Noted: Parents want to encourage their children to get treatment and take their medications, but at the same time, they don’t want to push them away. “Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer because there’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all” approach, said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Raison said based on his experience over the years, most of the time parents “err on the side of not pushing hard enough,” which is understandable. The idea of “your kid on the streets” is too much to take.
That said, according to Raison, generally it’s better for parents to push when it comes to getting a child into treatment and encouraging them to take their medications. “I have, over the years, sometimes had to tell parents, ‘Listen you have to suck it up’ and risk having them hit the street briefly because they’ve got to get treatment.”