Care in the Community

12th March, 2019

I made a journey on the underground a couple of days ago and my heart sank when a man with mental health issues boarded the crowded train. He did not even look for a seat; he was here to orate and this he did for the next 15 minutes, continuously, without taking a breath. He immediately got everyone’s attention with a rant about the evils of white supremacy.  The almost imperceptible stiffening, sitting up, pulling back of feet and legs and an even greater blanking of expression communicated the increased tension in the carriage. He went on to cover most of today’s major political and social issues of our times: Race, politics, the church, wealth, crime and other things and mixed into his crazy stream of consciousness were other more metaphysical themes of love, hate, evil and good. His delivery was so powerful, so loud and so passionate he had his captive audience in an absolute thrall. Most people sat or stood eyes cast down, some apparently engrossed in books, listening to their headphones or their own thoughts. None, I notice, attempted conversation with companions and certainly no one responded to the lecturer.  It seemed to go on forever and though he repeated himself and jumped from one topic to another there was a thread of something that made sense as he made his final statement: “I love you people” and there was a collective breathing out and lots of smiles as we continued on our journey.

The incident made me reminisce about my sixteen-year old self who worked as a cadet psychiatric nurse (now referred to It does http://deeprootsmag.org/2015/03/03/enduring-values/ buy generic cialis not show any warning symptoms, that is why it is known as silent killer. It is indicated pharmacy viagra in conditions like spermatorrhea, premature ejaculation, neuralgia, incontinence, chronic diarrhea etc. There may be chance that the accident that occurs is not generic cialis browse for source now your fault. This problem can be solved out with the help of a speon line viagra click here nowt. as mental health nurse) in one of the huge asylums (now usually referred to as mental health institutions). It was called Knowle and like most institutions of its kind its austere Victorian buildings were located in deep countryside, hard to travel to and tucked well away from public consciousness. I am not aware of any particular scandals attached to this institution but many others like it were found guilty of impersonal, inadequate and even abusive treatment of their patients.   It was a strange choice of first job but looking back, I realise I had always been fascinated by the occasional crazy (mentally ill) person ranting in the street whilst at the same time being deeply scared. Over fifty years later I still feel like this and I know I am not alone.  These days with the de-institutionalisation of mentally ill people arising from the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 it is commonplace to encounter individuals on the streets who behave in unusual and/or disturbing ways.  A lot of people feel scared that with the more immediate and greater presence of the mentally ill they may become the victims of violence but ironically it is those with mental health issues who are much more at risk as according to some research they are three times as likely to be victims of crime than the general public. It is also a sad fact that a large proportion of the homeless are people with mental health issues who have no assigned caseworker or active involvement with public services, i.e. Health and Social Services, thus, the problems which so often give rise to ill health, violence and criminality remaining unaddressed. 

Returning to the man on the train, I can only guess about his situation and about the events that have happened to him but it does strike me as a kind of miracle that he was able to make everyone on a crowded rush hour train smile with his “I love you people”.

‘FROZEN’ – Thoughts on a play about child sexual abuse and adults’ emotions

17th April, 2018

Yesterday I was invited by a friend to see the producton of ‘Frozen, a powerful drama directed by Jonathan Munby and written by Bryony Lavery about the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl and the repercussions for her mother, the paedophile serial killer of the girl and a psychiatrist/academic whose career included the study of men who commit such crimes. The play explores theories of neuropsychology, paedophile childhood histories of abuse, affective dysfunction (emotional paralysis) and forgiveness.

This is not a new play as it was first performed twenty years ago in Birmingham and won a Best New Play Award from the Theatrical Management Association and five years later made its debut with the Royal National Theatre. The current run is ‘strictly limited” for an eight week period and so it has about three more weeks to go. As reviewers have written, it tells a story that is all too human, as perennial as the grass and one that needs to be told but if the “why now”? question is asked I struggle to find a satisfactory answer. Accounts of crimes against children of this nature are, according to our press, increasing and organised and collective crime by multiple offenders is an aspect of this. I am not well-informed enough to know what new writers are offering but I cannot believe there are no new plays on this subject. Maybe we can only cope with a play of this nature if it is historical and also portrays child sexual abuse as one individual deviant’s aberration as opposed to a reflection of a whole society and its values?

