Reader survey: Kids' mental health

A Today's Parent survey reveals that parents want action on kids' mental health

Originally published in Today's Parent October 2010

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Heather Williams says she’s paranoid. The mother of two in Barrie, Ont., knows a 12-year-old who has thought about suicide, and she’s concerned about the prevalence of depression in children. Even though Williams’ own children, a three-year-old and a baby, nine months, have not been diagnosed with any mental health problems, she worries that they might be one day. “It’s out there, and it scares me,” she says.

Approximately 15 percent of Canadian children suffer from some kind of mental health problem, including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and ADHD. Last year, Today’s Parent conducted an online survey to gauge how aware parents are of this issue and to find out what life is like for those directly affected. Are kids getting help? Are parents getting support? What needs to change?

Williams is one of almost 4,500 parents who answered our survey. One surprising fact about these respondents: More than two-thirds do not themselves have a child with an identified mental illness. Still, many of these “unaffected” parents are nevertheless increasingly conscious of the reality of mental illness in kids. And it is a reality. In her 2010 book, We’ve Got Issues, US author Judith Warner shoots down the idea (an idea to which she once subscribed) that kids are being over-diagnosed and overmedicated, that what should be considered normal child behaviour is being pathologized. Denying mental illness in children is just another way to stigmatize it, says Warner. And, as we discovered from our survey results, stigma is still a big part of the story. Read on for more of what we learned.

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