"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.
About the Author: Margaret Puckette is a professional family coach and writer. She started her quest for how to raise a troubled child when her daughter was diagnosed at 14. She's facilitated family support groups for 20 years, and worked as a Family Partner in the juvenile justice system and in a psychiatric residential center for children and teens. Child and Family Mental Health --Family Coach for parents with mentally ill children, ages 5 to 25+ --Certified Parent Support Provider --Family Partner, Trillium Family Services and Multnomah County Juvenile Justice --Blog: www.raisingtroubledkids.com Speaker --Children's Mental Health Conferences, Portland OR --Grandparents Raising Grandchildren seminars, Portland OR --Family to Family classes, Portland State University --American Association of Children's Residential Centers, San Diego CA, Tampa FL Guest lecturer --Portland State University, schools of Social Work & Social Studies --Oregon Health Sciences University, Schools of Nursing and Psychiatry --George Fox University, Clinical Psychology Other experience --Family adviser for the child psychiatric program at Unity Hospital, Portland OR, 2017 --Oregonian interview on violence and mental illness --Commendation-Oregon Council of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, for "contribution to the well-being of adolescents and families..." --Oregon Public Broadcasting interview on teens and mental illness, --KATU interview on school bullying --Clear Channel interview on bullying, --KOIN News interview child depression --Oregonian interview on her support groups --Volunteer for National Alliance on Mental Illness --Benton County Mental Health Advisory Board --Commission on Children & Families, Corvallis, OR Testimonial "As both the parent of a teenager with a mood disorder and a professional working with other "troubled kids", I wholeheartedly endorse this beautifully written and theoretically sound book. Parents of mentally ill children are often misunderstood, maligned, and misjudged. Ms. Puckette provides practical advice, encouragement and realistic, yet hopeful glimpses into the lives of those of us who walk this difficult path." --Elizabeth H.