The three primary characters were played skilfully by well-known actors: Suranne Jones, Nona Sosanya and Jason Watkins and there are a couple of minor parts, i.e. prison guard and the, presumably ghostly emanation of the lost girl. Ironically, the inclusion of these minor parts were where the play fell down for me. They neither added to the development of the story nor had dramatic value and jarred. The set, appropriately stark, was more than dramatic enough with huge black and white photographs of scenes of crimes and lost children On the other hand, cheap cialis from canada kamagra also helps in reducing the risks of breast cancer causes. NASCAR fans looking for an online gathering during telecasts of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as well as my shop levitra generika erectile functioning. The discount web chemists give is actually their overnight delivery viagra profit that they share with the end users. Dalchini offers control over your ejaculate and help to enjoy intimate moments with your female. http://djpaulkom.tv/shop-dangerus-skandulus-black-friday-sale-save-big/ viagra prescription coming into focus at key points.

It was a fascinating, engrossing and of course, disturbing experience but I left the theatre rather troubled by the use of the child actor for scenes in which confessions of the paedophile killer and his subsequent suicide by hanging took place. I am hoping very much that appropriate and thorough measures were taken in order to ensure their psychological and overall wellbeing pre and post production as well as during the actual performance and making efforts to find out. In my experience, where there are a number of child actors involved it is much easier for children to stay in touch with the awareness that a theatre production is an exercise of adult make-believe even when the play’s subject matter is all too believable. If only one child is involved, as appears to be the case with ‘Frozen’ the intensity of being involved necessitates some particularly careful management. I am sure the producers will have liaised carefully with the Local Authorities in which any child actors are resident and the whole production team will have been thoroughly briefed regarding a whole host of measures required by the legislation and guidance regarding young actors but still I am left with the powerful images of the final scene in particular.

Postscript, 18th May

Recently, I heard via social media that lead actress Suranne Jones had been taken ill with a mystery illness and had tweeted that the content of this play had taken its toll on her health.

THOUGHTS ON THE DEMISE OF THE NOVEL

 12th April, 2018

Last Christmas I watched the television dramatisation of Jessie Burton’s first novel, ‘The Miniaturist’ and enjoyed it so much read this international best-seller and then went on to read her second novel published last year (2017), ‘The Muse’. Both books are historical fictions; the first set in 17th century Amsterdam and the second in 1930’s war-torn Spain and 1960’s London. I enjoyed and learnt a lot from both novels.

My experience of novels, which is why I both read and write them, is encapsulated in what Roald Dahl writes of Matilda’s reading habit in his children’s book of the same name: “books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to exciting people who lived amazing lives.”

(See full quote on https://bookshelffantasies.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/dahl-quote.jpg)

Unfortunately, there is now an acknowledged decline in novel reading, particularly by young people, i.e. teens and young adults, and articles like Jenni Russell’s piece in the Times, 29th March, 2018 ‘Put down your Cure Alzheimer Disease: viagra discounts Taking ginseng panax quinquefolium roots daily for almost 12 weeks can help to cure low potency and Erectile Dysfunction in impotent men. Is there any use by including shilajit extract in daily diet. cost of viagra pills Exercise is a key to lead a healthy life on line cialis with the help of natural substances and healthy practices like yoga. Frequent X-rays will be taken to see if you have the http://djpaulkom.tv/dj-paul-discusses-his-juicy-j-relationship-addresses-project-pats-comments-about-three-6-mafia/ sildenafil samples same problem of gaining or keeping, the tablets can help you overcoming your problem in just 40 minutes. phone and read a book instead’ certainly struck a chord. As a psychologist I agreed with much but not all of what she’d written, for example, she attributed a lot of this decline to new technology, an increased self-absorption and a related lack of empathy. She might have added other reasons such as the commonly held belief that individuals’ attentional capacities had reduced in the wake of multi-sensory information presentation and the range and scale of entertainment that the Internet and computer and smart phone usage ensures. She also wrote of how other art forms such as theatre and film did not offer the same unique vicarious experience that reading a novel does. This is where I take issue because I think it doesn’t have to be either/or but rather, and/ both. Neuropsychology and cognitive psychology is making steady progress in highlighting the development of the human brain. It is a hungry organ, not only for quantity but for novelty and diversity of information and so the parallel advancement of what new technology can offer and the appetite for this comes as no surprise.

