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conuly
“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.”
Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provocative
By JOANNE KAUFMAN
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.
— Autism
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.
Kristina 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.
John 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.”
Susan 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.”
Bennett 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.”
I think at this point the only response is to actually go over there and tell him to his face that he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about... but I worry that, again, the guy might just well miss the point.
Really, I don't know why I even *bother*.
Edit: It's in the Daily News, too. Really, I have to stop, eat my lunch. The kids are almost done with theirs, and that's not a good situation to be in.
Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provocative
By JOANNE KAUFMAN
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.
— Autism
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.
Kristina 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.
John 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.”
Susan 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.”
Bennett 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.”
I think at this point the only response is to actually go over there and tell him to his face that he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about... but I worry that, again, the guy might just well miss the point.
Really, I don't know why I even *bother*.
Edit: It's in the Daily News, too. Really, I have to stop, eat my lunch. The kids are almost done with theirs, and that's not a good situation to be in.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:44 pm (UTC)I think it's really a bit of a toss-up, though. At least here nobody said they wanted to kill their child in front of said child. There's something to be said for that. Not much, but... something.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:58 pm (UTC)I think I may call Dr Koplewicz later today.
You know, maybe my bias against anything NYU isn't so off base after all.
I know where Ted and Fin are right now. Ted is probably refusing to eat lunch, unless they still have pop tarts, and Finbar is probably watering the plants in the greenhouse, or feeding the worms to make more compost. So I know where my boys are, thankyouverymuch, and I don't even have to pay a ransom for that information!
And if you REALLY want to think about it, NOT KNOWING about the ASDs were the 'hostage' situation. When I did not know, and had no evaluations, I was unable to meet my children's needs. Now that they have a diagnosis, THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN BACK TO ME. Being told Ted has PDD-NOS and Finbar could have Aspergers (educational DX is what he was given) was very FREEING and LIBERATING. HOORAY! WE CAN COMMUNICATE NOW! WE CAN GIVE THEM THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO LIVE! Being told "this is why your sons are like this" was one of the best things doctors ever said to me. Everything from there can be built upon that.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:53 pm (UTC)“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.
Autism/Asperger's is not something that ca fixed/cured/repaired! I don't think it's right to put it with something that is curable (although one can argue that you'll always be bulimic)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:00 pm (UTC)And if ASDs were mental illnesses, a LOT more therapeutic and assistive technologies would be covered. Speech therapy? Not covered. Sensory input stuff? Not covered. Community living skills? Not covered. Occupational therapy? Not covered. ABA (which I don't like but at the end of the day, a therapy for ASD)? Not covered. Maybe that is why a frightening amount of parents of kids on the spectrum medicate their kids. ITS COVERED.
Whereas a lot of things for mental illnesses are covered. Not as much as there should be, but more than for developmental disabilities.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 01:44 am (UTC)Petition of support for ASAN's call to halt the campaign:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html
So far, I've been too enraged to write coherently about this. I've signed the petition, but my own "campaign" has not even begun...
no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 02:38 am (UTC)Fuck you. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK. FUCK! Fuck fuckity fuck fuck. FUCK FUCK.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 03:15 am (UTC)Even with all the hubbub in the broader "autism community" (which IS somewhat encouraging), there is something crucial missing from the discussion: a solid grasp of the dynamics, pervasiveness and consequences of stigma. THAT'S what NYU and and their ad-gurus neglected ... and what even those who are raging at them rarely seem to comprehend.
If I don't try to address that, then I'm not helping.
But will I?
*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2007-12-16 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:44 pm (UTC)I think it's really a bit of a toss-up, though. At least here nobody said they wanted to kill their child in front of said child. There's something to be said for that. Not much, but... something.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:58 pm (UTC)I think I may call Dr Koplewicz later today.
You know, maybe my bias against anything NYU isn't so off base after all.
I know where Ted and Fin are right now. Ted is probably refusing to eat lunch, unless they still have pop tarts, and Finbar is probably watering the plants in the greenhouse, or feeding the worms to make more compost. So I know where my boys are, thankyouverymuch, and I don't even have to pay a ransom for that information!
And if you REALLY want to think about it, NOT KNOWING about the ASDs were the 'hostage' situation. When I did not know, and had no evaluations, I was unable to meet my children's needs. Now that they have a diagnosis, THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN BACK TO ME. Being told Ted has PDD-NOS and Finbar could have Aspergers (educational DX is what he was given) was very FREEING and LIBERATING. HOORAY! WE CAN COMMUNICATE NOW! WE CAN GIVE THEM THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO LIVE! Being told "this is why your sons are like this" was one of the best things doctors ever said to me. Everything from there can be built upon that.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:53 pm (UTC)“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.
Autism/Asperger's is not something that ca fixed/cured/repaired! I don't think it's right to put it with something that is curable (although one can argue that you'll always be bulimic)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:00 pm (UTC)And if ASDs were mental illnesses, a LOT more therapeutic and assistive technologies would be covered. Speech therapy? Not covered. Sensory input stuff? Not covered. Community living skills? Not covered. Occupational therapy? Not covered. ABA (which I don't like but at the end of the day, a therapy for ASD)? Not covered. Maybe that is why a frightening amount of parents of kids on the spectrum medicate their kids. ITS COVERED.
Whereas a lot of things for mental illnesses are covered. Not as much as there should be, but more than for developmental disabilities.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 01:44 am (UTC)Petition of support for ASAN's call to halt the campaign:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html
So far, I've been too enraged to write coherently about this. I've signed the petition, but my own "campaign" has not even begun...
no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 02:38 am (UTC)Fuck you. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK. FUCK! Fuck fuckity fuck fuck. FUCK FUCK.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 03:15 am (UTC)Even with all the hubbub in the broader "autism community" (which IS somewhat encouraging), there is something crucial missing from the discussion: a solid grasp of the dynamics, pervasiveness and consequences of stigma. THAT'S what NYU and and their ad-gurus neglected ... and what even those who are raging at them rarely seem to comprehend.
If I don't try to address that, then I'm not helping.
But will I?
*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2007-12-16 03:18 am (UTC)