Feb 4, 2019, Global News: B.C. government launching new school-based mental-health programs https://globalnews.ca/news/4923204/bc-government-mental-health-fleming/ The provincial government announced funding for new school-based mental-health programs focused on prevention, wellness promotion and early intervention. The NDP unveiled the $3-million investment on Monday that will include grants for all 60 school districts and independent schools for staff training sessions, parent information nights, the development of new resource materials for educators, families and community organizations, as well as student workshops. “With access to new mental-health programs in schools, students will get the help they need when they need it,” Education Minister Rob Fleming said. … The funding will also go towards improving the existing mental-wellness programs…. “Today’s students face social and emotional challenges that are becoming more and more complex all the time,” Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy said…. The Ministry of Children and Family Development has also recently collaborated with Anxiety Canada to create new Grades K-7 anxiety prevention workshops and classroom resources. The program will run through May. According to the province, approximately 84,000 school-aged children experience one or more mental-health disorders at any given time and only one-third receive the specialized treatment they need.
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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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