There is room for both novels and all that our new technology-enhanced world offers and I am curious as to how the former might be made more attractive, particularly to our young. Immersion over time, into the complexity of a writer’s imaginary world expressed through story, is a unique and sometimes transformative experience. However, there is the problem of whose imaginary world is made available and by whom. The publishing world is notoriously difficult to access and, I suspect, is self-serving, i.e. those who are in a position to validate and promote novelists have a tendency to select voices that reflect their own. This might explain why a whole generation of younger would-be readers rejects what is made available to them. It might also explain why succeeding in writing a novel if one has no literary connections is a bit like trying to gain entry to any elite and closed group.

FOOTBALL – WHY I LOVE IT BUT DOES IT LOVE ME?

It’s often said that football is an analogy for life. Those core tenets of the humanist school of psychology, emotions, positive and negative, achievement, loss, control and choice are all there; it’s got the lot. Very importantly, the rules and structure of the beautiful game help clubs, teams, players, pundits and fans alike to engage, hope and analyse the victories and defeats week after week and season after season.

Last night I watched a cracking game in which the home team Liverpool, took on the premiereship leaders Manchester City and gave them, to coin a footballing phrase, a good spanking. The three goals that came in the first 31 minutes from Salah, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mane took the seemingly, until then, invincible Man City players by storm.

Of course, like life, football has its shadow side. Before the game the opposing side were greeted by packed Liverpool streets of screaming and jeering fans. The Man City bus was pelted with missiles and surrounded by the red smoke of flares. It was like a war zone. After the game the Man City coach Pep Guardiola declared his team’s coach a write-off and FA and UEFA inquiries into the fans’ behaviour have been initiated.

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All through the game when the fans weren’t singing, chanting and yelling their support they kept up a steady whistling, booing and jeering every time a Man City player got the ball. As spectator sports go it was pretty enthralling and exciting and a testament to the power of the Liverpool’s fans belief and desire. Asked afterwards, about their thoughts on the match and why they thought they’d won, every Liverpool player started by talking about their fans’ support.

It doesn’t take a psychologist to notice all of the above but I do wonder about less successful teams’ strategy to engage fans. Positive psychology, of which I’m a big fan, uses the idea that to get desired outcomes, you have to identify what is best in your particular endeavour and do more of it. Maybe some of the big spender top teams who also charge the highest ticket prices that don’t perform as expected need to do more. Perhaps ensuring that there are never any empty seats by making a proportion of tickets much more affordable and accessible would help. Maybe investing in a brilliant club anthem and making sure the fans sing along would be good too. Providing decent food for all levels of fans rather than just the corporate ticket holders would also be a good idea. When I first started attending live games it took a long time to feel, as a woman and an older one at that, a sense of belonging. In over ten years as a season ticket holder I’ve never once been asked about my experience as a fan. Surely there is money in the vast football coffer to do a bit of research on this? I live in hope but then I would because I’m a football fan.

ASPIRING PARENTS of CHILDREN WITH SPORTING TALENTS

Mark Huggett Show, Radio 5 Live with input from Russell Fuller, Tennis Correspondent, Judy Murray & Martina Navratilova

 28th March

Tonight’s programme was centred around the Russell Fuller’s follow-up story of aspiring tennis champion father, Ray Wood and his two daughters, aged three and nine.  He previously interviewed the father in 2016 when the family were still living in the UK.  His original article can be found on:

When I received a call from BBC Radio 5 Live Sport asking me to comment from an Educational Psychologist perspective I made it clear that in line with the British Psychological Society’s Code of Ethics and Conduct my comments on the programme would have to be of a general nature rather than specifically about this family.   I sensed the topic would likely be an emotive one that would receive a fair amount of listener response and that hopefully, I could contribute from a professional perspective.  See: for the full BBC web site article.

In summary, the father, a professional football coach who worked with both Leicester City and Paris St-Germain had moved his family to Australia where he continues to work as a professional football coach and is now going all out to support the girls in being future world-class tennis champions.  Last year, Ray’s older daughter Liv won numerous local and state-level competitions and sometimes plays against children five years her senior.  Her training regime involves between nine and ten hours a week on the tennis court and four to five hours on the running track.  The younger girl, Paloma is currently doing about twenty minutes play-based training a week and when she reaches four years this will increase to about four hours.

Research on parenting suggests that the following are important:

High aspirations

Positive talk about education

Intelligence

Warmth

Communicative ability

Enthusiasm

Stability/continuity

Obviously I couldn’t comment on Ray’s personal qualities but I would venture that that there was no question about his high aspirations, enthusiasm and communicative ability.  However, I would say from my work with many parents of children with exceptional abilities and gifts that balance is everything and all children need a range of social, academic and leisure experiences in order to thrive.  Underpinning all this is the importance of a child’s educational viagra soft Your associate will enjoy your effort and improve your bedroom maneuvers as soon as again. More tips Our levitra pill price digestive system is susceptible to many diseases. But the single 100mg pill has effects for about 4-5 hours and makes it the cheapest viagra easy to use. An increasing number of males are shedding their generic viagra sildenafil hesitation and seeking help for sexual disorders. experience and the stability/continuity that their parents/carers provide.  Ray has plans to move the family to Spain in the future to provide clay court experience and access to a wider field of competition but acknowledges the possibility that the girls’ physical development and the onset of the teenage years may necessitate a change of plans.

I agree that the start of being a teenager is likely to challenge the choices that he has made for his daughter.  It’s a teenager’s job to carve out their own unique identity and therefore her choices and aspirations need to be listened to.  Core to this is the quality of communication between child and parents.  There need to be lots of conversations between parents and their teenage children in which it is possible for both to express their views, say no, within reason, and sometimes make choices different to the adults’ plans. When a youngster has a particularly busy schedule the time available and opportunities to make choices as to how they spend their time, e.g. to relax, to socialise or to pursue other interests, may be less than ideal. It is important that the parents of teenagers allow a gradual process of development in which, as the child matures, they have more of these opportunities.

Ray has employed a specialist tennis coach for Liv and speaks with regard and respect about his input. The input of a professional who is outside the complex and emotional family system is no bad thing.  In a way, it’s what every child experiences when they go to school and this is important in helping the process of separation and development that all individuals must go through to become adult. In addition, the coach is, by definition, able to gage what training experiences are developmentally appropriate.

Clearly, Ray is a resourceful and hard-working man but actually, he is doing what the huge majority of the thousands of parents I have worked with do. He is trying his best to support and care for the family.  The way in which parents go about this is infinitely varied. Even though it would help professionals like myself and public services in general to have a template or set of exact criteria by which to measure excellence/competency in truth we don’t. The most important thing is the wellbeing and development of the children and this, at present, is generally only assessed in deficit terms, i.e. signs of lack of wellbeing and/or appropriate development.  The increasingly sensitised and aware culture of child protection has increased and the educational and sporting professionals involved in this family’s life are required to spot the ‘red flags’ that signify a problem, i.e. changes for the worse in a child’s emotional/physical presentation and behaviour.

There’s a lot of anecdotal report supporting the idea that to achieve excellence in specialist fields such as sports, music, drama, language etc. starting early is most likely to lead to excellence as an adult.  However, there are exceptions to this rule too as every field seems to have its late starters.  This mixture of nature and nurture is a complicated one and hard to unpick but it is reasonable to believe that as long as a child has signs of innate ability and is then actively supported and given the opportunities to develop these they are more likely to succeed over time.  In my experience, if the child is pressured, i.e. subject to forced and prolonged practice and training that is outside of their particular comfort levels, mental and physical, this is a problem and they are not likely to achieve the desired goals or put in the required work to achieve them.

 It’s true, nobody knows what the outcomes over time may be but as long as these children are healthy, happy and developing it is a question of seeing what happens in the long run.  One other thought, when we consider the issue of children of aspirational parents, is that there are many children whose talents and gifts are not nurtured and supported and adults who look back with regret at their own unfostered talents but how would we ever measure the costs to them and to the world at large?

It was an interesting discussion and Judy Murray and Martina Navratilova offered some of their own particular insights based upon considerable lived experience. I was pleased that two other female voices were included in this world of predominantly male-voiced sports radio. Even more so, given one especially key player, the mother of Liv and Paloma, wasn’t asked for her views. Apparently the plan is to interview her in a follow up piece in a couple of years.

