A friend brought his child to the psychiatric emergency room last week. The kid was admitted for several days because the condition required supervision and treatment. When it became time to contact the school about the absence, my friend was advised by the treatment team: Don't tell anyone why your child was hospitalized!
Why must an episode of medical care be transformed into a shameful secret? The upside of nondisclosure is that privacy is safeguarded -- but the downside is that for the rest of the child's life the kid will face opportunities to get "outed" for the hospitalization. If the kid had a more respectable medical problem there would be nothing to worry about.
So what's a parent to do?
--pk---
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