I.E.P. stands for Individual Educational Program.  Since a child who is a U.S. citizen is entitled to an education, the I.E.P. programs exist for those children who cannot effectively participate in a regular public school setting.  These programs cater to any number of developmental or behavioral disabilities in minors., which inhibit their ability to learn with other students in a regular school environment.

Additionally, when it is determined that a child cannot receive an adequate education while living at home, some I.E.P. programs are provided as part of residential schools. The reasons why a child cannot live safely or productively at home can be well-imagined and sometimes the biological family unit adds to the stress of the ill child.  Any parent has to consider the level of stress for their troubled child to live at home versus the level of stress in sending them away (perhaps against their will), to a residential program, sometimes very far away from the family and with limited visitations.

When my son became mentally ill at age 15, there were few options presented to us. U.C.L.A. had a partial day program for adolescents, but there was a 6-month waiting list to get in.  We had a family therapist and social workers insist that we could not wait that long to get our son out of big, bad Los Angeles and the recreational drug culture in his high school.   So, like many other unfortunate kids, off to Utah he went.  We did not realize what a huge mistake that was until more than a year later.

What we learned is that the I.E.P. programs may be good and essential for those with behavioral problems or developmental set-backs, but they may not be appropriate or comprehensive enough for an emerging serious mental illness. In fact, he was misdiagnosed at the residential school in Utah and under-medicated. He got a lot worse there instead of better. I wrote about some of the outrageous things that happened to him in Utah in my memoir.

Additionally, an I.E.P. program would be paid for by taxpayers, but an out of state residential school requires exorbitant out of pocket expenses for parents. I would suggest that if the money has to be spent, that it be spent locally on a good therapy team, and have your child remain at home in a familiar environment, if at all possible. Sending a child away from home is just one of many examples, where their tendency to be paranoid ends up being fueled by the actions of well-meaning caretakers.

On the topic of emerging mental illness in adolescents, there is a significant amount of money being thrown at “prevention” campaigns, educating through the school system about mental health issues. This is all well and good, to help de-stigmatize mental illness.  However, serious mental illness cannot be prevented by educational awareness.  Mental illnesses are brain disorders and in the case of schizophrenia, about 1% of the population is genetically pre-disposed to it.

Environmental factors, stress, drug use, and hormonal changes in youth could act as triggers; no amount of education is going to prevent it from happening. But once it becomes evident that serious mental illness has emerged, we can shift our focus to “preventative” care against the worst-case scenarios.  Worst-case scenarios happen when genuine treatment is delayed for so long that irreparable damage is done to the brain and family ties are broken. People who had good potential for functional recovery end up neglected in Board and Cares, jailed, homeless or dead. None of these tragedies would need to happen if we treated serious mental illness with similar compassion and the generous funding used to treat developmental disabilities.

Kartar Diamond is a Mental Illness Advocate and author of Noah’s Schizophrenia: A Mother’s Search for Truth