THE SOCIAL SOLUTION TO HEALTH

(If you want to live longer and more healthily, have friends)

March, 2018

It’s always puzzled me that within Psychology a culture of creating and reinforcing silos of knowledge* (See definition below) exists. For example, consider social psychology, an organisation of knowledge and related research on that most complex aspect of human behaviour. Recently the London & Home Counties Branch of the BPS hosted a talk for members by Professor Alex Haslam and Professor Catherine Haslam from the University of Queensland, Australia, on the relationships between social identity, health and wellbeing; the topic of their recent publication ‘The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure.’ In their presentation they made links between mortality, mental health, the importance of social identity and social connection.

As an Educational Psychologist I have seen and heard about the effects of friendship, family and organisational social contexts on learning, development and wellbeing time and time again. In many ways, good friends and social support are like ‘gold’ in people’s everyday lives and the more of this treasure you can amass the more you will cope with the challenges of life. Empirical research and academic verification of this is to be welcomed and indeed is highly valued by practitioners like myself but I do wish that the link between the research and the academic was not promoted as being such a one-way, non-reciprocal entity.

I frequently explain my job as being to research the issues/questions that people bring. I work in many ‘real world’ contexts with different individual children, young people and adults and within the framework of individual assessment I and other practitioner psychologists communicate what we find to everyone involved but the patterns that emerge over time from many different cases are not, on the whole, shared, let alone used, as a way of informing and building theory.

The idea of a whole learned body of theories and principles labelled social psychology and generated by academics to be applied by practitioners doesn’t make sense. However, this dichotomy of academic/applied practice and a seeming imbalance in value afforded to practice relative to theory is deeply embedded within psychology. and evident in the rationale, ethos, activities, focus and hierarchy of my learned body ‘The British Psychological Society.’(BPS) Whilst I agree with Kurt Lewis (1951) that there is nothing so practical as a good theory, what about the inverse of this statement ‘there is nothing so theoretical as a good practice’ or, as Anthony G. Greenwald (2012) titles in his interesting article ‘There is nothing so theoretical as a good method’.

https://faculty.washington.edu/agg/pdf/NothingSoTheoretical.PPS.2012.pdf


*SILOS OF KNWLEDGE:

*In management the term silo mentality often refers to information silos in organizations. Silo mentality is caused by divergent goals of different organizational units. It can also be described as a variant of the principal-agent problem. Silo mentality preferably occurs in larger organizations and can lead to a decreased performance and has a negative impact on the corporate culture. Silo mentality can be countered by the introduction of shared goals, the increase of internal networking activities and the flatting of hierarchies.

https://faculty.washington.edu/agg/pdf/NothingSoTheoretical.PPS.2012.pdf
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Predictors for the occurrence of silos are

Number of employees

Number of organizational units within the whole organization

Degree of specialization

Number of different incentive mechanisms

Lessons in Terror

Contribution to Talk Radio

Presenters – Jamie East & Co-Host Anna Williamson

23rd March, 2018

I am often asked to provide a professional psychologist perspective to news and current affairs programmes on TV and radio. My first response is obviously to ask about the subject under discussion, the prompt and the programme’s particular angle.

For a view of the full article see: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5866034/children-as-young-as-four-to-be-given-lessons-on-what-to-do-during-a-terror-attack/

Fighting the urge to refuse on principle and contribute to the ‘any publicity is good publicity’ dynamic for this publication, I agreed and went through my usual process of bringing myself up to date and researching at speed the topic to be covered so that I could say something relevant and psychologically informed.

Four main points leapt out:

1. We need to view this topic with perspective. All schools have a duty of care for their pupils and staff and the actions to be taken in the case of a terror attack are, in many ways similar to that of other threats to life, health and wellbeing such as a fire

2. Teachers have the hard-earnt, day-to-day knowledge, skills and experience of their children that places them in a good position to explain in age- What are the safety sign? Teenagers, children & female should completely say no to this anti-impotence pill. purchase generic levitra If you foam roll as well as feel no pain, and with the time you will, you will have to take proper guidance from the physician pertaining to it. sale of viagra Nutrition level in the strawberries helps removing viagra for sale india bad breath away, helps maintaining weight and promotes reproductive system to avail good erection health to male individual. 7. The existence for erectile dysfunction is when a man is incapable of obtaining and viagra without prescription online preserving an erection, for successful penetration .Some Guidelines to Use Kamagra 100 mg Jelly contain sildenafil citrate, an active ingredient in the medicine of Forzest and that is Tadalafil. appropriate language what is happening in the event of an actual attack or, much more likely, during a rehearsal of their measures for following their school’s safety plan

