Aug 13, 2018, ABC: Canberra to fall short on school psychologists, despite three-year hiring effort http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-13/canberra-to-fall-short-on-school-psychologists-by-2020/10108136 Canberra will not have enough school psychologists to meet the demand of students with mental health issues by the time it has finished hiring in 2020. Last year, the ACT Government committed to employ an additional 20 school psychologists over three years — one of the recommendations made in the Shaddock review, the report launched after the discovery that a boy with autism had been kept in a cage at a Canberra primary school. That review determined there were not enough psychologists to help the growing number of students with challenging behaviours or mental health issues. … The head of the Psychologists Association in the ACT and school psychologist, Rosie Jovanovic, said students were already falling through the gaps. "There's a far greater increase in acute presentations," she said.. … But Ms Jovanovic said while allied professionals did help, schools needed professionals with psychological qualifications who could respond to the complex issues students have. … Ms Jovanovic said school psychologists were frustrated and often burnt-out by the case loads they were managing. "Most school psychs, most schools would be aware of students who are at significant risk of harm or at risk of killing themselves," she said. "Students do fall through the gaps."
top of page
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
bottom of page