Metro

EMBRACING KIDS / ON THE COVER

Janette Shallal, executive

director of Kadima, with Lisa

Kaufman, a licensed counselor

who runs an advocacy and

support group for parents of

kids with emotional disorders.

Meeting The Need

After 25 years of serving adults with mental and emotional illness,
Kadima is opening its arms to children.

Wendy Rose Bice

Special to the Jewish News

N

o one plans on a child develop-
ing an emotional disorder. No
one hopes their sweet baby will
one day have to learn to live with chronic
behavior disorders. It's a heartbreak no
person would ever wish upon another.
But, if a family should happen to find
itself in such a situation, it is natural to
assume help would be easily accessible
in our resourceful community. Not so,
says Janette Shallal, LMSW and executive
director of Kadima in Southfield, a mental
health agency providing clinical, residen-
tial, socialization, rehabilitation support
services to adults — and now children
and adolescents — for 25 years.
After nearly four years of careful assess-
ment, research and planning, Kadima

executives and volunteers received word
last month that its grant application,
"Children: Our Future was accepted by
the Jewish Fund, the grant-making orga-
nization established in 1997 from the sale
of Sinai Hospital and administered by the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
This three-year grant for $195,000 will
enable Kadima to launch the agency's first
Child and Adolescent Program.
"Kadima's new program addresses an
unmet and compelling community need
to provide services to children diagnosed
with serious emotional and behavioral
disorders:' said Sandi Tamaroff, Kadima
president. "Families have been calling
Kadima for the past five years asking that
we provide comprehensive, wrap-around
services for their children. We are now,
thanks to the generous funding from the
Jewish Fund, able to meet these requests:'

Bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depres-
sion, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
anorexia and bulimia are all familiar
terms. They are diseases commonly diag-
nosed — and misdiagnosed.
"With the increased lack of [mental
health] funding and different priorities,
kids with mental and behavioral dis-
orders are not being serviced properly:'
said Shallal, who has led Kadima the past
18 years and is credited for much of the
agency's success.
The Child and Adolescent Program,
parts of which are already up and running,
will be a haven for dozens of area families.
A PhD psychologist and social workers
experienced in adolescent and child ther-
apy will evaluate children referred to the
program or whose parents think they may
be experiencing difficulties. Three profes-
sionals already have been hired.

The critical accurate assessment, the
first step, can be expensive and difficult to
understand. Kadima's services will be free.
Once accepted, Kadima will work with the
child and the family to provide case advo-
cacy, crisis intervention, treatment groups,
counseling and support, respite services,
social and recreational activities.
"Children manifest differently than
adults and are often misdiagnosed, put on
the wrong medications or not diagnosed
at all:' said Jo Elyn Nyman, a member of
the Kadima board of trustees and a pri-
vate therapist who helped spearhead the
new program with Gail Katz, Kadima's
immediate past president.
"What happens next is incredibly sad;'
explained Shallal. Besides isolation and
depression, these kids often are bullied
in school and misunderstood by parents,
Meeting The Need on page 12

March 18 2010

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