The demonization of young people : a national pastime?

On 3rd Nov Barnardos released the results of a piece of work they had undertaken asking members of the general population how they viewed young people :

49% saw  young people as ‘angry, violent and abusive’

This same group of pollsters see children as ‘feral’, ‘behaving like animals’.

[URL : http://www.barnardos.org.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/press_releases.htm?ref=74051]

Presumably these are not the same children, presumed to be around 175,000 who are the carer of  a parent living with a long term illness disability....

Or maybe they are the 1 in 3 children and young people who grow up in poverty, or exposed to domestic violence , or live with parents who are substance dependent.....

Either way, many Britains have neither respect nor compassion for the reality of many children and young people’s lives. It is ‘a scandal’ that these views are so commonplace. It is why the 1 million aged between 16-24 years who are unemployed are held responsible for an economic situation, and government policy which is not of their making.

And where is the fanfare for the young people who marched 400 miles from Jarrow to Tottenham to highlight the situation of the jobless youth in England? They marched for five weeks to raise the profile of unemployment in contemporary Britain, a situation which could be ameliorated by different economic decisions and   a change in the legislation supporting small business to recruit school-leavers.

This country’s disregard for young people's well-being , both now and in the future is a national scandal.

Keep abreast of regular bulletins by registering with The Child and Maternal Health Observatory

http://www.chimat.org.uk/resource/item.aspx?RID=116634

or check out the blog!

Yours

Jane Roberts

Reflections post RCGP Conference, Liverpool, October 2011

A truly energizing 2 days with the highest quality plenary speakers and plenty of interesting  parallel sessions to attend. There was a strong theme of generalism and a return to putting the ‘caritas’ alongside the science-maybe even before, but certainly not as an after thought. Clare Gerada showed true leadership and was awarded with a standing ovation for her rousing address . Liverpool is my birth town and it always feels deeply nostalgic to revisit. The people of the city are unfailing, if irreverent,  in their warm welcome and sharp humour!

Adolescent Health appeared like a fire fly and we must build on those sparks to ignite a fire at next year’s conference . Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet (no less!) referred to Adolescent Health as “the new critical discipline”. There is a global movement gaining a groundswell and we need to make sure we are part of this movement.

Whilst we were holding our own symposium on adolescent mental health in primary care at the RCPCH on Friday 14^th October, the International Declaration on Youth Mental Health was launched in Dublin. Please see the link below for more details. Thanks to Dr David Shiers for linking us into this wider movement.

http://www.inspireireland.ie/international-declaration-on-youth-mental-health-launched/

Clare Gerada pledged her support to the group at the Moral Maze panel and both Hamish Meldrum,Chairman of Council, BMA and Prof Michael Rawlins, Chairman of NICE admitted that young people have been short changed by a system which operates on a disease silo structure and which does not always recognize the  particular needs of adolescents . Dr Meldrum was less inclined to consider young people as a ‘special group’ but one with particular needs. Prof Rawlins  conceded that we have not always done the best for them. We aim to move the agenda forward .

Please note the dates for next years’s RCGP annual conference: October 4-6^th  2012, Glasgow. Planning  for the meeting starts now and we hope to have a significant presence at the event. If you have a particular idea please contact me to discuss.

With best wishes

Jane

A new term

A summer image-at Freya Cabin on Keilder Water, Northumberland

Memories of summer are behind us and autumn has arrived to mark the first meeting under my watch of the Adolescent Health Group . We were a full house with almost standing room only! The meeting was held at RCGP Bow Churchyard and we are appreciative of the support from CIRC and of our administrative officer, Hannah Price. We look forward to developing our relationship with the team at CIRC, including Chris Gush (Head of CIRC) and  Imran Rafi (Clinical Director).

It was a real pleasure to welcome new members and to see established and longstanding members steadfast and consistent in their support to make general practice more adolescent friendly.

Key points to reflect upon:

1.     1.  Our thriving relationship with AYPH (www.youngpeopleshealth.org.uk). Under the dynamic leadership of their Development Manager, Emma Rigby, our portfolio  of joint projects continues apace.

• ·         Watch this space for our national tour when we jointly deliver BMJ Master classes in Adolescent Health at a venue near you! We are delighted that the call has come from the BMJ Master Class Series Editor, Dr Christine Ward, in response to a demand from GPs and see this as an indication of a growing awareness of young people’s particular needs.

