The sooner we get out of this, the better for all of us…

I have a question. There is no doubt that the current situation is resulting in enormous stress BUT during the mad years we were being told that parents busy lifestyles was having a detrimental effect on the nations children. So where is the correct balance?????

And yet the HSE has moved Child and Adolescent Mental Health clinics out of communities making it harder for families to access much needed services.

Blanchardstown CAMHs was opened due to the high demand on Castleknock CAMHS and worked out of porta cabins for 8 years and were promised a proper buildings. They got them this summer over in cherry orchard hospital. Castleknock CAMHS was moved there as well meaning there are no HSE CAMHS services now on the the north side of Dublin city.

Attending such services are vital but the extra commute time put more stress and pressure on families already struggling and the 4 hours by bus for a 1 hour appointment across the city means such children
will miss even more school.

There was no warning this was to happen, parents were not consulted and the HSE refuses to comment.

Parents will have to weigh up the benefit and impact of trying to attend often weekly sessions in the clinic with
the disruption of having to travel across the city and children who are stressed out when they arrive from the journey will be unable to engage with the help they need.

There are many reasons why mental health would appear to increase in a recession. One is that there are real and new stresses from being exposed to worry about finances. Sometimes this happens because adults speak too freely about serious matters children should not have to hear. Children then experience pressure to do well, behave well or feel guilt because they want things their parents cannot afford. Second, many used to throw money at problem behaviour and this masked problems. Consider how much consumerism we’ve seen and how, fpr a while, you only had to
Ask and you gpt what you wanted. Third, education about life skills is sorely lacking in Ireland. Fourth, many families do not talk together at meal times and children often do not get to tell their stories. Children and young people need to expect this as normal not as exceptional. In short, there are many reasons why mental health will suffer. The recession is a factor but perhaps only a further driver of problems that are already there but are less hard to spot when there are fewer distractions

Kids and especially teenagers growing up in this mess must be the hardest time ever, listening to there parents worry about money and threats from banks and filthy bastard politicians for household charges. Then teenagers being told if they don’t secure a college place after school that there worthless leeches on society if they claim welfare in the eyes of some, and if they do successfully complete college but don’t find work are basically told emigrate until things get better but don’t forget to comeback for a holiday to spend some of the hard earned cash in ireland on overpriced goods and crap services…….Its a joke

I can think of many factors that are probably leading to a surge in mental health issues in children. Considering Ritalin has similar chemical properties to cocaine and is been prescribed to children, that would be one factor. There is also “Equasym” which seems to be quite similar to Ritalin. Most children seem to have a Nintendo DS or X Box and spend a lot of time on them. They should be out in nature, hard as that may
be in the summer we have just had. And the other factor is diet. Too much sugar and processed foods.

I see there was a programme on a while back on TV3 where children were learning in school,
in some kind of pilot project, how to belly breath. It is in the section “Challenging child behaviour”
on the following page: http://www.howhealthyareyou.ie/index.php/series-2/episodes

I do hope there will be some teachers at the conference. It is worrying to see Psychiatrists will be
there as “experts” as their main agenda is to push medication, due to their close links with
Pharmaceutical companies (some Psychiatrists not all are that way). Less than 10% of consultant
Psychiatrists are trained in Psychotherapy.

It would be important for children to have someone they can trust to talk to about any problems
or anxieties they are having. I also hear that Play therapy is good in this area.

Well there is a few facts here to be mentioned. Kids diagnosed with ADD and ADHD get full disability payments living at home when they are 16. Many counsellors and psychiatrists say these kids will grow out of this. But once the child is 18 they have to go through the system like any adult and that in my opinion is why there is a surge in this age group. Parents want their kids to keep the full payments and they will keep them and avoid having to sign on the dole if they can keep the disability for add adhd. Of course it is a psychiatrist who decides this. I know for a fact it is happening.

Apologies for ‘big words’, chris…but if you address mental health you are dealing with the complex, by definition.
But sure ‘ideological hegemony’ aint monosyllabic, either.
Not so much hegemony, as ‘full spectrum dominance’ totalitarianism.
And no, not point-seeking. Regret lack of clarity, but if you elaborate on where the confusion lies, I’ll attempt to clarify. I just reread it…where is the ‘waffle’?

http://www.change.org/petitions/supporting-the-irish-nation-step-down-from-government?utm_campaign=petition_created_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=guides