Rise in calls to Childline for mental health issues prompts call for action

Charities are calling for improved mental health provision in schools as new figures reveal more than 50,000 children and young people contacted Childline last year seeking help for serious mental health problems.

The helpline has seen a 36% rise over four years in youngsters needing help for depression and other disorders, while there was also a rise in the number of youngsters feeling suicidal.

Figures from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) reveal 50,819 children and young people in 2015/16 received counselling for a serious mental health issue – a rise of 8% over four years.

Those aged 12 to 15 made up a third of the sessions, with girls almost seven times more likely to seek help than boys.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said the figures, released at the start of Children’s Mental Health Week, were deeply concerning.

He said: “To ensure the next generation aren’t left to deal with a mental health epidemic, there has to be a much more comprehensive network of professional support and treatment in place that is easily accessible for young people who are desperate for help to get their lives back on track.”

Sam Royston, director of policy and research at the Children’s Society, said it was desperately worrying that so many young people were experiencing problems.

She said: “Whilst such issues may affect any child, in our own research, we have found there is a widening gap between the wellbeing of adolescent girls and boys.

“Many factors may contribute to this – for example we have found that adolescent girls are particularly likely to experience emotional bullying such as name-calling.”

She added: “Failing to address mental health problems early on can severely damage the lives of young people. As a first step all children should be able to access mental health and wellbeing support such as counselling in schools so they get support early to prevent a problem becoming a crisis.”

Childline said early signs of a serious mental health problem in children and young people include becoming withdrawn from friends and family, being tearful or irritable, sudden outbursts, and problems eating or sleeping.

One 16-year-old girl told Childline: “I want to know what’s wrong with me. I have been seeing a counsellor about my mental health issues recently but they just told me to eat and sleep better and forget about the past, which didn’t help me at all.

She added: “I wish I could speak to someone who actually cared about me and I felt comfortable talking to.”

Another young person said: “I’m struggling to cope with bipolar. One minute, I feel so low, like I’m trapped, and all I want to do is disappear. Then suddenly, I feel the complete opposite, and I’m really happy and I start thinking about everything in a really positive light. I feel like I push away everyone that tries to help, I tell them I hate them and blame them for everything. I just feel like I’ve turned into a monster.”

Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen said: “It’s striking how many more children seem to be suffering serious mental health problems today than when we launched Childline 30 years ago.

“So many desperately unhappy children seem to be suffering suicidal thoughts, self-harming, becoming anxious and depressed, with many of them turning to Childline because no other support is available.”

Rantzen said children’s mental health services are already “terribly overstretched” with young people unable to access the professional help they need.

She said: “We believe there needs to be far more emphasis on providing help for these children as they struggle to deal with what are very serious illnesses.”

Sarah Brennan, chief executive at the charity YoungMinds, agreed more support for young people was vital, especially from schools.

She said: “Young people face a huge range of pressures including stress at school, college, university, body image issues, bullying on and offline, around-the-clock social media and uncertain job prospects.

“Difficult experiences in childhood including bereavement, domestic violence or neglect can also have a serious impact on mental health.”

Brennan added: “As a society we need to do far more to prevent mental health problems from developing in the first place. To start with, we urgently need to rebalance our education system, so that schools are encouraged to prioritise well-being and not just exam results.”

Rise in calls to Childline for mental health issues prompts call for action

Meningitis C vaccine shortage prompts fears of key outbreak in Africa

A shortage of meningitis C vaccine is threatening to jeopardise the potential to cope with a likely outbreak of the condition in Africa, global public well being organisations, such as the World Overall health Organisation, have warned.

A Meningitis A vaccine launched in 2010, MenAfriVac, has substantially lowered incidence of that strain but type C infections have been growing and a cheap equivalent that would shield against meningitis C, between other strains, is still many years away.

In the meantime, the members of the Global Coordinating Group for Vaccine Provision for Epidemic Meningitis Handle, which also comprises the Worldwide Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are attractive to pharmaceutical firms to support them by plugging the gap.

Related: Meningitis vaccine withstands African heat with no injury

At existing, they say pharmaceutical businesses have advised them they are unable to provide the newer, a lot more efficient conjugate vaccines, which supply longer lasting immunisation than the outdated polysaccharide vaccines.

Dr William Perea, coordinator of the management of epidemic ailments unit at WHO, explained: “The issue is that now that we have vaccinated 200 million folks there are no far more epidemics with [meningitis] A, but this 12 months was a shock to us because we had been not expecting such a large one particular [meningitis C epidemic] as occurred in Niger.

“What we have told the companies is we want the conjugate vaccine to be ready to prevent epidemics for longer periods but they will not make the vaccine in ample quantities at affordable costs.”

As nicely as the further safety afforded by the conjugate vaccines, they are also ideal for kids, in contrast to the polysaccharide version. Even so, according to WHO figures, they usually value at least ten occasions far more than polysaccharide vaccines, which are priced at about $ 4 to $ five. Even with the producers providing the conjugate vaccines at $ 25 a dose, for the five million doses needed that amounts to $ 125m as opposed to $ 25m for the polysaccharide vaccines.

Folks collect at the well being clinic in Lazaret, near Niamey, Niger, in April 2015, the place sufferers struggling from meningitis are being treated. Photograph: Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty

“Either they assist us have affordable conjugate vaccines or we’ll have to use an previous vaccine that does not supply us with the identical quality,” mentioned Perea.

Meningitis C can trigger serious brain injury and is fatal in 50% of cases if untreated.

There were twelve,000 circumstances of meningitis in Niger and Nigeria and 800 deaths in the very first 6 months of the 12 months but with cases increasing because 2013, the fear is that subsequent year’s meningitis season, which starts in January, could see a considerably larger quantity of instances.

The MenAfriVac stockpile, brought about by way of a public-private partnership, was produced in response to an outbreak of meningitis A in sub-Saharan Africa in 1996-97 that developed 200,000 situations and 20,000 deaths.

It is as well early to say whether or not the C strain will behave in a similar style to A, moving to other nations in sub-Saharan Africa, but Perera mentioned the fact that it had already expanded from Nigeria to Niger in a couple of many years meant that this was a situation it was crucial to put together for.

MSF’s global healthcare coordinator, Dr Myriam Henkens, emphasised the importance of a multivalent vaccine – one particular that covers distinct strains of the illness: “We want vaccine makers to prepare manufacturing of a multivalent vaccine now to let ample lead time and capacity to meet this demand.”

A GSK spokeswoman confirmed the business had been in talks with the WHO and mentioned: “We are evaluating if and how we may possibly be in a position to supply further doses.”

Sanofi Pasteur said it was trying to improve production of its polysaccharide vaccine which covers Meningitis C.

Meningitis C vaccine shortage prompts fears of key outbreak in Africa

Parent’s Outrage In excess of Cell Towers In Schooyards Prompts Petition

While driving through the streets of numerous cities in America an eyesore is revealed that flies in the encounter of logic, mainstream medical literature, and law. If it wasn’t so sad, it would almost be comical to see enormous metal cell telephone towers casting shadows in excess of elementary schools yards and hospital buildings like the Grim Reaper’s sickle. Pathetic attempts to disguise them as palm trees, cactuses, and pine trees border on insulting. Make no mistake that each cell tower you see represents an utter lack of concern for generations of youngsters, households, and communities as a whole. What a lot of in the health-related local community warned of for many years is now coming to the surface in scientific research. An epic examine launched final month chronicles why young children absorb more microwave radiation than grownups and listing the unsafe consequences. In addition, children’s brains have a greater sensitivity to the accumulation of adverse results of continual publicity to EMF. Correlations have been manufactured amongst radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF/EMF) exposure in children and disruption in memory, decline of attention, diminishing leaning and cognitive skills, increased irritability, increased epileptic readiness and increased condition charges. The Global Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), element of the United Nations’ Planet Wellness Organization (WHO) prices RF/EMF as attainable class 2B carcinogens.  In a listing of 2B carcinogens that incorporate lead, pesticides, DDT, gasoline fumes, and chloroform, cell towers are the only class 2B carcinogens to constantly bathe communities across the US and the world.

Here’s Your Examine “Mate”

The way it works is that normally, every single cell tower pays the landowner(s) either a lump sum or a monthly payment to construct and operate a cell tower on their property. Perhaps a bigger question is, on college home purchased with public bucks, why are we permitting private corporations to construct hazardous carcinogenic emitters on leading of our children’s heads? This would be comparable to enabling open air, waste dumping of DDT, pesticides, lead, gasoline, and so forth. on schoolyard playgrounds. Do dad and mom and communities know to who or in which these month to month payments (or 1-time lump sum) for the cell towers are going? Some individuals reading through this may not understand the danger presented by not removing these towers and their EMF pollution from their children’s schools. The petition contained in this report represents a start off down the path to reclaim our children’s well being and expand awareness around radiofrequency electromagnetic pollution in communities and at home.

Sprint, You Are the Weakest Link

A fast survey of the key cell carriers in the United States displays that between the major corporations, Sprint is a single of the moderate to higher emitters of RF/EMF by seeking up their complete coverage using OpenSignal.com. In addition, Sprint sticks out as 1 of the far more vulnerable firms getting a fraction of the personnel in contrast to other cell carriers, reporting the lowest profit margin of any cell carrier (-.05%), and having the lowest stock price of the main players. It all commences with a public petition and based on how Sprint would like to manage issues, can easily move forward into a viral boycott. The purpose is to use Sprint, the financially weakest link in the multi-trillion dollar cell cellphone sector to send a message to them all. What just lately has been demonstrated with businesses like Monsanto is that an educated public can not only affect an individual company’s market place share/market place cap but much more importantly can shift an whole industry according to The People’s will. In the food sector, using GMO components is now an instant fiscal liability for companies. It is clear that smart phones, tablets, computers, and their run-away technology are right here to keep and have provided us communication and info abilities like by no means just before. However, by way of their actions, Verizon, Sprint, AT&ampT, T-Mobile, and numerous others have crossed an inexcusable line by purposely placing earnings more than the overall health and lives of our children and communities.

The Sound of Silence 

A petition could be viewed as a neighborhood and people’s collective voice asking nicely. In the occasion that Sprint (and other cell carriers) disregard or merely give public lip support to The People’s request there are subsequent methods. Sprint reports a total of 38,000 workers as of 2014 whilst Twitter currently reviews a total of 284 million energetic accounts users in above 35 languages and Facebook boasts an amazing 2.two billion users. How prolonged would it get to have an effect on the total revenue and marketplace cap for Sprint if a viral campaign kicked off spotlighting Sprint’s refusal to publicly get rid of their RF/EMF emitting products from cell towers on school house? Their phone center can not be that big.

CLICK Here TO See PETITION TITLED “PUT CELL TOWERS IN GRAVEYARDS NOT SCHOOLYARDS

Closing statement from petition: “We the undersigned of this document strongly urge Sprint and its management to lead the wireless and cellular phone corporate sector in a public pledge to eliminate all cell towers from school property, playgrounds, and all other spots that children and kids commonly gather in communities. Maybe graveyards will be more proper places to location your towers. We The Individuals are not as concerned about the wellness of the folks who reside in individuals places.”

References:

http://opensignal.com/networks/usa/sprint-coverage

http://archive.radiationresearch.org/conference/downloads/021235_grigoriev.pdf

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/write-up/pii/S2213879X14000583

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/site/2014/might/three/monsanto_stock_plunge_nationwide_day_of_action_2014

https://www.adjust.org/p/sprint-put-cell-towers-in-graveyards-not-schoolyards

Parent’s Outrage In excess of Cell Towers In Schooyards Prompts Petition

Children"s want to be thinner prompts contact for parental awareness

Mothers and fathers are currently being urged to be mindful of their eating routines and remarks they make about entire body image in front of their youngsters soon after a government report found children as young as eight have been unhappy with their body size.

At least two in five children aged 8-11 preferred a thinner than common entire body size, the study of a lot more than 4,000 youngsters by the Australian Institute of Household Research identified.

