Nearly Half of America’s Youth Have Untreated Mental Illness

It’s usually easy for parents to identify their child’s physical needs, such as warm clothes when it’s cold, nutritious food, and bedtime at a reasonable hour. However, a child’s mental and emotional needs aren’t always as obvious. In fact, mental disorders severe enough to hinder kids from learning or developing properly are quite common, affecting about one in five of America’s youth. These disorders may show up as irritability, nightmares, disobedience, verbal and physical aggression, temper tantrums, hyperactivity and fidgeting, ongoing worry and anxiety, refusal to go to school or poor school performance. Untreated, mental disorders can have a serious impact on a child’s overall health and can lead to more severe mental illness. But tragically, almost half of adolescents who have a mental health disorder go untreated, according to a new survey by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Share and Enjoy:

Parents worry about their kids’ safety on the internet

More than four in five parents say their children use the Internet without adult supervision, but at the same time almost two-thirds are worried about online predators, a new survey has found. The findings, released online Nov. 19 by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, show that parents have a variety of concerns about their children’s safety on the Internet. The researchers found that 81 percent of parents surveyed said their children aged 9 to 17 use the Internet without being supervised by an adult. Almost half have profiles on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook; the number grows to two-thirds among kids aged 13 to 17. Share and Enjoy: