In both a travelling exhibition, and an accompanying bookChildhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999) over 100 paintings, drawings and other art works express the struggles of children from across the country with developmental, psychological or physical challenges. Editors Robin F. Goodman and Harold Koplewicz of the NYU Child Study Center received over 600 submissions from parents, teachers, psychologists and other professionals. A jury chose the final entries, and the national tour debuted in 1999.

Goodman, project director of www.AboutOurKids.org and director of public education programs for the NYU Child Study Center, spoke with Connect For Kids' Julee Newberger about the project.

What gave you the idea to put this book together?

Harold [co-editor Koplewicz] had this idea to make people more aware of children's mental health issues. Kids' art is non-threatening—everybody's got it up on their refrigerator door. If you say, let's educate people about kids who have psychosis, it doesn't sound so appealing. But if you say, What do you think about that drawing? it's not very threatening. It's like the AIDS Quilt; it provides a visual forum for a message.

What makes it special is that it's not grown-ups talking about kids' problems, which we do all the time, it's kids talking about their problems and telling people what it's like.

How does creating art help children with special challenges?

Art is a very comfortable and familiar voice for kids. Like play, it allows them an avenue for communication. It allows them to be constructive, creative and to say things they don't know how to say in words.

According to statistics in Childhood Revealed, an estimated 12 percent of American children endure mental health problems. Of these, less than one-fifth receive treatment. Can you elaborate on this?

We know the incidence of mental health problems, and we know how many kids get treated and how many don't get treated. We also know how many get inappropriate treatment. For example, the majority of prescriptions for Ritalin are written by pediatricians, not trained mental health professionals. If you have a kid with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) ? your pediatrician is not the person who should be telling you what's available or what you can do. People who have diabetes or cardiac problems don't go to an internist to treat their problems, they see an endocrinologist or a cardiologist.

Why is it that these kids are not getting appropriate treatment?

People misunderstand mental illness. They're scared of it or they're ashamed. They don't believe it's a reality for kids. They also excuse it: It's just a phase. He's just being a boy.? I've had parents in my practice say, It's just me, I'm not a good enough disciplinarian. The teacher says he's just one of the more energetic boys in the class? I see the kid, and in five minutes I know there's a mental health issue.

How great is the stigma surrounding mental illness in our society?

There's a tremendous stigma, even in our language. Kids are called crazy, loony, bad. We use very negative words, rather than identifying illnesses. There still are a lot of negative stereotypes to contend with. Parents and professionals have to know that child mental illnesses are real, they're common and they're treatable.

When I was involved in putting together the exhibit, wherever I went there was always someone who said, You don't want to put a diagnosis with the child, you don't want to label artwork, that would be stigmatizing. That was the point. If these families and kids and professionals said it was okay, it wasn't for the public to say, "Don't do it."

How do you change people's attitudes and understandings about anxiety, depression, learning disorders and manic-depressive illness if you don't call them by name? He's not crazy, he has ADHD. They're regular kids, they have these problems, and some are more difficult to deal with than others.

What are some of the obstacles that parents face raising children with special challenges?

There are a lot of social and political obstacles for these parents. ? Mental health treatment is not doled out and reimbursed on a par with medical treatment; we know that from the insurance companies. One of these days we're going to figure out that mental health should not be separated from physical health. So the obstacles are availability, access, how much it costs, and training professionals and parents about what is the right kind of treatment for kids.

What are the goals of the traveling art exhibit?

To de-stigmatize it [children's mental illness], to get awareness out, so that people pay attention to these kids. ?You can't think it's somebody else's problem, or somebody else's kid, because even if it's not your kid, it will affect your kid. Kids with mental health problems that are left untreated turn to drugs, drop out of school, become delinquents. Who do we think is paying for those problems?

Violence gets highlighted in the media, and it's unfortunate because it puts a bad face on kids' problems, rather than looking at the fact that you could have done something about it. For every kid that was bullied out there, there was a kid who did the bullying and (another) who stood around watching and didn't know what to do.

In the beginning, we were hoping to have six venues for the exhibit, plus New York City. Right now we have it booked in 20 cities for three years. ? Children's mental health is such a stepchild in terms of the world of awareness and importance. But once people see the exhibit, there isn't anybody who doesn't get it.

Can you talk about how art helped one particular child?

We've had stories from practitioners saying it was the best thing for their clients. They saw that their artwork was given some respect, and it changed how they thought of themselves.

There's a story about one of the kids from the book who actually has about three pieces in the learning disabilities section. I call one the "Rodin Thinker," but everybody talks about it as the faceless boy. He was interviewed for Seventeen magazine and they had a reproduction of his piece. A fact-checker called him later on and he found out that he was going to be anonymous in the article, as he was in the book. He was mad because he thought the girls in school would think he was really cool for being in the magazine. He didn't think that they wouldn't like him because he had a learning disability!

How do you hope this book helps different groups: young people, parents, experts and policymakers?

We want people to pay attention, not ignore children's problems. We want parents to get the right kind of help for their kids, and if they don't think it's the right kind of help, keep going until they do. In many ways, we agree with the Surgeon General's national action agenda on children's mental health.

It's striking when people start to realize they can do something. ?We have to demystify and let them know there's something that can be done and that something will make it better, not worse. That's why it's a national health problem, not an individual family problem.

Robin F. Goodman is a clinical associate professor in psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, director of public education programs for the New York University Child Study Center, and project director of www.AboutOurKids.org.

Resources

• NYU Child Study Center's www.AboutOurKids.org offers information for adults on children's mental health.
• Connect for Kids' mental health feature explores why mental health is an important component of kids' overall health.