Jan 5, 2019, Perth Now: ADHD prescriptions for WA kids up 40 per cent in three years https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/health/adhd-prescriptions-for-kids-up-40-per-cent-in-three-years-ng-b881064987z The rate of WA kids being prescribed medication to treat ADHD has climbed 40 per cent in just three years. The increase comes as the Australian Medical Association warned society was becoming “less tolerant” of children who have trouble learning. “Our job (as GPs) is to assess those children and ask, ‘Is this really ADHD or do we just have an over-anxious teacher or parent or an over-demanding school or a school that is simply not tolerant of a student that is being a bit different?’,” AMA WA Council of GP president Simon Torvaldsen said. … Data from the Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation showed in 2016-17 there were 78,926 prescriptions dispensed for ADHD medicines for WA children aged under 17, excluding private prescriptions. This equated to a crude rate of 13,401 prescriptions per 100,000 children. This compared to a rate of 9522 prescriptions per 100,000 in 2013-14 – a rise of 40 per cent. WA’s increase was much higher than the national rise of 30 per cent. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which produces the Atlas reports, said it was “unclear” why the nation’s dispensing rate and volume of ADHD medicines had increased. … He said it was possible that more children were being identified as having ADHD, rather than there being an issue of over-treating. “But I also think that society is less tolerant of children who can’t learn,” he said. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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