Displaying items by tag: Mental Health

Official data indicates that diagnoses of mental health and behavioural conditions such as ADHD and autism have risen sharply post-Covid, affecting one in nine British children. The number of children classified as disabled has increased by over a third since the pandemic, reaching 1.6 million. This includes a 144% increase in children receiving benefits for behavioural disorders. In 2021-22, 11% of children reported a life-limiting condition lasting over a year, up from 8% in 2019-20. The DWP reports a 69% rise in disability benefits claims for children in the last decade, with a 17% increase since Covid began. Child disability payments, now at £3 billion, are projected to hit £5 billion by 2030. Over 650,000 children receive disability allowance, with nearly half for learning disabilities, which have surged by 37% in five years. Behavioural disorders like ADHD have more than doubled, affecting around 140,000 children. Experts attribute these trends to factors like increased awareness, lockdown effects, and changing definitions of mental health issues. The government acknowledges the heightened awareness of these conditions, and says it is committed to a balanced welfare system.

Australia's medicines regulator has approved using psychedelics to treat depression and PTSD. This will allow magic mushrooms and ecstasy tablets to be prescribed as medicines at a national level. Ecstasy was developed in 1912 as an appetite suppressant in the USA, but was outlawed in the 1970s. It entered Australia as an illegal party drug in the 1980s, giving increased energy levels, empathy, and pleasure. How Australia rolls out clinical prescriptions for both drugs will be closely watched. Initial access to the drugs will be limited and costly. Many say it’s a landmark moment, but the Medical Association and the College of Psychiatrists have expressed serious concerns about psychedelic treatments. A professor of addiction medicine at the University of Sydney wants larger-scale studies and better research. He warned of known risks of fear, panic and re-traumatisation; and unknown risks of long-term side effects with potentially very limited benefits.

Eating disorders and self-harming have been rising among children and young people for a number of years. Before the pandemic there was a gradual decline in mental health among teenagers and young people, and five children in every classroom had a probable mental disorder. Between 2020 and 2022 around 3,862 thirteen- to sixteen-year-olds had eating disorders. In the same age group, 9,174 cases of self-harm were recorded. During the pandemic, prolonged access to social media, more focus on body image and less face-to-face contact may have led to feelings of low self-esteem and psychological distress, particularly among adolescent girls. Nevertheless, the NHS is currently treating more children and young people than ever before, with healthcare professionals under huge amounts of strain. Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at charity Beat, says there is a postcode lottery for care and everyone needs to get the help they need as quickly as possible.

The Met Police will stop attending emergency mental health incidents from September, only responding if there is an ‘immediate threat to life’, thus freeing up officers untrained in mental health issues to deal with crime. The Royal College of Psychiatrists called this ‘unhelpful’. Police are concerned about ‘mission creep’ - police filling gaps left by cuts to other services. But when Robert Peel birthed the Met the police were ‘paid to give full-time attention to everyone in the interests of community welfare’. Community welfare includes the confused elderly man gone missing or the young girl in the street distressed. The Met’s plan was adopted by Humberside Police’s Right Care, Right Person scheme in 2020. Now mental health calls are dealt with by mental health professionals. It successfully improved outcomes, reduced demand on all services, and has the right care delivered by the right person.

Texas has passed a bill that would allow public schools to hire chaplains in addition to school counsellors. A version of the bill sailed through the state Senate last month, and the House passed an amended version on 9 May in a vote to give school districts all the help they can muster to combat mental health problems and other crises. The Democrats' amendments to require parental consent was rejected, as was barring schools from using public funds for religious services. The School Chaplain Association believes the bill will increase school safety without intruding on students' religious beliefs. Schools will provide a representative of every denomination. To be eligible for the programme, chaplains must be endorsed by an organisation recognised by the US authorities.

Sudanese passports are locked inside European embassies. Spain's foreign ministry urged people to obtain travel documents from the Sudanese authorities. Mohamed was waiting for his visa for a Spanish holiday when war erupted. He phoned the Spanish embassy to retrieve his passport. The receptionist asked, ‘Are you Sudanese or Spanish?' He said he was Sudanese, she immediately hung up. Mr Badawi works for a French company. His passport was at the French embassy and they refused to return it. There are many more trapped. 15.8 million people already needed humanitarian assistance before the conflict. Now the situation is dire. Water, food, fuel, and medical supplies are scarce. The UN and partners are working to reboot the humanitarian response. Also the toll on children and young people’s mental health is profound. Additionally, the cost of transportation out of the worst-hit areas has risen exponentially, leaving the most vulnerable unable to move to safer areas.

Justin Welby has spoken candidly about taking antidepressants instead of ‘something much worse.’ In a Holy Week lecture series at Canterbury Cathedral, he spoke of having professional help with his mental health, saying, ‘As the psychiatrist I see tells me, the aim is not to make me so laid back that I'm horizontal, but just to settle things enough that I react like an average sort of human being. I'm sad when things are sad, and happy when they're happy, and so on and so forth.’ He likened human emotions to Winnie the Pooh characters, comparing himself to Eeyore, the often melancholy donkey, as opposed to a ‘bouncy’ Tigger. Some of us are Tiggers, some are Eeyores. Probably, some are other characters in Winnie the Pooh.’ The lecture was based on the emotional rollercoaster within the Easter story, from Jesus' persecution and death to resurrection joy.

An undercover reporter worked inside the Edenfield Centre caring for people held under the Mental Health Act who are at serious risk of harming themselves or others. With a hidden camera, he filmed staff swearing at patients, taunting and mocking them in vulnerable situations - when they were undressing - and joking about their self-harm. Patients were being unnecessarily restrained as well as being slapped or pinched by staff on some occasions. Some female staff acted in a sexualised way towards male patients. Ten patients were being held in small seclusion rooms, designed for short-term isolation to prevent immediate harm, for days, weeks or even months, with only brief breaks. Patient observations, a crucial safety measure, were being regularly missed, and records falsified. Seven members of staff were seen sleeping on shift. A consultant psychiatrist said the footage showed a ‘toxic culture’ among staff of ‘corruption, perversion, aggression, hostility, and lack of boundaries’, which were undermining patient recovery.

Lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation is the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years at a time. Why? Simply because they have a psychosocial disability (mental health condition). This inhumane practice called ‘shackling’ occurs because of the widespread stigma surrounding mental health, and a lack of access to adequate support services, both for those with disabilities and for their families. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children - some as young as ten - have been shackled at least once in their lives in over sixty countries. In 2020 #BreakTheChains published a ground-breaking report exposing the global scale of chaining, and in Kenya, achieved a ruling which found that this practice was inhumane and held the people responsible to account.

A second-year history student at Cambridge University died in March 2022, three other students died in May, and another in June. The history student was ‘on course to finish as one of the most accomplished students in his year’. The coroner said there was ‘absolutely no indication that he was struggling’. He had had no contact with college counselling services, and his GP confirmed there were no mental health issues. Prof Graham Virgo said that after the fourth death they approached the NHS and public health agencies to investigate and review what had happened and what lessons could be learned. He said, ‘There was no common cause behind these student deaths, but after reflecting on the review, we have considered various aspects of our practice and implemented training in suicide prevention.’ Across the UK there is an increase in the number of young adults experiencing mental ill health. Pray for the bereaved families.