A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort to add Parental Alienation to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of diagnoses. According to psychiatrist William Bernet, adding PA “would spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research, lend credence to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the odds that children would get timely treatment.”
Fathers & Families wants to ensure that the DSM-V Task Force is aware of the scope and severity of Parental Alienation. To this end, we are asking our members and supporters to write DSM. If you or someone you love has been the victim of Parental Alienation, we want you to tell your story to the DSM-V Task Force. To do so, simply fill in our form by clicking here.
To learn more about our campaign, click here.
On our campaign page we explain:
[B]oth genders can be perpetrators and victims of Parental Alienation, but those hurt the worst are always the children, who lose one of the two people in the world who love them the most.
Sadly, Patricia, a campaign supporter, is an example. She writes:
My two elementary school age sons were taken across the country and brainwashed by their father and his girlfriend against me. After many court dates and years of this pain, I still have not seen them or heard from them at all.
Their father said he knew that this would hurt me. Parental Alienation is real–it is child abuse to our children. Our children deserve the love of both fit parents. It is wrong for any parent to put their very own children through this mental abuse.