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1st appeared
16
January 2001
LPPI Hosts Benefit for Children's Center Serious mental illnesses often begin in childhood or adolescence. Though the public has become much more aware of mental illness in children in the past several years, symptoms can go unnoticed and too many children still do not receive adequate care. To help improve the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in children, the Friends of the UCSF Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (LPPI) is hosting a gala benefit Thursday, January 18, with proceeds going toward the founding of The Children’s Center at LPPI. "We are eager to provide a place where families can come to get the absolute best available diagnosis and treatment for mental disorders," said Glen Elliott, PhD, MD, director and associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at UCSF. The benefit is an advance screening of "The Invisible Circus," a new film from Fine Line Features starring Cameron Diaz and Blythe Danner. The movie, based on the novel by San Francisco author Jennifer Egan, daughter of Friends of LPPI Board member Kay Kimpton Walker, is a young woman's coming-of-age story set in the Europe and San Francisco of the turbulent 1960s and 70s. It revolves around the haunting death of a troubled sister. The 90-minute movie will be screened at 6:30 on Thursday at the Galaxy Theatre (corner of Van Ness and Sutter Streets). Doors open at 6 p.m. Craig Van Dyke, MD, professor and chair of the UCSF Psychiatry Department, will briefly talk about the need for the Children’s Center in the Bay Area. A short film about the Children’s Center at LPPI will also be premiering. A buffet dinner will be held across the street at the Regency Ballroom, 1290 Sutter Street, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets for the benefit (film and the dinner) start at $150. One in 10 children and adolescents suffers from mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment, but only about 20 percent of them receive mental health services, according to US Surgeon General David Satcher’s office, which issued a national action agenda earlier this month that called for reducing the stigma of mental illness, training health providers to recognize mental illness in children and increasing access to good care. Parents frequently know their child has behavioral or emotional problems long before their pediatrician or mental health professional does. Yet parents often run into roadblocks when seeking professional help, according to LPPI clinicians. Many times, they are told not to worry because their child will "grow out of it." As a result, it may be years before the child receives appropriate intervention. Adding to this problem, clinicians say, is the lack of cohesiveness in resources to diagnose and treat mental disorders in children. The Children’s Center at LPPI will provide a unique and important resource to children and their families. Center clinicians will address the whole child -- working together to improve diagnosis of psychiatric disorders at all ages, identify young people prone to develop mental problems later in life, establish effective preventive measures and determine the best treatment practices. "We want to expand the range of services that we can provide for children in Northern California, so that families will know where they can go for help, even if they are unsure about what exactly is wrong," Elliott said The Friends of Langley Porter is a volunteer support group for the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. For more information about the January 18 benefit, please Anne Poirier at 476-7033 or visit the department's website. Links: Source: Leslie Harris, News Services |
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