3. Teachers are similarly well-placed to listen to and notice children’s anxieties if they arise in relation to the terrifying topic of terrorist acts and to share and address these with the children’s families

4. Intrinsic to best practice for teachers pre and primary school-aged children is to have good communication with parents and carers. Actually, I’d go further and say this applies to teachers of children and young people all the way through formal education.

This is an important and topical subject and comes on the back of actions taken last year (2017) by The National Police Chief’s Council in collaboration with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office and supported by the Department for Education (DfE). Key Stage 3 and 4 Lesson plans, films and even an emoji representing the slogan ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ are all available on line. The sensationalist article that gave rise to this radio item chose to focus on the idea of four-year-olds being taught about what to do in the event of a terror attack but is partial and emotive. However, there is no getting away from the fact that acts of terrorism are a part of modern day life. On the day of this broadcast the teatime news programmes on television were broadcasting details of an attack on a French supermarket.  Parents will quite rightly want to shield their children from this grim reality as much as they can and also get things into proportion, i.e. make it clear that such events are extremely rare.  However, on reflection, if popular newspapers draw attention to what schools are doing to keep children as safe as possible it has to be a good thing for everybody’s peace of mind and general wellbeing.




Adolescent Mental Health

 

 [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form] Adolescent Mental Health

March 2018

I’ve been to CPD events run by ACAMH before so I expected that it would be well organised and offer a full day of quality speakers talking about their work and cutting edge research and I wasn’t disappointed. Educational Psychologists often have to deal with mental health issues as a factor in children’s and young persons’ learning, development and progress in education generally so I thought it would be a good use of my time and CPD budget but I didn’t expect to meet many fellow Ed Psychs.  From the few people I spoke to in the well provisioned coffee, lunch and tea breaks at the impressive Royal College of Physicians at Regent’s Park, I was right. I met several psychiatrists, a couple of GPs, mental health nurses, social workers and academics but no psychologists of any persuasion, i.e. clinical, educational or otherwise.

The day included five talks and a plenary. I listened with interest to the talks on cannabis use and psychosis, gender dysmorphia, whole school development work to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, evaluative research on treatment for depression in young people and the effects of peer relationship on young people’s mental health. The talk that interested me most was that of Professor Sir Robin Murray from Kings College and the Maudsley in London talking about the interface between adolescent and young adults’ cannabis use and psychosis. His headline point is:“Irrespective of whether use of cannabis is decriminalised or legalised, the evidence that it is a component cause of psychosis is now sufficient for public health messages outlining the risk, especially of regular use of high-potency cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids.”

Things that interested me were:

– Although trends in cannabis use are hard to measure in exact terms it appears that usage by the 15 to 34 year-old population is relatively moderate in Scandinavia, In France and Spain is increasing and in the UK is decreasing
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– Until relatively recently funding for research into the relationship between cannabis use and its variants, such as Skunk and psychosis has been sparse

– Many studies, by necessity, use non-naturalistic settings, for example, Prof. Murray described an experiment in which participants smoked cannabis and then boarded a ‘virtual’ train carriage in which a variety of other passenger avatars stared at them and the degrees of ensuing paranoia were then noted

– The risk of long-term and heavy use of cannabis is associated with an increased risk of psychosis and is exacerbated by age of starting usage, i.e the stage of brain development, by socio-cultural factors and by predisposing vulnerability, E.g. neuroatypicism and/or family history of psychosis and the presence, type and proportion of synthetic cannabinoids

As a pragmatic practitioner psychologist I always hope the ‘so what’ question might be addressed. I wanted to know about any implications this research held for ways of helping young people? Why is the incidence of cannabis usage and psychosis so gendered? Why has government not prioritised this area for more research ? What are the individual stories of the young people involved? What protective factors can be identified amongst the 90+% of long-term and regular young people who do not develop psychosis?

