What should I know about getting mental health care for children in crisis?

Among other health illnesses that many children of America suffer from, mental problems are probably the most common and probably the most serious.

According to many expert evaluations, the best way to curb with the violence and peer pressure that children face in school is proper mental health care. Many experts and parents claim that getting mental health care under managed care has become a dilemma.

According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), serious emotional disturbance with "substantial" impairment of normal functioning has become a serious issue for children ages 9 to 17. As a matter of fact, approximately 9 to 13 percent of the children suffer from this emotional disturbance.

Due to mental illness, according to NAMI, 5 to 9 percent have a serious emotional disturbance with "extreme" impairment due to mental illness, making this dilemma an even serious case.

According to the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, unmet needs for service have become a dilemma and a serious problem just as it was 20 years ago. Many consumers think that with today’s modern ideas and technology, however, this problem has become serious and because of it, children are suffering from mental illnesses without getting the necessary treatment,

Problems that children suffer from might not even be known to parents. Many parents fail to realize the medical condition of their children. Just as soon as your child storms into his/her room that must mean that something is wrong. If your child is even the slightest bit of worried, it might lead to more serious medical conditions such as depression or other sorts of nervous breakdowns.

Dr. Barry Herman, an Austin, Texas, child and adolescent psychiatrist and former HMO medical director claims that mental health care is crucial whether the violence is aimed directly at the child or aimed at other children. According to Herman, it is highly difficult to find mental health under an HMO plan. Even though they are cheaper than PMOs, that doesn’t mean that they provide better or a wider variety of care.

Herman claims, "It's very hard for parents to get the appropriate treatment for their children under managed care. It's a shell game all about cost-shifting rather than patient care. Many diagnoses specific to children and adolescents, such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and eating disorders, are excluded from coverage. These kids fall through the cracks.”

Herman highly recommends that if HMO medical plans aren’t doing the job – meaning not finding the necessary mental health care, parents need to find another way of getting the necessary help, even if that means switching to a more expensive medical plan.

Sheri Larivee, a former consumer advocate for the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, claims, “I don't think people realize there is a huge snowball affect of what a denial of benefits can do to a family," Larivee says. "Insurance used to mean you were guaranteed against a certain loss or harm. Insurers now direct the medical care you and your children receive by controlling what benefits they will pay for. It's now turned around. Insurers are guaranteeing against their loss and harm, not against ours."