Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Read it and weep

Sometimes it almost feels that we are alone in dealing with severe adolescent mental health issues.

But in The Times today is an important investigation into children , unhappiness and depression in what they call Generation Anxiety.

This should be required reading for all parents and teachers.

2 comments:

Jan said...

I looked at this article earlier; as you know from m'blog, I'm prone to reading the paper in bed...but to be serious, it makes disturbing reading.
When I taught Primary( often children with Special Needs), I was convinced on several occassions, that a child's so-called "bad behaviour" ( I quote) stemmed from depression/an innate sadness...
However, some Heads ( certainly not my last one; he was one of the most strong, caring people I've ever met...) but some " shrugged" such words off ...
I am so glad there's more understanding, acknowledgment and realisation at last.

Cathy said...

Jan, a friend of mine has a mantra that 'all behaviour is communication'. Sometimes it must just be their way pf communicating their mental distress.

Mental illness is rarely recognised or dealt with in mainstream schools. Rather than try to understand why my son could not get to school (severe agoraphobia at the time due to bullying), the head just took him off the roll.