Aug 3, 2018, Minnetonka (MN) Sun Sailor: Tonka Mental Health Navigators calling for changes across district, community, state Minnetonka moms seek awareness of adolescent mental health https://www.hometownsource.com/sun_sailor/community/minnetonka/tonka-mental-health-navigators-calling-for-changes-across-district-community/article_e7018946-965d-11e8-a887-ebb2566c6bb3.html After recent tragedies, Minnetonka School District mothers are banning together to advocate for mental health awareness, acceptance, research, recourses and solutions to help students who may be struggling. Seventeen members of the Tonka Mental Health Navigators group met July 24 at Minnetonka High School to discuss the mental health crisis in the school district and community. Tonka Mental Health Navigators co-founder Toni Plante, from Shorewood, started the group along with another mother after her daughter Ana Plante, a 15-year-old Minnetonka High School freshman, died by suicide Jan. 31, 2016 after battling depression…. “With my daughter, we just didn’t know what to do,” Toni said. “We went to PrairieCare Mental Health, Park Nicollet to see her psychologist, Relate Counseling Center and she was in the Minnetonka special education program. We were doing everything we could do and there was nowhere else to send her. There just weren’t enough resources.” After speaking about Ana, Toni said she began receiving Facebook messages from strangers who were opening up to her about their own child’s struggles with mental illness. After a 17-year-old Minnetonka High School junior died by suicide on March 22, Toni knew she needed to help. After reaching out to another mother, they co-founded the Tonka Mental Health Navigators group…. Approximately 16 percent of eighth graders, 17 percent of ninth graders and 20 percent of 11th graders in the state are dealing with a long-term mental illness, behavioral or mental health problem, according to the Minnesota Department of Education’s 2016 Minnesota Student Survey. Approximately 16 percent of eighth graders, 20 percent of ninth graders, 22 percent of 10th graders, 25 percent of 11th graders and 29 percent of 12th graders have been treated for a mental, emotional or behavioral problem, according to the 2017 Tonka Cares report. The numbers could be higher because many children are not seeking or being supported enough to get the help they need, … At the July 24 meeting, parents expressed concerns that there wasn’t enough being done to address mental health in the Minnetonka School District and surrounding community. “There aren’t enough resources,” Toni said. “We need to put more money into mental health resources and give the extra time to help these kids get through this.”… Mothers suggested solutions at the meeting, including a mandatory mental health course every semester for all students in the district, stress management options, mental health training for staff and selected students, online counseling sessions with psychiatrists so students won’t have to leave school and more counselors, resources and programs. …
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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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