The Action Alliance on Basic Education yesterday urged the government to stop using the terms “psychiatric disorder” and “mental illness,” and instead use the term “neurodiversity” to make children and parents more willing to seek treatment.
Changing the terminology could increase the number of children willing to be treated from 2.8 percent to 15 percent within three years, it said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare should work with the Ministry of Education to remove inappropriate terminology from the medical, education and welfare sectors, alliance president Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
One in four children aged eight to 15 have experienced psychiatric disorders within the past six months, but only one-tenth of them are receiving medical care or support services, the group said.
Although the prevalence rate of children in the age group with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is 10 percent, only 2 percent have been diagnosed, and only 1 percent have been treated, it said, adding that the discrepancy was concerning.
Many parents and educators lack a general understanding of ADHD and other neurodevelopmental differences, and some parents refuse to seek medical treatment for fear that their children would be seen as different, Wang said.
Citing health ministry statistics, Wang said that more than 20 percent of children who have experienced domestic abuse have ADHD, delayed development or other neurodevelopmental issues, adding that children with these differences have been misunderstood as showing willful disobedience.
The use of corporal punishment only feeds a vicious cycle, he said.
To increase people’s willingness to seek medical treatment, the government should facilitate collaboration between hospitals and welfare facilities to launch adolescent physical and psychiatric health evaluations, he said.
The government needs to increase the amount of resources allotted to hospitals and the number of mental professionals to provide effective treatment, or to ensure that symptoms are detected early to refer affected people to capable facilities, Wang said.
Taiwan used to refer to dementia as “lao ren chi dai” (老人癡呆, literally “older people’s dull-wittedness”), but that is no longer used as it was considered disrespectful toward older people, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital Department of Neurology doctor Yan Sui-hing (任瑞興) said.
Japan and Hong Kong have also changed the names of conditions to make them more neutral, Yan said.
Parents do not want their children to be referred to as hyperactive, a recluse or as having psychiatric disorders, he said, adding that resentment toward the use of such names makes parents unwilling to take their children to be diagnosed or treated.
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