Every parent wants a happy, well-adjusted child. Unfortunately, one in five American children needs treatment for psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety,
bipolar disorder or schizophrenia; and one in 150 children is diagnosed with autism each year.

For the 10 million families trying to cope with these disorders, each day can be exhausting and frustrating. Add to that, parents of these children face the overwhelming task of juggling services from service providers in a disconnected health and education system: The pediatrician doesn’t know what the psychiatrist prescribes. The school system never talks to the therapist. The insurance company denies the claim. The jargon and the paperwork are endless.

Journalist Wendy Lowe Besmann, mother of children with autism and bipolar disorder, says there is a way to stay on top of this bewildering process. Culled from over a decade of her own experience plus information from 23 health and education experts, she’ll offer clear, family-tested solutions that make a tough parenting job easier, such as: 

• What to say (and NEVER say) in a school meeting.
 
• How to find the insurance company’s “yes” person to solve your claim problems. 

• Ways to make sure important details of a child’s treatment don’t get missed. 

CREDENTIALS: Wendy Lowe Besmann is a journalist, mother of two children with autism and bipolar disorder, and president of the president of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) —Knoxville. TEAM UP FOR YOUR CHILD is her second book.

AVAILABILITY: Tennessee, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone 

CONTACT: Wendy Lowe Besmann, (865) 803-2286 (TN); wbesmann@comcast.net