamed.
These assumptions are false, absolutely false. At the Nigliazzo Advocacy Center, we work to dispel these myths. Our families do need help and that help is often not there, even willfully denied, based on these faulty assumptions.
1. Good parents can correct any serious mental issues of their child with proper structure, love and encouragement.
2. There are residential services that take any violent child and keep him or her indefinitely.
3. When tragedies happen, the parents didn't seek help that could have changed things.
4. A parent of a mentally ill teenager/young adult still has control over his or her actions such as whether the child holds a job, plays video games, etc.
5. Parents of severely mentally ill children could change things if they tried harder.
6. From the outside, friends, family, and even the hairdresser and plumber, can tell us how much a mother or father tried to help their child.
7. If a parent is afraid of, or can't handle a mentally ill child, someone else will take care of that child if they just ask.
8. All mentally ill children are potentially violent.
9. A parent who is physically abused by his or her child is to blame if he or she doesn't control the child properly.
10. If a parent is not safe at home with a child and places that child in residential or disrupts an adoption, that parent has failed and should feel shamed.
These assumptions are false, absolutely false. At the Nigliazzo Advocacy Center, we work to dispel these myths. Our families do need help and that help is often not there, even willfully denied, based on these faulty assumptions.