Trish Tousignant: Lawmakers should prioritize children's mental health

To The Daily Sun,

Children’s mental health is an issue close to my heart. My daughter, now 10 years old, has Tourette’s syndrome, and also suffers from ADHD, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, sensory sensitivity and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.

Her entire childhood has been marked by severe meltdowns over the tiniest of stressors like the seam of a sock that doesn’t feel “right,” having to leave something unfinished, or saying “goodbye” at the end of a playdate. Oftentimes these meltdowns can last for an hour or more and end with her sobbing regretfully about having lost control.

We work every day to repair the damage that has been done to her self-esteem because she believes that her differences make her less than her peers. Add to that, the academic lag that she experiences, because who could possibly be ready for learning when the last hour was spent in a mentally and physically exhausting meltdown, and you now have a child who feels even worse about herself because she can’t keep up with the rest of the class.

Even if she were to “outgrow” her mental health conditions, how I wish that was a thing, without treatment, her self-worth would be decimated before the “phase” had passed. As a family, we would be in constant crisis, were it not for the treatment she has received, the medications which we have finally balanced in her little system, and the self-management strategies she has been taught by mental health professionals.

The social and emotional health of our children is fundamental to the future prosperity of our state. I urge lawmakers to prioritize the well-being of all Granite State youth through funding to support behavioral health in schools, protecting mobile crisis and other community-based services, and ensuring access to emergency and clinically appropriate residential care for children.

The idea that children’s mental health is not a priority because it is a “phase” to be outgrown is a pitifully misinformed statement.

Trish Tousignant

Gilford