Portland State Magazine Winter 1991

All parents have dreams for their children. They dream of happy fa ces, bright eyes on the world around them, and laughter that fills the air. They dream of recitals , sports events , school grades and first school dances . They dream of the love they will share with their children. When the Dream is Shattered... A research center on campus is helping to put the dream back together for families of children with serious emotional disorders. PSU 6 Too often, these dreams_ are shattered when a child or adolescent has a mental or emotional disorder. Anger and guilt envelop parents who wrongfully blame themselves for their child' s emotional disability. Parent comment. By Chris Normandin I n a soc iety that thri ves on how-to-fi x-it books and do-it-yourself fads, parents of children with serious emotional disorders have fo und little help or support... until recentl y. A research center at Portl and State Uni versity is making great strides to improve services nationwide for these children and the ir families. The Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children' s Mental Health (RTC) is part of PSU's Regional Research In stitute for Human Services. It is one of onl y two federa ll y funded research and training centers in the United States serving children with serious mental , emotional and behavioral di sabilities. "Between 12 to 15 percent of our nation·s 63 million children suffer from emotional or other problems that warrant mental health treatment, yet 70 to 80 percent of these children never rece ive help ," says Barbara Friesen, Ph .D., profes sor and director of the Research and Tra ining Center. Paul E. Koren, Ph .D., serves as director of Research and Richard W. Vos ler-Hunter, M.S .W., is director of Tra ining. There are a number of reasons why, accord ing to Friesen. Geographic isolation, mi sd iagnos is or lack of diagnos is of the probl em and lack of fin ancial resources are among the most common reasons these children don' t get the care they need. Another reason has to do with the stigma that is often assoc iated with children with mental health problems. "Our knowledge about mental illness in children has been limited, and as a society, we have generall y believed- wrongly I might add-that the problems are always due to the parents' fa ilure to teach and contro l the ir children. Because of thi s, many families are too embarrassed to ask fo r help. And when they do seek ass istance, they run up against a complex mental health system that is rigid and lacks affordable, appropri ate services for children." To address this growing problem, the Research and T raining Center was establi shed in 1984 through a joint grant from the National In stitute on Disability • • •