Kids had been surveyed about their attitudes towards their body and their preferred physique dimension at age 8-9, and once again at 10-eleven. Their mothers also answered questions about their child’s eating habits.

By age ten-eleven, most children reported striving to handle their fat. Among underweight young children, 16% of women and eleven% of boys needed to be even thinner than they have been, and half wanted to keep underweight.

Of the boys and ladies who were dissatisfied with their physique, the proportion of mothers who had been concerned about their little one consuming too a lot or unhealthy food was higher between boys than ladies, at 55% and 49% respectively.

Australia’s peak consuming disorder support group, the Butterfly Basis, explained the findings highlighted the significance of parents in marketing self-esteem.

“We would motivate all mothers and fathers to create optimistic body picture and a healthier partnership with food and exercising in order to be constructive part designs for their young children and their youngsters,” basis chief executive Christine Morgan said.

“This is a extremely significant situation for policy makers and health professionals alike in Australia.

“The influence of health campaign messaging about little one obesity, and the messages they acquire from a number of sources every single day about excellent physique form and size, is obviously making an unintended consequence for youthful Australians.”

Whilst there had been no differences in between boys and girls trying to get rid of excess weight, much more boys attempted to gain fat and fewer did nothing to control their bodyweight compared with girls of the exact same age, the study located.

Irrespective of their entire body mass, these young children unhappy with their physique have been far more likely to have poor physical wellness and socio-emotional nicely-becoming compared with young children who were happy with their dimension.

A clinical psychologist specialising in consuming issues and body image, Dr Vivienne Lewis, said that as society grew to become far more image-obsessed, it was turning out to be more widespread for youngsters to overhear conversations about diet and exercising.

“It’s hard for dad and mom, because obviously they want to educate their children about healthful consuming,” Lewis, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Canberra, explained.

“But young children really don’t always interpret issues the way we intend them to.

“They frequently overhear conversations in which adults are talking about diets, fat, very good meals and negative meals – society is now continually talking about body image and young children can be quite perceptive of that.”

At the end of 2012 the Nationwide Consuming Problems Collaboration, a federal government undertaking managed by the basis, finished a large evaluation of the crossover between obesity and consuming disorders policy and technique.

That report located the approaches need to be reviewed collectively to guarantee obesity messages were not unwittingly leading to harm by making vulnerable young children overly concerned about their fat and diet program.

Earlier research from Harvard Medical School in the US found mothers who above-emphasised their issues about entire body fat had been substantially more likely to pass on these attitudes to their young children.

Analysis demonstrated the value of mothers and fathers becoming aware of what they stated, as nicely as the media they viewed in front of children, Lewis stated.

“We also inspire parents emphasise to kids that their body is just one component of who they are, and to talk about the wonderful functions of their physique,” she mentioned.

Children"s want to be thinner prompts contact for parental awareness

Iran"s baby boom decree prompts fears for women"s rights

Iran’s infant boom purchase replaces the ‘fewer youngsters, much better life’ motto adopted in the 1980s. Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Photographs

Iran’s supreme leader has known as for a population enhance in an edict likely to restrict accessibility to contraception that critics fear could harm women’s rights and public health.

In his 14-stage decree, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mentioned increasing Iran’s 76 million-robust population would strengthen national identity and counter undesirable elements of western lifestyles. “Provided the significance of population size in sovereign may and economic progress … firm, rapid and efficient measures must be taken to offset the steep fall in birth charge of current years,” he wrote on his website.

Khamenei’s buy, which need to be utilized by all three branches of government, replaces the “fewer children, greater daily life” motto adopted in the late 1980s when contraception was manufactured extensively offered.

Since then the birth charge has fallen from three.2% in 1986 to one.2%, in accordance to the CIA Planet Factbook. At recent fertility prices, Iran’s median age is expected to boost from 28 in 2013 to forty by 2030, according to UN data.

But several Iranians are concerned about policy shifts to enhance the population, one thing proposed for years by conservatives, including the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who favoured practically doubling the population to 120 million, encouraging girls to remain house and dedicate their time to youngster-rearing.

