Social Work Month

           In our of my fellow social workers, I would like to be the advocate for all our patients, clients, and administrators in saying Thank You for all your hard work and dedication that you provide in any and all situations of your practices and agencies. It takes a certain type of person to be able to stomach and endure all that we hear and deal with a consistent basis day in and day out. My advice to all those young social workers, in the prime of their career social workers, and young at heart social workers take this time to recognize yourself and if that means taking that well deserved "Mental Health Day" (yea even we need those days) than do it!!!

A great man once said "If we(as social workers) don't take the time step back, rest and reassess, how can we ask that of our clients?" -Me 

Thank you Social Workers!!!

CS

Feedback Wanted!!!

Today, I came across an article that Georgia will be relaxing it law related to obtaining gun licenses for those who are currently seeking mental health or substance abuse treatment. As Yahoo! News reported-Click the link for full article: Georgia Relaxing Gun Law for Mentally Ill/ Substance Abuse 

I wish I had a hard stance on this, but I don't. I would love if my readers whichever stance you hold provide me with why i should or should not agree with this law. It is such a touchy subject no matter what you believe. So in the words of The Beatles "Help, I need somebody Help..."

Happy Weekend!
CS

Transformers: More than meets the ADHD eye...

If you have ever been to an after school special on drugs or alcohol, you tend to hear this line come up a few times: "Alcohol/Weed is a gateway drug ". Apparently, that also exists with mental health and psychiatric/behavioral disorders. As reported by SciencDaily.com, which quoted the March 4th online issue of Pediatrics as saying "57 percent of children with ADHD had at least one other psychiatric disorder as adults, as compared with 35 percent of those studied who didn't have childhood ADHD. The most common were substance abuse/dependence, antisocial personality disorder, hypomanic episodes, generalized anxiety and major depression...Of the children who still had ADHD as adults, 81 percent had at least one other psychiatric disorder, as compared with 47 percent of those who no longer had ADHD and 35 percent of those without childhood ADHD."  

Interesting, yet why would we not say these children had any of these disorders AND THEN developed ADHD? Maybe these children do not have ADHD at all and simply cannot give another diagnosis to them because the DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) would not give enough criteria for the child to have another maybe more severe diagnosis. I don't have the answer, all I am saying is, call it ADHD ,call it banana bread, makes no significant difference in the scheme of things as long as the child receives the best treatment possible.

I had to dig further into the broader scope of mental health. Can a person have only one diagnosis or do the majority of psychiatric/behavioral patients have at least two diagnosis?

Again, Sciencedaily.com pulls me through. In an article in 2008 they reported, "Most patients had more than one diagnosis; on average, patients had 1.9 current diagnoses. Patients with principal diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bipolar disorder had the highest number of diagnoses."

With both articles this leads me to believe that there is a good chance that those children may have had other psychiatric problems already and not that it LED to those disorders in adulthood. Before you get on my case, I am NOT, I repeat NOT suggesting that those children have or should be diagnosed with Bipolar or Schizophrenia or a Personality disorder or any severe psychiatric illness. What I am suggesting is that ADHD much like other behavioral problems are not a stand alone issue and there is more going on than "Jonny cant sit still or concentrate in class".

Good to be back folks!
CS
PS-Both articles are linked when you click ScienceDaily

 

Life gets in the way...

It has been 3 1/2 months since I have posted any blog or anything. It has been a very busy 3 months and I have been beginning some new professional en devours while I have been gone. In the coming months I will be teaming up with another organization that brings the world of social media and social work together. Until that is solidified and complete I hope to continue what I started on this blog which was to educate the masses about social work and psychology in our everyday lives. So with that I say get ready, get set and jump on(again) and roll with this Blog.

Thank you for your support!

Clinically Speaking!