Sunday 7 September 2008

That's Not All They're 'Ignorant' About...

Almost half of all schoolchildren cannot name a single mental health condition, a study of 500 young people has found.

And fewer than half of those surveyed felt that schools provided enough information about mental health, a third preferred to trust the internet.
A big 'so what' from the majority of people? Tut! Don't you know it's the role of schools to do the bidding of mental health charidees now..? What, you thought it was to teach them to read, write and do sums?

How very backward of you...
An analysis of 2,000 confidential enquiries to Great Ormond Street's "Children First" website found that "psychosocial" problems were the most common topic.

The hospital has responded by setting up a new section on the site, complete with information and audio diaries recorded by teenagers with mental health problems.

Child mental health charity Young Minds said the website would be a "vital resource".
Yes, I can't think of a better 'treatment' for teenagers with mental health problems than that. Government-sponsored YouTube for the fragile...

Oh, well. I'm sure the NHS can afford it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Four out of ten cats cannot name a single human skin disease.

Actually, I would be amused to know how many of the kids, when asked to name a single mental health condition, replied "mentalism". I expect a few did, and their answers (and quite possibly them also) were vigorously suppressed.

Anonymous said...

"Actually, I would be amused to know how many of the kids, when asked to name a single mental health condition, replied "mentalism"."

If they did, I expect they had our esteemed PM in mind when they said it... ;)

John M Ward said...

If asked, I'd have said "PMT". When required to explain what that mean, I'd then reply: "Simple: 'Prime Minister's Tantrums', of course!"