Reformist Iranians worry the fertility campaign could undermine the position of girls in a nation in which 60% of university college students are female but only 12.four% of the workforce is, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran.

There are also fears about sexual overall health. “In order to fight Aids, our only route is to distribute and teach people to use condoms,” Dr Minoo Moharez, head of the Aids study centre at Tehran University advised Shargh every day. “If, based mostly on some policies, the distribution of condoms in the country is faced with limitations, it will lead to horrible occasions, the boost of Aids sufferers from unprotected intercourse will be compounded.”

Fertility is a single of numerous troubles that divides conservatives and reformists in Iran, where President Hassan Rouhani has named for as easing of social restrictions. He has said minor on birth control, focusing his attention on negotiating a deal with globe powers on Iran’s nuclear programme in order to escape economic sanctions.

Farzaneh Roudi of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based thinktank, said if Tehran was concerned about an aging workforce, it would make use of much more females. “The government could tap the women labour force, several of whom do not work in the formal economic climate,” she said.

Roudi added that the political push for a little one boom was unlikely to succeed. “It’s difficult for me to think about that individuals will have much more children simply because Khamenei needs them to.”

Iran"s baby boom decree prompts fears for women"s rights

Jeremy Hunt"s "hospital closure" clause prompts cross-party revolt

Wellness secretary Jeremy Hunt proposed the changes soon after the court of appeal ruled he had exceeded his powers in attempting to close components of Lewisham hospital. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Pictures

The government faces a serious cross-celebration revolt this week above ideas that would give the well being secretary and officials he appoints better powers to shut hospital accident and emergency departments and other services.

The problem is politically explosive, with campaign groups – such as 38 Degrees – warning all MPs that hospitals in their constituencies could be vulnerable to sudden cuts or even closure in the runup to the 2015 general election.

Ahead of what could be a heated Commons debate, a Lib Dem former wellness minister, Paul Burstow, has tabled amendments to the care bill that are likely to be backed by Labour and some rebel Tory MPs.

They dread the powers would let popular and successful services to be closed or downgraded inside forty days, with no appropriate public consultation.

The controversial Clause 119 was inserted into the bill after overall health secretary Jeremy Hunt was advised by the court of appeal final 12 months that he had acted past his authority in attempting to minimize emergency and maternity services at Lewisham hospital in south London.

The proposed alterations had been element of a shakeup proposed soon after the neighbouring South London Healthcare trust went into administration, with losses of far more than £1m a week. Opponents of the cuts at Lewisham argued that their profitable hospital must not suffer following failings elsewhere. Hunt mentioned providers would be delivered ideal if reorganised over a wider region.

Now Labour as properly as Lib Dem MPs and Tory rebels are insisting on appropriate consultation with nearby medical professionals and services users just before adjustments are created to productive hospitals.

Clause 119, dubbed the “hospital closure clause” by critics, gives powers to a “trust specific administrator”, appointed to a financially failing believe in, to suggest changes across a region. Labour well being spokesman Jamie Reed has signed an amendment put forward by Burstow to require much more consultation and give physicians who commission providers a veto above any reorganisation that follows failure in a separate hospital.

Nick de Bois, Tory MP for Enfield North, who fought a lengthy battle for his regional hospital, mentioned he would not be backing the government: “My constituents have witnessed first hand the flawed, unrepresentative consultations on the future of Chase Farm hospital … I have no intention of voting for a clause that reduces further the voice of patients and residents.”

Shadow well being secretary Andy Burnham said: “It is arrogance in the intense for Jeremy Hunt to ask parliament to give him powers that the high court refused. No hospital in England is secure from this power grab, which would permit funds-driven hospital closures to be imposed on any community. With so a lot of hospitals in economic difficulty, this move will send a chill via each local community in the nation.”

Burstow explained that if a hospital was failing badly, ministers ought to have a “rapid way of assessing the alternatives and repairing the issue”. Even though he accepted that providers provided by 1 hospital have been portion of a internet that linked them to other people nearby, ” the alterations deliver hospitals that are not failing into this fast procedure”. “It is crucial that clinicians and the public are completely concerned, and that is what my amendment is striving to repair.”

