Press Releases: Northwest
October 8, 2003
National expert on children’s mental health to deliver Kaiser Permanente’s 2003 Saward Lecture in Portland
How can we improve treatment and prevention of childhood mental illnesses?
PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Jensen will be available for interviews in person in Portland or by phone on Monday, Oct. 13. To arrange an interview, please call Terry Fitzpatrick at 503-335-6602.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Peter S. Jensen, MD, one of America’s foremost experts on children’s mental health, will speak in Portland on “Understanding and Treating Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Children.” The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13, in the Newmark Theater at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Dr. Jensen’s talk is the 2003 Saward Lecture, presented by Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research (CHR) as a public service to the community and featuring speakers of national and international stature offering their visions of the social mission of medicine. Tickets are free but required. To order tickets, call the CHR at 503-335-2466.
Fewer than one in five children who need treatment get it
Science has made dramatic progress in the genetics, neurobiology, treatment, and prevention of many childhood psychiatric disorders. Despite this progress, fewer than one in five children with mental illness receives treatment, and even fewer receive any kind of prevention. Major obstacles—lack of resources, stigma, entrenched attitudes, resistance to change—impede our attempts to deliver new treatments and prevention strategies. What can we do to overcome these obstacles and create brighter futures for our children?
Background on Dr. Jensen
Dr. Jensen is director of the Center for the Advancement of Children’s Mental Health and Ruane Professor of Child Psychiatry at Columbia University. Before his appointment at Columbia University in 2000, Dr. Jensen was associate director of Child and Adolescent Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. He is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters, and has written or co-edited nine books on children’s mental health. His current research focuses on translating scientifically valid assessment and intervention methods into “real-world” settings.
Dr. Jensen has received numerous national awards for his work, including the Norbert Reiger Award (1990 and 1996) from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, and the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award (1996) and the Blanche Ittelson Award (1998) from the American Psychiatric Association. In 1999 he received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and was inducted into the CHADD Hall of Fame. In 2000 he received the Outstanding Mentor Award, as well as the Elaine Schlosser Lewis Award for ADHD research, from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Background on childhood mental illness
Many mental disorders, once thought to affect only adults, affect even very young children. These range from depression and bipolar disorder to obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and panic disorder, as well as to the more traditionally recognized conditions of autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Today, an estimated one in 10 children and adolescents in the United States suffers from a mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment. In any six-month period, an estimated 6 percent of American children and adolescents suffer from some form of depression, 4 percent from Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and 13 percent from anxiety disorders.
Poor parenting was once believed to be the primary cause of childhood mental disorders. The classic example of this was the belief that inadequate mothering caused autism. Today, we know that the causes are complex and multifactorial, involving interactions between genes and the environment, and developmental processes in the brain.
New treatments, both pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic, have been developed for all of these childhood mental illnesses. In most instances, these treatments offer significant short- and intermediate-term benefits for suffering children and their families. Effective prevention strategies have also been developed for some conditions. In spite of this, the vast majority of ill children do not receive treatment, and even fewer receive any kind of prevention program.
Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a non-profit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve health.
Kaiser Permanente is a prepaid, group practice health care organization founded in 1945 and serving the health care needs of about 435,000 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
