July 18, 2018, Herald: Universities upgrade student mental health services, report increasing demand https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12088307 At least 11 university students have died by suspected suicide in New Zealand since 2015, prompting a shake-up of campus mental health services. The figures, released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, show the University of Otago had the highest number of suspected suicides by students, with four last year, and one each in 2015 and 2016…. The figures come at the same time as the first study of its kind in New Zealand showed 56 per cent of tertiary students considered dropping out because of stress, anxiety and depression. It prompted the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, which commissioned the Kei Te Pai Report, to claim tertiary students are failing to reach their potential because of the mental health crisis. The University of Otago was the only one to report formal complaints about its mental health services, a total of nine since 2015. Student health services director Dr Kim Ma'ia'l said the university undertook a review in 2016 that resulted in a broadened and deepened investment in mental health services. That included recruiting more mental health nurses, social workers, counsellors, occupational therapists and psychologists. He said the new team had experienced a 57 per cent increase in direct contact with students compared to last year. At the Auckland University of Technology there had been a 55 per cent increase in counselling and mental health appointments in the semester one pre-exam period of May this year compared to the same period last year. … Public awareness campaigns working to de-stigmatise mental health were also credited with more students accessing services. … The seven universities reported comprehensive health services, some of which had been upgraded to cater for the increasing mental health demand. …
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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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