The News Review:
- Mental health and children
- Youth Health and Education Are Focus of Group’s Campaign
- Birth certificates to reflect NY gay-marriage move
Mental health and children
Los Angeles Times CA
How did Ronnie get labeled with such a potentially debilitating illness and prescribed eight powerful medications within such a short time span? Unfortunately his case isn’t unusual. For a variety of reasons bipolar diagnoses have become extremely popular. A Columbia University analysis of a National Center for Health Statistics survey found that the number of office visits for children diagnosed with bipolar disorder rose 40-fold between 1994 and 2003. The reasons for the surge in bipolar diagnoses are complex. Despite advances in neuroscience the brain especially the developing brain is still much of a mystery. More is unknown than known when it comes to effective treatment for children and adolescents with serious mental health problems. But that doesn’t stop doctors and parents from desperately wanting to believe there are simple solutions and what could be simpler than a pill? Since the 1980s when pharmaceutical companies were granted permission to market their products directly to consumers Americans have started believing that there is a drug to solve every discomfort and every mood.
Youth Health and Education Are Focus of Group’s Campaign
Washington Post United States
Brown (D) for its "Maryland Can Do Better for Children" campaign. The starting point for the Baltimore-based nonprofit group was a contradiction. Maryland is one of the country’s wealthiest states but ranks in the middle or worse in studies of infant mortality child health education and other measures of child and youth success. "We need to restructure what we’re doing" said Matthew Joseph the group’s executive director. "We are spending a lot of money on things that are not working. "The solutions advocated by the campaign that kicked off this month "are about government effectiveness" Joseph said. They stress the idea that prevention and early intervention can go a long way.
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Birth certificates to reflect NY gay-marriage move
The Associated Press
The decision which echoes similar provisions in states that allow gay marriages or civil unions is one of many changes since Gov. David Paterson ordered state agencies in May to respect out-of-state gay marriages. The state Health Department said Friday it had agreed to the change which came after a lesbian couple who are expecting a baby filed a lawsuit. The change would apply statewide except in New York City which is considering revamping its own birth certificate forms to accommodate same-sex couples. Under state law a woman’s husband is automatically deemed a parent of a child the pair conceives through artificial insemination whether or not he is the genetic father. Gay couples have complained about having to jump through legal hoops to secure equivalent parental rights. Carolyn Trzeciak and Nina Sheldon Trzeciak of Ulster County who got married in Canada in 2006 sued last month.
