According to the statistics provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (2019), one in five US citizens suffers from mental disorders. Besides, the common knowledge shows that rather often, problems with mental health remain unidentified and are attributed to the character of a person. The critical aim of the current advocacy statement paper is to discuss children with conduct disorder. It also gives some recommendations on addressing such people’s rights and improving their access to healthcare services.
As it has been noted in the introductory section, the paper targets children from 4 to 12 years old with conduct disorder. At this point, it should be mentioned that the population includes representatives of all races and various socioeconomic statuses because these factors do not affect the occurrence of the disorder. Some people believe that children from dysfunctional families are more likely to suffer from conduct disorder. Still, a family’s low economic and social status could not be used as an indicator that guarantees that a child will have this mental problem.
The conduct disorder is defined as a set of such repetitive behavioral issues as difficulties with following the rules and respecting others’ rights (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018). Children who suffer from conduct disorder show aggression towards their peers and animals; they might be fond of destroying the properties of other people and harming them. In other words, these children typically behave in a socially unacceptable way (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018). The problem with the treatment of this disorder lies in the fact that teachers and parents often regard an aggressive child as ill-mannered, spoiled, or delinquent but not mentally ill. However, a child might develop a conduct disorder because of brain damage, traumatic life experience, and even genetic vulnerability (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018). Thus, adults’ unawareness about the possible causes of a child’s bad behavior could lead to terrible consequences and affect the entire life of a child who needs medical help but does not receive it.
The two major determinants contributing to the conduct disorder among children are barriers to education and early intervention and social discrimination. Eaton (2012) emphasizes that numerous Community Behavioral Health Organizations (CBHOs) create early intervention and treatment services for children and adolescents that actively collaborate with schools. Nevertheless, such communities’ goal is to help people diagnosed with the disorder, not to check the mental health conditions of every child potentially ill in a district. Children with the disorder face difficulties with receiving decent education and early intervention because their diagnosis remains undiscovered. Teachers keep on suspending aggressive and misbehaving students from classes, and parents fail to affect their actions. It should also be mentioned that the investigation conducted by Eaton (2012) reveals that there is a high probability that an individual with the conduct disorder also suffers from other mental issues. Hence, the state of mental health of these children is getting worse as time goes by as well as their chance to fix the disorder at the early stages.
The second determinant that should be discussed deals with social discrimination of such people. Apparently, peers of aggressive children exclude them from their circle of communication. Afterward, such children who cannot behave according to socially accepted rules become derelicts in their adulthood. The problem of social discrimination could be examined from a different perspective. More precisely, the results of Coker at al. ‘s (2009) study show that the discrimination of school-aged children on a racial or social basis could provoke the conduct disorder. From this, it could be inferred that schools could be viewed as places where healthy people could become mentally ill due to racial or social prejudices of their groupmates. Therefore, social or racial discrimination could become a cause of a conduct disorder that, in its turn, would once again lead to discrimination.
Still, it is essential to notice that both determinants have something in common: the actions of people who surround an individual with the conduct disorder are driven by the nescience that person needs professional help instead of counter aggression. Ignorance of any kind of mental issue, including conduct disorder, is an acute problem since it deprives people of a chance to be treated, educated, and not excluded from the community.
In this context, it seems reasonable to assume that one of the possible solutions to the described issues lies in raising awareness of identifying and dealing with the conduct disorder. The increased collaboration between CBHOs and schools could facilitate the spread of information on this mental problem. Schools could invite psychologists who specialize in treating this type of disorder for a personal consultation of parents whose children’s behavior is marked by aggression and violence. If parents do not pay sufficient attention to a child, a specialist could explain to them how important it is to fix the problem as soon as possible. The sincere dialogue would attract parents attention to the fact that a child acts unacceptably not just because of peculiarities of his or her age but because something goes wrong with the mental health. Besides, at the beginning of a school year, all pupils and their parents should be asked to complete a test to discover if a child has any abnormalities with the mental health and requires some help.
The efficiency of this recommendation lies not only in assisting children with conduct disorder to begin treatment as soon as possible. The society in which they live will also benefit from the implementation of the described strategy. First of all, the neglected conduct disorder of a child would make him or her an anti-social adult who threatens other people’s well-being. If specialists notice that a child has the conduct disorder at the early stages, it would be easier to learn to cope with stress and aggression and control emotions. In addition to that, better control over students’ mental health would help to detect other mental problems, apart from the conduct disorder. Finally, the spread of information on how to deal with people diagnosed with this issue could help ordinary people understand what these people feel, how to protect themselves in case of aggression, and communicate with them safely.
To sum up, the current advocacy statement paper investigated the case of children with conduct disorder. Undoubtedly, these children face significant troubles in socializing with peers and learning at school. What is more, if their diagnosis remains untreated, they could become violent adults that endanger other people’s safety. The author believes that this problem could be mitigated by raising awareness of the existing methods on how to treat the disorder most effectively among children, their parents, and teachers.
References
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2018). Conduct disorder. Web.
Coker, T. R., Elliott, M. N., Kanouse, D. E., Grunbaum, J. A., Schwebel, D. C., Gilliland, M. J., & Schuster, M. A. (2009). Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination among fifth-grade students and its association with mental health. American journal of public health, 99(5), 878-884.
Eaton, W.W. (2012). Public Mental Health. Oxford University Press.
National Institute of Mental Health (2019). Mental Illness. Web.