Children's Mental Health in the News
Below are general news items about child and youth mental health. For stories about clinical matters in child and youth mental health, please go here.
Youths hope to 'change the view' on kids' mental illness
Tuesday, May 18, 2010The message is simple. It is delivered calmly by seven youths, speaking one by one, in seven languages. Most mental health problems begin in childhood or adolescence. They are real, even though some cultures deny or don’t talk about them, and some families are ashamed. Too many children and teens are suffering alone and in silence. “So now is the time to act,” one teenaged boy explains to the video camera. “No matter where you are from,&...
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Thoughts, prayers for Richardson family
Tuesday, November 16, 2010Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson is opening up his second home — Scotiabank Place — to the community Wednesday to celebrate his daughter’s life. On Saturday, 14-year-old Daron Richardson, died in hospital after she hanged herself at the family’s home. Many are rallying around the family, including the Senators team and former NHLer Kelly Chase who offered his condolences on Battle of the Blades Sunday night on behalf of all NHL players. “Our though...
Full ArticleForum on children's mental health set for North York
Tuesday, November 16, 2010Three prominent speakers will talk about children's mental health at an open ward forum in North York. Dubbed "Healthy Minds - Healthy Students", the ward 5 (York Centre) information session will take place Tuesday, Nov. 23 from 6:45 to 9 p.m. at Rockford PS, 60 Rockford Road just west of Bathurst Street. (A children's movie will be played during the event to keep kids occupied.) Topics include: - Understanding mental health from a 21st century perspective, which will be presented by ...
Full ArticleTelling tales out of school
Monday, November 15, 2010If your kid has been bullied or has special needs but dealing with the school board feels like banging your head against a wall -- you'll probably like this idea. NDP education critic Rosario Marchese, with the strong backing of parent representatives in London, is fighting to get school boards into the portfolio of the ombudsman, Ontario's watchdog, so complaints can be handled there, independent of the boards. "There are many concerns with education and thousands of kids are falling through ...
Full ArticleSuicide intervention programs can train anyone to intervene
Monday, November 15, 2010It's something that's whispered about, rarely discussed openly. But under this blanket of silence, more than one million people worldwide take their own lives every year. Over the past two decades, 100,000 people in Canada have taken their own lives. More people die as a result of suicide each year than those who die in wars, acts of terrorism, civil strife and homicides combined. Suicide is the second highest cause of death amongst Canadian's aged 10 to 24. According to the Canadian Tas...
Full ArticleIs 'extreme exam anxiety' a reason to get out of a test?
Friday, November 12, 2010Excusing a student with “extreme test anxiety” from an exam is the worst possible solution, according to the creator of one of the benchmark test anxiety scales. Richard Driscoll’s work with the American Test Anxiety Association concentrates on the debilitating outer edge of test anxiety, where normal butterflies and tension have morphed into pain and blocked memories. That extreme level has embroiled the University of Manitoba in bitter controversy after a mathematics profes...
Full ArticleStudy links severe acne to higher suicide risk
Friday, November 12, 2010London—People receiving treatment for severe acne may be at higher risk of attempting suicide, but it's unclear whether that is caused by the condition or the drug, a new study says. Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute studied data from nearly 6,000 people who were prescribed the drug, isotretinoin, between 1980 to 1989. The medication has been commonly prescribed to treat serious acne since the 1980s. The scientists could not say whether it was the condition or the treatment...
Full ArticleChildren Diagnosed with ADHD: Epidemic or Misdiagnosis
Friday, November 12, 2010Children are active, imaginative, and sometimes hyper individuals by nature. They are supposed to move around continuously, jump on things, often not listen to what they are told to do, and go off in their own world and daydream a little. If they weren’t doing those things then they wouldn’t be acting like normal typical kids. So why then, are children who are acting in normal child-like fashion, being quickly diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD? Why ...
Full ArticleWords of brave young speakers deeply affected me
Thursday, November 11, 2010His words left me stunned. “I do not suffer from depression anymore because I do not search for happiness. I don’t think I can find happiness on this earth.” “Loneliness kills you faster than anything in this world.” I doubt all the information available on mental illness could as powerfully sum up what depression sufferers deal with on a daily basis. Those words came from a young man in his early twenties who spoke at the Halton Suicide Prevention Coalition&rsq...
Full ArticleLetter to the Editor - by Gordon Floyd re: the Globe and Mail's Series on Health Costs
Wednesday, November 10, 2010Statistics Canada tells us mental illness is the third leading driver of public spending on health care, yet near-sighted governments continue to freeze funding for the inexpensive children’s mental-health services needed by the one in five kids who face mental-health challenges. By spending a bit more when their problems first appear, governments would enable those children to avoid a lifetime of chronic illness that taxes emergency rooms, physicians’ offices and provincial drug pla...
Full ArticleTexting poses health risk for teens: study
Wednesday, November 10, 2010Texting -- sending written messages using a mobile phone – has already been shown to disrupt sleep, cause car accidents and trigger thumb, neck and back pain. But extreme use of the technology could be associated with a broader range of poor health behaviors, including smoking, drinking and sexual activity, according to data presented Tuesday at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting. The researchers say they have coined the term “hyper-texters” for teens who...
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