The Medicated Child

Watch the Frontline documentary on the Medicated Child on Netflix which aired on January 8, 2008 by clicking here.

Harry and Tonto, the film

Harry and Tonto released in 1974 won Art Carney the Academy Award for best actor in 1975 is the story about Harry Combs, a retired treacher in his 70s, who is evicted from his life long home when his apartment building in New York City is demolished for a parking lot.

Harry is forced to adapt to a changing world and find a new place in it. He is a resilient man who is not ready to isolate himself from life withdrawing into the ambivalently caring arms of one of his three adult children.

This story has a lot to teach about how older parents can maintain healthy and functional relationships with their adult children. It also has a lot to teach about the importance of our relationships as human beings with animals, in this case a cat, Tonto, whom Harry dotes on and talks to as if the cat were a conscious witness to his life.

This movie is respectful of the third stage of life and is not condescending, patronizing, or sentimental. Harry maintains his dignity, self respect, and self determination throughout.

This film would be a good point of discussion for Social Work students studying gerontology and family therapy.

I am glad I finally watched it after it being out for over 38 years. It is as relevant today as it was when it was released in 1974.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it.

American Teens Are Less Likely Than European Teens to Use Cigarettes and Alcohol, but More Likely to Use Illicit Drugs

American Teens Are Less Likely Than European Teens to Use Cigarettes and Alcohol, but More Likely to Use Illicit Drugs. To read the article on Science Daily click here.

Editor's note: The fact that American teens smoke less cigarettes and drink less alcohol than their European counterparts is a great thing even though they use more illicit drugs. Here's why: 30,000 Americans die every year from the so called "illicit drugs", 100,000 Americans die every year from alcohol, and 410,000 Americans die every year from tobacco. What's America's drug problem.

Further, there is no mention of the use/abuse of psychotropic drugs, and studies have shown that marijuana is more effective and has less side effects in managing psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, ADD, depression than physician prescribed psychotropic drugs.

The fact that American teenagers are using less alcohol and tobacco than Europeans is an indication that our public health policies and prevention efforts are working in the United States. Many thanks to the substance abuse professionals and other people and organizations who have worked hard to produce these good results! 

I have spend over 20 years of my career working in the area of substance abuse prevention both professionally and personally. Two of my 9 children, Ryan aged 8, and Brigid aged 5, were killed in a drunk driving crash in 1993. They were killed by a 3 time drunk driver who had never received any treatment for his alcoholism and who was 35 when he killed my children was well know to have been a troubled teen who started drinking around age 13 or 14. The drunk driving fatalities have dropped from about 17,000 in the 80s and 90s to about 11,000 in 2010. It has taken a lot of work to bring about this positive change but 11,000 drunk driving deaths is still too high. If there were 11,000 Americans killed every year by terrorists, Americans would be engaged and willing to bomb only god knows who.

We, as a country, are on the right track, and we have accumulated a lot of practice wisdom over the last 4 decades on how to minimize the negative impacts of alcohol and tobacco use. May we continue the good work and get the death rates from alcohol and tobacco to zero.

Two parent families in which the parents are married are better for kids

The number of single parents in America has increased dramatically: The proportion of children born outside marriage has risen from roughly 30 percent in 1992 to 41 percent in 2009. For women under age 30, more than half of babies are born out of wedlock. A lifestyle once associated with poverty has become mainstream. The only group of parents for whom marriage continues to be the norm is the college-educated. 
 
Some argue that these changes are benign. Many children who in the past would have had two married parents could have two cohabiting parents instead. Why should the lack of a legal or religious tie affect anyone’s well-being? 

There are three reasons to be concerned about this dramatic shift in family life.

First, marriage is a commitment that cohabitation is not. Taking a vow before friends and family to support another person “until death do us part” signals a mutual sense of shared responsibility that cannot be lightly dismissed. Cohabitation is more fragile — cohabiting parents split up before their fifth anniversary at about twice the rate of married parents.  Often, this is because the father moves on, leaving the mother not just with less support but with fewer marriage prospects. For her, marriage requires finding a partner willing to take responsibility for someone else’s kids.

Second, a wealth of research strongly suggests that marriage is good for children. Those who live with their biological parents do better in school and are less likely to get pregnant or arrested. They have lower rates of suicide, achieve higher levels of education and earn more as adults. Meanwhile, children who spend time in single-parent families are more likely to misbehave, get sick, drop out of high school and be unemployed.

It isn’t clear why children who live with their unmarried biological parents don’t do as well as kids who live with married ones. Adults who marry may be different from those who cohabit, divorce or become unwed mothers. Although studies try to adjust for these differences, researchers can’t measure all of them. People in stable marriages may have better relationship skills, for instance, or a greater philosophical or religious commitment to union that improves parenting. Still, raising children is a daunting responsibility. Two committed parents typically have more time and resources to do it well.  

