What do you think?

[Guest guest]

Hi all:

I am curious to hear from our members on this...

Read the following if you have the time and perhaps we can debate

back and forth a little about how this influences the public

perception of disability and mental illness.

Ellen

Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provocative

New York University Child Study Center

The campaign began in magazines as well as on kiosks and billboards

around New York City.

By JOANNE KAUFMAN

Published: December 14, 2007

We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care

for himself or interact socially as long as he lives.

SO reads one of the six " ransom notes " that make up a provocative

public service campaign introduced this week by the New York

University Child Study Center to raise awareness of what Dr. Harold

S. Koplewicz, the center's founder and director, called " the silent

public health epidemic of children's mental illness. "

Produced pro bono by BBDO, an Omnicom agency that worked on two

previous campaigns for the Child Study Center, the campaign features

scrawled and typed communiqués as well as simulations of classic

ransom notes, composed of words clipped from a newspaper.

In addition to autism, there are ominous threats concerning

depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit

hyperactivity disorder, Asperger's syndrome and bulimia. The

campaign's overarching theme is that 12 million children " are held

hostage by a psychiatric disorder. "

The public service announcements began running this week in New York

magazine and Newsweek as well as on kiosks, billboards and

construction sites around New York City.

" Children's mental disorders are truly the last great public health

problem that has been left unaddressed, " said Dr. Koplewicz,

adding: " It's like with AIDS. Everyone needs to be concerned and

informed. "

In some quarters, however, the campaign has raised hackles as much as

awareness. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a national grass-roots

organization of children and adults, is circulating a petition asking

the Child Study Center to end the campaign.

a Chew, founder of the blog Autism Vox, which has a link to

the petition, says that " the reaction has been mostly outrage from

parents of special-needs children, autistic adults, teachers,

disability rights advocates and mental health professionals. "

" It's rallied them around one issue, and these aren't people who

normally agree about treating autism, " said Ms. Chew, who lives in

Bernards Township, N.J., and has a 10-year-old son with autism. She

says her blog attracts 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a day; traffic is up a

third since the campaign was introduced, she said.

" It emphasizes a lot of negative aspects, " she said. " To say that

autism or bulimia has kidnapped a child suggests that these

conditions are part of a criminal element. I'm not saying it's easy

to have an autistic child, but it could be framed in a more positive

way. "

Vicki Forman, an adjunct professor of creative writing at the

University of Southern California whose 7-year-old son is blind and

nonverbal, learned about the campaign on Ms. Chew's blog and said it

made her distraught. " The idea of an autistic person being held

hostage is a very disturbing and backward image, " she said. " Rather

than promote public awareness, this reinforces stereotypes — that

there is something damaged about the autistic person, something in

need of a repair. "

According to Dr. Koplewicz, the campaign was inspired by filmed

conversations of parents and children talking about life with a

psychiatric disorder. " These families felt their children were

trapped by their disorders, " he said.

Osborn, the president and chief executive of BBDO New York, said

the effort was intended to increase the sense of urgency about the

diseases and encourage conversation. " It's tricky because there are a

lot of messages in the air, particularly at holiday time. That makes

it a challenge to cut through the clutter. "

BBDO's earlier ads for the Child Study Center — which included images

of a child running happily through a sprinkler and a drawing of a

child caught in a maze — " were wonderful, but they didn't get this

kind of attention from anyone, " Dr. Koplewicz said. " They were too

pleasant and innocuous. That's the reason we decided to go along with

BBDO. "

He was further emboldened, he said, by the reaction of focus groups

of women whose children have the disorders mentioned in the

ads. " Everyone who participated felt the ads were informative, " he

said. " While we knew the campaign was edgy and we knew it would be

harsh and upsetting, the facts of mental illness are even more

upsetting.

" I am disappointed. I thought the people we'd be arguing with are the

people who believe psychiatric illness doesn't exist " or those who

believe children are being overmedicated, he said.

" I thought we'd be fighting ignorance. I didn't think we'd be

fighting adult patients or the parents of patients whose feelings

have been hurt. "

Etlinger of San Francisco is one such parent, but she maintains

that hers is " not the P.C. outcry of an offended parent. "

" It's a legitimate claim that children with disabilities are

vulnerable enough as it is, " said Ms. Etlinger, whose 4-year-old son

has mild autism. " I think we need to take special care that they're

not further stigmatized. This campaign characterizes them as a series

of symptoms rather than as the unique people they are. "

L. Leventhal, a professor of psychiatry at the University of

Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, said he understood the parents'

dismay. " We live in a world where people are still defensive about

having a psychiatric illness or having a child with psychiatric

illnesses, " he said. " But I think it's a very bold campaign. I think

the ads speak to the point that these are real diseases and if you

don't do something they can consume your child. "

Dr. Koplewicz said he had not considered jettisoning the campaign,

but there was some discussion about dropping its two most

controversial components: the autism and Asperger's ads.

He decided to retain the ads after conferring with colleagues whose

attitude, he said, " was that some people would be upset but that we

should stick with it and ride out the storm. "

" We're going to see how it goes in New York, " Dr. Koplewicz said. " If

it goes well, we're going to go to four other cities. "