Aug 14, 2017, The Australian: Students’ mental health crisis exposed http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/secret-documents-expose-school-mental-health-crisis/news-story/c391fd2021f0c01ffee86d9abc9246f4
Children as young as seven are among dozens of pupils who have attempted suicide, self-harmed in front of classmates and in one case killed themselves, according to highly confidential government documents.
Victorian government reports this month on the schoolyard mental health crisis detail horrific accounts of illness and self-harm facing children from Year 2 to Year 12.
They include the reported death of a Year 12 student and other shocking details including potential hangings or chokings, self harming with a knife and transgender related psychological distress.
The incidents highlight the challenges facing educators and parents and will provoke debate about the causes of high mental illness rates affecting many young people across Australia. …
Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said as many as one in every seven pupils in primary school and one in four in secondary schools had endured mental health issues.
He said youth suicide was at its worst levels in 10 years and he urged more strident action from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“This is a generation that is really struggling; I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. …
He also said the earlier onset of puberty had meant that mental health issues were arising earlier in some children.
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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.)
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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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