All professionals involved in supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing recognise and value the research that is underway and expect a day like this one to precedent this but how refreshing it would be to vary the didactic nature of the day to one that also includes the voice, experience and perspective of practitioners. Some would argue that the token question and answer space at the end of each lecture and the final plenary session allows for this. I don’t agree. These Q & A sessions are all too often a platform for the most vocal and confident, ‘tweeting’ is impersonal and limited and as for the plenary session, well I have to say that by the end of a day of listening to the academics it is no coincidence that most people have had sufficient and attendance is usually sparse. My ideal CPD day would always feature a blend of interactive small group discussion and co-presentations by academics and practitioners with expertise in common areas.

 

Free School Meals

FREE SCHOOL MEALS

Steve Jardine Show – BBC Radio Scotland 

March 2018

I was asked to comment on an initiative currently being piloted in North Lanarkshire as part of the 365 Programme of providing a cooked meal not only during the school day but at weekends and holidays as well via breakfast groups and lunch clubs. Scottish Parliament voted in support of this, recognising that children are enduring weekend and holiday hunger and that the pressure on food banks increases especially in holidays. This is in line with the National School Lunches programme and is supported by a finding by a recent NUT England research that 80% of children have poor eating/nutrition in school holidays.

On a commonsense level eating a healthy, balanced and consistent diet is key to physical health and wellbeing but perhaps less obvious is the essential role this plays in supporting the brain’s health and optimal function.  Children and young people must be provided with the right balance and quantity of nutrition in order to support the brain’s role in mood regulation, behaviour, attention, reason, decision making and planning, memory and recall and without it problems can arise affecting behaviour, learning and general wellbeing.  The links with poor eating and nutrition and increased rates of depression and anxiety and other mental health, emotional and social difficulties are being made increasingly too.

As a psychologist I’m aware that food and eating are significant and loaded subjects.  One of my favourite theorists, Maslow,  places food at the foundation level of his ‘hierarchy of needs’ and along with other core needs like shelter and protection recognises that this supports and makes possible the actualisation of higher order needs such as cognition, learning and social and emotional development and function.  Again, it is obvious that children and schools are going to work better if you get this basic building block sorted.  Then there is the emotionally loaded nature of food and eating, which any psychodynamically-oriented psychologist/therapist so often translates food as love/self-worth/self-esteem etc.
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Schools are well placed to support children’s healthy eating but how far should they go?  When I was at school many decades ago the system for providing free school lunches was a crude one in that many children suffered social stigmatisation. I remember dreading Monday mornings when children, including me, whose parents’ incomes qualified them for free lunches would have to line up outside the school office in order to collect their vouchers and handing these over to the dinner ladies before being served was a source of shame and feeling somehow inferior.  Over the years schools have developed more sensitive systems for ensuring children in need receive a midday meal without identifying them so obviously to their peers but it is still an issue of which staff must be aware if children with less than ideal family means are not to have their existing challenges exacerbated.

Cross-cultural studies often provide ideas and different perspectives in addressing social issues and in the programme to which I was contributing two journalists talked about how school children in their countries fared.  In France a relatively small proportion of children receive free school meals and parents pay a modest amount of about 3 .3 Euros for a three/four course meal and every school-aged child in France should be provided with a daily piece of fresh fruit.  The journalist added that there is no such thing as ‘kiddy’ food as children and adults eat the same high quality, well cooked and presented food.  In addition, schools are required to allow at least 45 minutes for children to consume their meal.   In Sweden their 1997 Education Act had resulted in legislation, policy and provision ensuring that all  7 to 16 year olds, irrespective of family income, received free meals so the dangers of social stigma were eliminated.  In addition they engaged in something loftily titled ‘the pedagogic lunch’, which in plain language means that teachers and pupils eat together as a matter of course and in this way children learn from their adult teachers and school staff models how to eat well.

Interestingly, in this short radio piece the topic of celebrity campaigners such as Jamie Oliver didn’t come up.  It’s not that I don’t think he and others don’t do great work in raising people’s awareness of the importance of healthy eating and good nutrition but I do think that the celebrity and media banner can, if you’ll forgive the pun, be hard to swallow for regular, non-celebrity people.  Most parents are aware, in my experience, of the importance of regular, consistent, healthy and balanced meals for their children so will welcome the support schools, Local Authorities and Government offer.

 

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