When I first met Taylor, he was fascinated by fire alarms. He could describe to me in detail the intricate mechanisms of each model on the market. He collected them, wired them himself at home and annoyed his family by setting them off each night. He even has his own YouTube channel dedicated to sharing his love for fire alarms. The way he talked about them was thoughtful and eloquent, as if nothing else seemed to matter.
His classmates at school described Taylor as retarded. All he could talk about was fire alarms and technology, while everyone else was talking about the weekend, who is dating who and which teachers were the worst that week.
He was teased, provoked and forced to take the brunt of the jokes about how he was different and how nobody liked to talk to him. Soon, Taylor learned to stop talking in the classroom. When he did, it came out aggressive and spiteful. Teachers would become frustrated with him, quickly dismissing him to the principal's office.
He always had a better connection with adults who were willing to listen to him. During our counseling sessions, we would discuss the struggles within the classroom. Seventh grade can be difficult for anyone, but the students aren't familiar with how to talk with someone with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. He would tell me about the array of medications he took each morning and night, and how some would make him mean toward his family, while others just made him tired.
On certain mornings, he would start screaming in the parking lot, refusing to go to school, and his parents would take him home.
Social rules were always the hardest for him. Taylor would often turn to lying, making up grandiose stories about himself to cover up truths about the pain. When he decided to steal a projector in his backpack from the school library, he told me he had been given permission to take it to fix it at home. Nobody gave him permission. After returning it, all he wanted to talk about was wanting to take it apart and see how it worked. I was able to empathize.
Students like Taylor live in every community and attend every school in the United States. According to statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 88 children have been identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is an increase from the 1 in 150 statistic in the year 2000. As more students are identified, the spectrum expands and more questions are raised about how to best approach the rising prevalence.
The rise in diagnoses also reflects a rise in medical expenditures for families with children living with ASD. On average, medical costs for individuals with an ASD are 4.1 to 6.2 times greater than for those without an ASD, averaging about $4,000 to $6,000 more per year. On top of the cost of routine medical care, behavioral interventions for these children can cost up to $60,000 per child per year. Families are suffering and alternative options are limited. These numbers don't take into account the countless other rising mental disorders.
On January 15, 2013, Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) and Congressman Ron Barber (D-AZ) introduced the Mental Health First Aid Act (S. 153/H.R. 274) with bipartisan support in both chambers of congress. According to the National Council for Community Behavioral Health Care, the legislation would authorize $20 million in grants for fiscal year 2014 to support public education and training on how to reach out and help individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.
The grants would fund training for emergency service personnel, police officers, human resources professionals, faith community leaders, nurses and other primary care personnel, veterans, and in the case of Taylor, the grants would also support teachers and school administrators, students enrolled in elementary, secondary and higher institutions and parents of students.
The training includes an interactive 12-hour course focused on a five-step action plan to connect individuals with professional, peer, social and self-help care.While Taylor's classmates thought of him only as strange and teachers were quick to dismiss his behavior to someone else who had time, proper training and education for those closest to these students will go a long way in shifting norms, language and the overall stigma attached to those with a mental disorder, while reducing costs for families and promoting social relationships for those students who struggle to form them.
When we ended our counseling sessions, Taylor still loved fire alarms, but he had found someone safe with whom he could share his interests. No matter how complex and intricate the mechanisms that make up his mind, the obvious answer is connections.
Alek Shybut is a first-year Masters in Public Health student at the Rollins School of Public Health from Lincoln, Neb.
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