• ·         We are organizing a joint conference in the appealing city of Cardiff in wonderful Wales, March 27^th 2012: Putting Research into practice. The call for abstracts and further details will be announced shortly

• ·         November 23^rd sees the general release of the latest Key Data in Adolescence (Ed s: Coleman J, Brooks F, Threadgold P.) The data will soon be available to members of the AYPH via the website.

2.        2.We have  been invited to respond to the government’s latest document for  consultation : ‘Positive Youth’.

3.       3.The group is working on a series of proposals to honour the memory of Dr Anne McPherson who was a founding member and seminal influence of the Adolescent Health Group .

4.     4.  Supporting Education across the life course of a primary health care practitioner’s professional life remains core to our role and we are looking at how we draw together our collective experience and expertise and work with key stake holders to roll out initiatives of good practice.

Finally, the group was featured in October’s RCGP News-p 2.

Next week the group leads on a symposium ,to be  held at RCPCH, defining the key role of general practice in adolescent mental health.

Please keep tuned into the blog for more news of forthcoming events and feedback on the projects mentioned above.

With good wishes

Jane

jane.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk

The sad summer of 2011

 17^th August

And so today, as it was predicted, very sadly a 14 year old young man, was found stabbed to death in a park in Enfield, London.

The riots of last weeks, shocking and disturbing though they were, were also not so surprising when given the social conditions of the areas where the  unrest took place.

This blog will not add to the myriad of explanations that have been offered suffice to say that whilst England continues to be one of the most unequal countries, and London the most unequal city, in the western world we should not be surprised. The richest 10 % in London earn 273x more than those at the bottom.  And for those looking for work the statistics are equally disturbing. In Hackney ONS statistics  show less than 500 vacancies for 11,000 claimants. Youth unemployment is at a record 20%. As health practitioners we should be concerned about the implications for this. We have all seen the effects of chronic worklessness and its toll on mental and physical health in adult populations. Young people will be similarly, perhaps more markedly harmed, by the lack of opportunity.

For many of us this does equate to a ‘sick society’ which needs reparation and compassion.

In the wake of the riots we now  see a hard-line rhetoric which only threatens to aggravate marginalized groups of largely young people who see themselves as having no stake in this injust society.

 Lord Ken Macdonald, a former DPP and QC, defence  barrister, has questioned the logic of evicting  families from their homes because one of the children has been involved in looting (21 % of all those convicted are aged between 11-17 yrs).  He debates the rationale behind the issuing of tough sentences which are ‘contrary to the norms of justice’ and  ’ lack humanity’.

And how do we humanely support children growing up in father-less households? As one teenager interviewed asked; ‘Will there be a shop selling fathers?’ Who will replace  the father’s of children we meet in surgery presenting with behavioural problems -whose fathers have died of alcoholism, or accidents, or as a result of war in conflict zones  in unstable parts of the world ?  

We need to take stock from other countries which have weathered these storms and emerged with compassion and dignity, the most recent example being  Norway where their leadership has  promoted restraint and prosocial behaviour. It is true, we have our inspirational examples nearer to home, like the grieving family of Haroon Jahan in the Midlands. Our political leaders would be wise to follow such examples.

Jane Roberts

Cuts to services as a major threat to young people's health

The cuts to youth services made in the name of ‘savings’ are giving great cause for concern for the health and well-being of many young people in the UK this summer . More than £100million was removed from Local Authority Services for young people up to March this year, according to the confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services. “Almost 3, 000 full-time staff who work with young people have lost their jobs.”

In my own practice area the posts of Parent Support Advisors, based in schools, who worked with parents to maximise their children’s engagement with  learning have been axed. The  PSA’s were often a very effective link between home and professional services  for vulnerable families, including accompanying teenagers to see their GP or to attend CAMHS appointments. Who will step in to take up their role once their contracts are not renewed ? 

MPs on the Education select committee have expressed their disapproval of the trenchant cuts. The committee’s chair,  Graham Stuart has said the” disproportionate budget reductions” could have “ dramatic and long-lasting” consequences and an increase in crime was “inevitable”.   

See www.guardian.co.uk (30/07/11)

The worst case scenario for a disaffected generation of young people this summer, bored and broke, is a descent  into social fragmentation and a rise in crime-with their peers the obvious targets. According to Scotland Yard victims in the age group 13-24 years have increased by 30% between 2008-09 and 2010-11. For all of us working with this population, this is a very concerning trend which has serious and widespread ramifications for the communities in which knife crime is a real reality. As health professionals we need to be mobilizing against this  social phenomenon which has relative poverty and social inequality at its centre.

Jane Roberts

jane.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk

31/07/11