Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 5, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Al focus a11 Winnipeg March 2001 v attention deficit hyperactivity disorder add a real badly diagnosed symptoms of add people who Are inattentive have a hard time keeping their mind on one thing and May get bored with a task after Only a few focusing con deliberate attention to organizing and completing routine tasks May be diff people who Are hyperactive always seem to be in they cant sit they May dash around or talk sitting still through a lesson can be an impossible they May roam around the squirm in their wiggle their touch everything or noisily tap a they May feel intensely people who Are Overly impulsive seem unable to curb their immediate reactions or think before they As a they May blurt out answers to questions or inappropriate or run into the Street without their impulsivity May make it hard for them to wait for things they want or to take their turn in they May grab a toy from another child or hit when they Are source National Institute of mental health by Sally Satel Washington the surgeon generals recent report on child mental health comes amid a backlash against a disorder that affects an estimated two million children in the United states attention deficit hyperactivity at one extreme Are including some doctors and who refuse to see unbridled behavioural excess As anything More than Youthful at the other extreme Are doctors who reach for the prescription pad at the slightest hint of a youngsters As the report makes both Are at a time when so Many Chil Dren Are diagnosed with add and taking medication the Best known of which is ritalin How is a Parent to reconcile these polarized claims dismiss any emphatic claim in favour of or against Blacko White positions Only harm the children who Are we dont like to think of children As vulnerable to self destructive urges they cannot con it sullies the image of their collective it also creates guilt among parents who May fret they have failed in their child rear ing but the reality according to the National Institute of mental Between three per cent and five per cent of children under age 18 do have while it is True that a greater percentage of children in the United states Are diagnosed and treated for this disorder than in other these disorders Are criteria this has occurred not because americas parents and educators Are Rushing toward an easy solution to dealing with disruptive childhood behaviour but because diagnostic criteria Are better defined and applied than those of other children suffering from add Are less Likely to slip through the that Why Are critics claiming that too Many children Are being improperly diagnosed and treated Many children who do need help Are not being while others who do not meet the add criteria Are receiving this makes it All the More imperative that parents make certain their child has a full a recent study in the journal of the american Academy of child and adolescent psychiatry found More Heather Tribune Jonathan a Chicago student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder celebrates after winning a wrestling something he have done before starting on than half the children in some North Carolina communities receiving medication for add did not meet the diagnostic yet the same study found that on Quarter of Chil Dren who did meet the criteria for add were not receiving Medica when Standard criteria for add Are chances Are vastly improved that an accurate diagnosis can be but this takes longer than the 15 minutes Many clinicians allocate to this crucial first step and even with additional time a Good evaluation can be hard to not just any Active or impulsive child qualifies for the diagnosis of a psychiatrist or a rather than a Pedi Atri Cian or general meets with the symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity Are but do not in and of themselves warrant an add other questions must first be for Are these Behaviours Lon term and pervasive do they occur More often than not in other boys or girls of the same age As the child Are they continuous not just a response to a temporary situation such As the birth of a or divorce do the Behaviours occur in several settings or Only in one specific place like the playground these Behaviours must occur before the age of seven and be present for a minimum of six most the Childs inattention and hyperactivity must create a real Handicap in at least two areas of his such As Home or social assessment a Good assessment includes an interview with the parents who May be reacting understandably to chaos in the Amu or who need to become More consistent before making a final Doc tors should also order simple blood tests to Rule out such illnesses As Dia the Good news for parents is that medications to treat children with add have been available and used successfully since the for the minority of children who have these stimulants enable them to succeed in school and in relation ships with Peers and family in to grow up the exciting news for practitioners and parents is that a new Genera Tion of therapies such As Comox which Arent stimulants and have fewer should be available in the next year or As new drugs become so should our ability to use them in the a Low threshold for passing out diagnoses and medications do grave harm to the children who Are truly if on third of johnnys class lines up at the nurses office twice a teachers understandably throw up their hands at the disruption of the school if a diagnosis is too the Public rightly questions whether the disorder even the answer is that childhood disorders like add do Only a Small number of