Dec 21, 2018, Greeneville (TN) Sun: Greeneville Schools Working To Implement Comprehensive Mental Health Program https://www.greenevillesun.com/news/local_news/greeneville-schools-working-to-implement-comprehensive-mental-health-program/article_8f80c317-9145-5e9b-b4cc-1546e1ddc99e.html The statistics are striking: one in five children in the U.S. has a diagnosable mental disorder, half of all mental illness occurs prior to age 14, and children who have mental illness are more likely to drop out of school than those with other illnesses. With more children coming to school with behavioral and mental illness issues, the Greeneville City Schools system is working to provide a comprehensive program to help meet students’ needs. Training for teachers and staff and implementing practices to create positive school environments are among city schools’ efforts to address behavioral issues and mental illness. “The current goal we hope to achieve is to provide our students with a comprehensive school-based mental health program,” said Coordinated School Health Supervisor Jeannie Woolsey. … Part of Greeneville City Schools’ strategy to address behavioral and mental health issues is to provide training to teachers and staff in such areas as ACEs — or adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences are defined as severely negative experiences such as the loss of a parent through illness, death or incarceration; abuse or neglect; or witnessing violence or substance abuse. These can lead to a toxic stress response in which a child’s stress systems go on “high alert” and stay there, … Highland and Greeneville Middle School were among the first schools in Tennessee selected to receive assistance from the state to become “trauma-informed schools.” …
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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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