Feb 2, 2019, KBND Radio, Bend, OR: Helt's Bill Aims to Combat Mental Health Crisis http://kbnd.com/kbnd-news/local-news-feed/422690 SALEM, OR -- A new bill introduced Thursday in Salem would mandate that every county in Oregon create a mental health action plan. The proposal, from Representative Cheri Helt (R-Bend), lays out how various agencies should work together to reduce suicide rates, combat domestic violence and better address homelessness. … If passed, counties would need to submit a Community Mental Health Action Plan by 2021. Plans would be developed through working with local law enforcement, health care and tribal agencies, schools and other relevant agencies, and would need to include measurable goals to help all segments of the population. Helt says the idea draws on her school board experience, "We’ve had so many struggles with kids and mental health and, it’s been a topic that I’ve been passionate about. I don’t think our youth should have to struggle as much as they do. It’s really, really important that we work together and we get things done and move the needle for the people that need help in our state."
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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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