2018 Feature Picture Story
       [ 50 ] boston press photographers association
First Place
Craig F. Walker
Boston Globe
“Raising Connor”
He is moody and unpredictable. He is easy to love, affectionate, and friendly. Vulnerable, sweet, devoted to family. Impulsive, strong, and overflflowing with emotion. Dreaming of home, always. Never quite at home, anywhere. This is Connor Biscan, a puzzle his family and caregivers have worked long and hard to solve, a boy who lives at the intersection of autism and mental illness. It isn’t so much a rare place — as many as half of autistic children suffer from mental health prob- lems — but it can be a deeply bafflfling one. The overlap between these afflflictions is hard to untangle; diagnosis and treatment can be very diffificult. And a health care system meant to help can instead be frustrating, even harsh.