children have and medication can vastly improve their Bridge news Sally a practising is a lecturer at the Yale University of the Brady fellow at the american Enterprise Institute in Washington and author of How political correctness is corrupt ing Medicine Basic Fol Fth p f it n i the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors and Telephone number 1u clip letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain fax email look after banners i recently flew from Vancouver to win and after passing Over the Rock 875 Miles into i could see the Fields outlined there Are 102 million 1996 census acres under cultivation in Canada and 90 per cent of that is in Western i realized that each and every acre was worked and maintained by the Farmer to pro vide food for the world and these farm ers Are going broke it is a sad Day i like the response Given to agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief in Europe while trying to talk the euro peans out of subsidizing their Franz the former european Trade responded by were looking after our farm Why dont you look after yours Joelyne Snowflake computer plan ill conceived i would like to address the article stores in line for online 23 regarding the alleged proposed million Dollar program to install 440 computer terminals across upon Reading the it would appear that the Cost per computer would be would like to advise you that internet capable sys tems Are available from most retailers at a Cost of up to each for which you could buy from up to i fail to understand the logic of installing these systems for several firstly i believe that in the stores these areas will become hangouts and places where younger people Access the inter Fop Orn Sii where ther is no parental i feel that if there is a need for the they should be in schools or libraries and not retail stores that could Well afford to put these in the stores themselves if there was such a and not at the taxpayers we Are talking about the worlds largest and it definitely does not need taxpayers 7eleven also does not need taxpayers assistance As it also is a very Large and profitable the last part of the article suggests that after the 18 months go the stores would not have to look after the my question is Are we writing off the million expense and gifting All this to the stores at taxpayers expense after this period is up i believe that this is an ill conceived plan and that the government of Mani Toba should not be wasting our tax Dol Lars in this if there Are funds of this nature available to help business i know of several businesses that would like to expand their including the one that i work but Are unable to get funds for this Pur which would create More tax Dol Lars for Manitoba and employment As opposed to a play Centre at the John Mcintyre Winnipeg Mencken warning applies today Reading a recent Tom Oleson column called to mind a quotation of an uncommon newspaper Man named Henry Louis Mencken who the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence Clam Orous to be led to by menacing it with an endless series of All of them whilst who seemed never to tire of the great unwashed Over their perceived invade directed his towards the one could easily make the argument today that his criticism applies equally to crusaders of a great Many be they trumpet ing the message of Medicine or the Brian emes Gimli leave gravel business to the experts it is disturbing to note that the City of Winnipeg intends to proceed with a City operated commercial develop ment of a gravel and aggregate operation in Competition with private i Echo the objections of the existing producers and question the logic of the mayor and Council in spending the Effort involved in consideration of this silly the projection of profit to the City Treasury from such an under taking is nothing but a Small drop in the bucket compared with the Cost of setting up a bureaucracy to manage the proposed my message to the mayor and his supporters is to forget the put your minds to solving the real prob lems of concentrate on the matters of concern to the citizens that Are investment in the solution of intercity social problems Merit much More than the establish ment of a Sand and gravel business operated by the mayor and his leave this business to the Winnipeg major problem reduced to Petty politics i commend the free press for expos ing the amounts wasted regarding health funding for aboriginals from health it is about time the facts came out to the the article Centre paid adviser 28 with the ongoing Saga in the Sage eng treat ment appears to be nothing More than Petty i would Hope a Little professionalism would prevail during where information is not Cherr picked to target certain Politi Cal i would Hope that All information be acted on and made Complete with charges before expo sure to the the reality is that the Federal government and health Canada did not perform their functions of which happens to be the Liberal one will find that there Are probably questions of the ethics of some members of All Par ties in relation to this it appears that certain individuals Are losing the ability to focus on the task at cleaning up the mess and issuing appropriate it disturbs me greatly that this Small window of mismanagement of funds actually covers a much greater area and a greater amount of the end result equates to no services for those it was but further it affects All staff hired at All Levels in aboriginal including affects to the survival of construction this problem is not so do not reduce it to Petty party politics Many lives have been affected Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau of oui i Matching 0iu ;