Raising Troubled Kids: Help for Parents of Children With Mental Illness or Emotional Disorders

"Raising Troubled Kids" is for parents and family members who live with a troubled child or teen. It is a fact-filled and practical guide on how to get a stressful home under control, and includes techniques for working with a troubled child's behavior while balancing the needs of the rest your family. There is professional advice from therapists and psychiatrists who work with troubled children; hopeful research findings; and anecdotes and stories from parents, grandparents, and siblings. The author, Margaret Puckette, lays out priorities that must be different from those of 'normal' families, recognizing that incentives and punishments do not work. It starts with the message that caregivers must take care of themselves, and must draw together the whole family as a team. There are chapters on safety measures; setting boundaries and structure in the home; handling day-to-day stress; and telling the difference between what's 'normal' about your child's behavior, and what requires mental health treatment or extraordinary measures. Sprinkled throughout is humor, wisdom, and practical tips and advice only an experienced caregiver would know.