OT/Child suicide bids rise to more than 4,000

[Guest guest]

Child suicide bids rise to more than 4,000

Children's Secretary calls for greater vigilance to spot those at risk

Jo Revill and Lawless

The Observer,

Sunday December 16 2007

More

than 4,000 children under 14 have attempted to take their own lives in

the past year, according to NHS figures that show the scale of distress

and mental suffering in the young.Statistics being

released this week will paint a terrible picture of how children have

tried to commit suicide. They reveal that 69 attempted to hang or

suffocate themselves and two tried to drown themselves. Most took

overdoses of medicines, drugs or solvents in an effort to end their

lives, but some resorted to more extreme measures. Thirteen children

leapt from a great height, while four lay or jumped in front of a

moving vehicle. One child attempted suicide by deliberately crashing a

car.The records show that 4,241 children under 14 were admitted

to hospitals in England in the 12 months to March 2007 after attempting

to kill themselves. The figures are in a report by the Information

Centre for Health and Social Care, a body set up by the government to

analyse the details behind nearly a million adult and child admissions

to accident and emergency departments each year.The number of

suicide attempts, which has risen slightly in the past five years, will

worry ministers, who are aware that secondary school teachers and

family doctors are increasingly seeing children, particularly young

boys, in states of distress without being able to offer a specialised

support service.Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, has set up a

review of children's and teenagers' mental health services with the aim

of finding ways to stop problems arising. He called last week for more

vigilance in spotting 'distress signals' in young boys.There is

a growing debate about whether mental health disorders are rising in

the young, but there are signs that health professionals are seeing

more young patients. The number of prescriptions handed out to children

under 16 for depression and mental health disorders has quadrupled in a

decade.Isla Dowd, of the charity Rethink, said: 'To have this

number of children attempting to commit suicide in a country where we

are claim to have a culture where every child matters is profoundly

shocking. Children often attempt suicide when they feel that such

drastic action is the only solution to their problems. There is still

not adequate and appropriate access for children experiencing emotional

and mental distress.'About one in 10 children and young people

will suffer behavioural, emotional or mental health problems before the

age of 18, with twice as many young boys under 10 as girls diagnosed

with a mental health disorder.Balls said: 'We know that girls

are better than boys at asking for help when they need it. That is why

we are calling on professionals working with children to keep a close

eye on boys in particular and spot when they are distressed.'Health

Secretary Alan added: 'Having good mental health enables young

people to make the most of their opportunities. However, we know that a

minority of children and young people are at increased risk of

developing mental health problems than their peers.'http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/16/children.socialexclusion

[Guest guest]

Pharma's pushing for Teenscreen type " suicide screening " programs to

be instituted in England and elsewhere (the program was laughed out

of France for the time being). The news starts sounding the alarm

about suicide rates as a way to soften up the public to institute

universal and sometimes mandatory screening/drugging programs. It

happened in the U.S. and it's predicted that these screening

programs will be in all fifty states by next year.

The " mandatory " part is relative to the strength of coercion used by

the schools in forcing parents to follow through with the results of

the bogus suicide screening tests. Some schools will call child

services if parents don't comply with psychiatric referrals (google

Booth).

It's really not like the authorities suddenly " care more " about

children's misery. What's the testing going to accomplish? You know

the expression that's being used about all the testing in schools-

" Weighing the cow doesn't make it gain weight " . The same could said

about psychiatric testing. How about instead of weighing the cow all

the time, they feed it better food, reduce all these crap

vaccinations, give it better schools, better air to breath, better

water to drink and resources to treat rampant environmental injuries

caused by pollution and all these pharmaceutical products to begin

with? What a crazy concept.

The following IS a Scientology sponsored site but the information

and resources are perfectly legitimate, to the point that many

groups which are normally loathe to put up links with affiliations

like this have decided to use this link:

http://www.teenscreentruth.org

The screening tool designed by Columbia U (at pharma's behest) has

an 84% false positive rate, meaning that, of the children positively

screened for suicidality, 83 or 84% will be sent to psychiatrists on

false evidence and 9 out of 10 of those children will walk out of

the doctor's office with a prescription for a psychotropic drug.

Even for the children correctly identified for suicidality,

screening processes have no efficacy in prevention and the drugs, as

we know, all too often make things worse, lead to more completed

suicides and more violent methods used. The entire program is simply

to increase drug sales, that's all.

I think SSRIs are banned in England for children, with the exception

of a few. Children are still being drugged and psychostimulants used

for ADHD also cause suicidality. I'll have to look up more

information about drugging rates in England but I know it's really

bad there, as it is in Australia. It's really difficult to divide up

what the causes of children's suicidality really is. I'm sure some

of these kids were initially drugged because of anxiety due to

subclinical environmental toxicity, though there are also worsening

social and school conditions contributing to this.

>

> Child suicide bids rise to more than 4,000

> Children's Secretary calls for greater vigilance to spot those at

risk

>

> * Jo Revill

> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jorevill> and Lawless

> * The Observer <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/> ,

> * Sunday December 16 2007

>

> More than 4,000 children under 14 have attempted to take their own

lives

> in the past year, according to NHS figures that show the scale of

> distress and mental suffering in the young.

>

> Statistics being released this week will paint a terrible picture

of how

> children have tried to commit suicide. They reveal that 69

attempted to

> hang or suffocate themselves and two tried to drown themselves.

Most

> took overdoses of medicines, drugs or solvents in an effort to end

their

> lives, but some resorted to more extreme measures. Thirteen

children

> leapt from a great height, while four lay or jumped in front of a

moving

> vehicle. One child attempted suicide by deliberately crashing a

car.

>

> The records show that 4,241 children under 14 were admitted to

hospitals

> in England in the 12 months to March 2007 after attempting to kill

> themselves. The figures are in a report by the Information Centre

for

> Health and Social Care, a body set up by the government to analyse

the

> details behind nearly a million adult and child admissions to

accident

> and emergency departments each year.

>

> The number of suicide attempts, which has risen slightly in the

past

> five years, will worry ministers, who are aware that secondary

school

> teachers and family doctors are increasingly seeing children,

> particularly young boys, in states of distress without being able

to

> offer a specialised support service.

>

> Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, has set up a review of

children's

> and teenagers' mental health services with the aim of finding ways

to

> stop problems arising. He called last week for more vigilance in

> spotting 'distress signals' in young boys.

>

> There is a growing debate about whether mental health disorders are

> rising in the young, but there are signs that health professionals

are

> seeing more young patients. The number of prescriptions handed out

to

> children under 16 for depression and mental health disorders has

> quadrupled in a decade.

>

> Isla Dowd, of the charity Rethink, said: 'To have this number of

> children attempting to commit suicide in a country where we are

claim to

> have a culture where every child matters is profoundly shocking.

> Children often attempt suicide when they feel that such drastic

action

> is the only solution to their problems. There is still not

adequate and

> appropriate access for children experiencing emotional and mental

> distress.'

>

> About one in 10 children and young people will suffer behavioural,

> emotional or mental health problems before the age of 18, with

twice as

> many young boys under 10 as girls diagnosed with a mental health

> disorder.

>

> Balls said: 'We know that girls are better than boys at asking for

help

> when they need it. That is why we are calling on professionals

working

> with children to keep a close eye on boys in particular and spot

when

> they are distressed.'

>

> Health Secretary Alan added: 'Having good mental health

enables

> young people to make the most of their opportunities. However, we

know

> that a minority of children and young people are at increased risk

of

> developing mental health problems than their peers.'

>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/16/children.socialexclusio

n

>