Third, marriage brings economic benefits. It usually means two breadwinners, or one breadwinner and a full-time, stay-at-home parent with no significant child-care expenses. Unlike Murphy Brown — who always had the able Eldin by her side — most women do not have the flexibility afforded a presumably highly paid broadcast journalist. And it’s not just a cliche that two can live more cheaply than one; a single set of bills for rent, utilities and other household expenses makes a difference. Though not necessarily better off than a cohabiting couple, a married family is much better off than its single-parent counterpart.

Sawhill, Isabel Twenty Years Later, It Turns Out Dan Quayle Was Right About Murphy Brown and Unmarried Mom, http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/05/25-unmarried-mothers-sawhill

Editor's note: The loss of the basic building block of modern society, the two parent family, contributes to increasing social problems for society. I see this in my practice on a daily basis. No family is perfect, and all families are dysfunctional in one way or another, but the question of whether some family configurations are better at raising children than others has been proven repeatedly, and the findings are clear that two parent families where the parents are married get better results in raising children.

Do these findings mean that all parents should stay married no matter what for the sake of the children? Of course not. Life is more complicated than that. Do these findings mean that no individual can do a good job raising a child, or children, alone, of course not. But in general, when it's possible, two married parents with loving extended family make the best milieu for the raising of children. Does our society support this model in such a way that it is the normative model that people are encouraged to emulate? Societal support has been weakening with the diminishing influence of our religious institutions, the lack of support from our social institutions such as schools, the social welfare system, and the criminal justice system. We pay lip service to the important role that parents play but then our major social institutions insert themselves as "experts" in family life and undercut the role of the parents.

Our social welfare policies would rather see women working in minimum pay jobs and place their children in day care than support them in parenting them themselves. This is a very misguided policy and is backfiring when we see the social symptoms of school failure, drug abuse, and criminal activity in the young.

In some communities such as the African American community black men are incarcerated at higher rates than are in college and because of these policies their children and their children's mothers are deprived of the presence and support that these men could provide.

Unlike other first world countries, the United States does not provide much support for parenting in the form of child subsidies, health insurance, and other economic support. With our capitalistic model we value money more than we do our children, and the social indicators measuring the well being of children and their families are much poorer in the United States than other first world countries.

I will be providing more data on this phenomenon and commentary in future articles. It is important for social workers, regardless of their field of practice, to be aware of the factors in our society than impact child and family welfare so that we can advocate for social policies that will enhance our mutual quality of life. Marriage is good thing for our society: heterosexual and same sex marriage, and we would benefit and our clients would benefit, if we advocated for cultural norms and factors that support it.

Renewing my membership in NASW and getting a pin

I young woman called me yesterday on my cell phone from NASW membership services to inform me that my membership had expired in April, 2012 and it would cost me $190.00 to renew for a year. We chatted for a while and she told me she was actually calling from Florida and is a student at Nova University and hopes to become a dentist. We then talked about the suicide rate for dentists and wondered about why it is so high and then she said maybe she would also consider doing something else in the health care field. We had a delightful conversation and then got cut off.

I called the number back and got some woman who was much more abrupt and business like and tried to tack on more fees for specialty groups, and then for the ACSW, and I probably could of got a break because I am retired, but since I am still working part time in my private practice I didn't ask for it and why would I want to be a cheapskate when it comes to my professional organization and a profession which has treated me so well and of which I am increasingly proud as I continue to practice?

I am very aware that I am at a time in life when I should, and I want to, give back what I can to my profession, and NASW does a reasonably good job, and I am thinking that in a very small way my continuing my membership keeps the Social Work Profession alive and publicly acknowledged because of the good work that NASW does.

The business like lady said they would be sending me a pin.

"A pin", I asked?

"Yes, a pin", she said.

I can't wait to see it and I am wondering what the hell am I going to do with a pin?

Social Work: A Lifetime Of Practice is back

Social Work: A Life Time Of Practice is back. I retired from my position as Executive Director of a Substance Abuse Treatment agency on 12/13/11, and I continue my private practice of psychotherapy. I also have become more involved in my prison ministry and the experiences have been very discouraging and eye opening. I will be writing more about them as time goes on.

I also ran for local officer as a Town Supervisor as a write in candidate last November and received about 25% of the vote which was pretty good for a write in candidate according to what the local pundits tell me.

I had hoped to get more involved in a church I started in May of 2009 with a small group of other people but I have backed off because of the frustration and discouragement of the pseudo organization which was developing rather than a legitimate organization which takes it fiduciary responsibilities seriously.

I will be posting regularly now on this site and I hope the ideas and practice wisdom which I have accumulated and attempt to share will be of some value to you, the reader. I look forward to comments so please leave your thoughts and ideas.

I recognize that my ideas and reflections may have no more value than anyone else's, but when I comes across new information and experiences I an sift them through the lens of a life time of experience.