Mental Illness Treatment

Serious mental illnesses can be agony: They are as painful as physical illnesses but further bedeviling because there is no broken bone, no dead heart or lung tissue, no cancer or non-functioning organ to point to.

Unlike cancer or heart disease, psychiatric disorders continue to stand as an enigma to much of the modern world. This often leaves those closest to the patient wondering both how to feel and what to do.

Most children with mental illness respond to standard treatments and interventions and experience relief from their symptoms; for some families, recovery can be a greater challenge.

In the aftermath of the shooting last week on another college campus, I am reminded of a common response to such horrors: to pray and seek solace from...