A Department of Wellness spokesperson explained: “The NHS is at the moment turning round a variety of hospitals in particular measures, several of which have had deep-seated difficulties for many years.

“In extremis, when a trust goes into administration, it is needed to give the administrator ample energy to consider the difficult choices essential to make sure sufferers get protected care. In such situations lives are put at threat if the difficulty is not dealt with swiftly.”

Jeremy Hunt"s "hospital closure" clause prompts cross-party revolt

Salmonella outbreak in Victoria prompts raw-egg warning

Victorians have been warned of the higher risk of consuming raw or undercooked eggs after far more than 200 people fell unwell from salmonella.

Wellness authorities have linked two eating places to raw-egg foods using goods from western Victorian supplier Green Eggs. The Division of Setting and Principal Industries has limited the sale of eggs from the Green Eggs farm close to Ararat until finally further cleaning and hygiene measures are taken.

Much more than 200 men and women grew to become ill with gastroenteritis right after eating at the Bottle of Milk restaurant in Torquay, and a handful of others suffered the identical fate following dining at St Kilda’s Newmarket hotel.

There have been other isolated situations, and people affected have ranged in age from 9 months to more than 65 years.

Chief well being officer Dr Rosemary Lester says Green Eggs, which supplies a assortment of Victorian eateries, markets and supermarkets, is nevertheless becoming investigated as the definite supply and testing will get a few days. Lester warned that food and drinks containing raw and undercooked eggs, which includes mayonnaise, aioli, egg nog and tiramisu, had previously been linked to salmonella outbreaks in Victoria.

“These food items can be a chance, especially for the elderly and people with lowered immunity, youngsters and pregnant girls,” she mentioned.

Lester said cooking eggs until finally they have been sizzling all the way through manufactured them safe from contaminants such as salmonella.

Any individual who has purchased Green Eggs is advised to use them for cooked dishes only, and eating places wanting to put together raw-egg foods or dressings ought to get their eggs elsewhere even though alterations at the farm are being produced. Lester stated men and women necessary to check out that eggs were clean and without having cracks before getting them.

Washing eggs at residence is also not advised simply because it can make it simpler for bacteria to penetrate the shell.

Salmonella outbreak in Victoria prompts raw-egg warning

Salmonella outbreak in Victoria prompts raw-egg warning

Victorians have been warned of the greater chance of eating raw or undercooked eggs soon after much more than 200 individuals fell ill from salmonella.

Health authorities have linked two restaurants to raw-egg food items employing products from western Victorian supplier Green Eggs. The Department of Setting and Major Industries has limited the sale of eggs from the Green Eggs farm close to Ararat until added cleaning and hygiene measures are taken.

More than 200 folks grew to become sick with gastroenteritis soon after consuming at the Bottle of Milk restaurant in Torquay, and a handful of other folks suffered the identical fate after dining at St Kilda’s Newmarket hotel.

There have been other isolated situations, and men and women impacted have ranged in age from nine months to more than 65 many years.

Chief health officer Dr Rosemary Lester says Green Eggs, which supplies a variety of Victorian eateries, markets and supermarkets, is even now getting investigated as the definite supply and testing will get a few days. Lester warned that food and drinks containing raw and undercooked eggs, which includes mayonnaise, aioli, egg nog and tiramisu, had previously been linked to salmonella outbreaks in Victoria.

“These foods can be a chance, particularly for the elderly and people with lowered immunity, kids and pregnant ladies,” she mentioned.

Lester mentioned cooking eggs until finally they were scorching all the way by means of produced them risk-free from contaminants this kind of as salmonella.

Anyone who has purchased Green Eggs is advised to use them for cooked dishes only, and eating places wanting to put together raw-egg meals or dressings ought to get their eggs elsewhere whilst adjustments at the farm are becoming made. Lester mentioned people essential to check out that eggs have been clean and with no cracks prior to purchasing them.

Washing eggs at home is also not suggested simply because it helps make it less complicated for bacteria to penetrate the shell.

Salmonella outbreak in Victoria prompts raw-egg warning