May 2010

Gardening helps cultivate healthy kids

For many of you who work with children, do you sometimes notice that they are lacking that connection with the natural world that you may have experienced as a kid? It's not often that you hear them telling stories about playing down at the creek or making forts out in their backyard.

I don't think it's because they don't want to. It may be because they just don't have those same opportunities. Youth have an inner curiosity about nature, but as parents or adults who care for youth, how often do we give them that opportunity to explore the outside world? It may be because of our concern over safety. This is one reason why I am so passionate about gardening with youth. Children's gardens provide that safe, structured exploration of the natural world that rarely occurs in today's era of TVs and video games.

That is why the Douglas County OSU 4-H Program, in partnership with Eastside Community Garden, is offering the 4-H Summer Garden Adventures Program to introduce youth to the joys and benefits of gardening. This is an educational program to teach children how to grow their own food and what to do with it after they grow it. The participants will be given the opportunity to learn about plants, insects, ecology, cooking, nutrition and food safety.

The OSU Extension Service and 4-H are long-standing education providers to the community and have a commitment to healthy youth. Garden-based education programs have been proven to connect children with nature and healthful foods through fun, hands-on activities. Educational gardens offer unique opportunities to teach youth about where their food comes from, the importance of community, and issues of environmental sustainability. Educational garden programs boost achievement, cultivate life skills, contribute to healthy lifestyles, create dynamic environments for learning core subjects and connect kids with nature through hands-on learning.

This gardening program is a healthy, inexpensive activity for youth that can bring them closer to nature and allow them to interact with each other in a socially meaningful and physically productive way.

Tracy Martz
30 May 2010

http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20100530/GUESTCOLUMNS/100529730/1063/NEWS&ParentProfile=1055

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From the ground up

When landscape architect Magarete Harvey researched her thesis on children and the environment, the science confirmed something she had known for decades: children who have early, consistent contact with nature will learn to care about the natural world and become better stewards of the environment as they grow.

This was evident in her own youth, growing up on a farm in Germany. As a preschool teacher in England she helped create a nature-focused playground for children, and when she moved to the United States in the early 1980s, she became active in creating and preserving green spaces. As president of Park People of Milwaukee County she helped start the Weed Out program to rid the parks of invasive plants, such as garlic mustard and buckthorn. "I worked in Doctors Park for eight years pulling weeds and using a saw for the shrubs. We did this to protect the plants and flowers that were being displaced," she says.

The former sociology teacher went on to earn a landscape architect degree from UW-Madison. In her thesis research, she compared environmental values of children from 21 schools in England: seven schools that had no green space around them, seven that had little green space and seven that had large areas of greenery in which the children interacted with nature. "The results came out like you would expect," Harvey says. "That’s when I felt fully justified in saying this is how we can improve children’s attitudes."

When schools contact Harvey, she offers them a simple piece of advice: "Get rid of the blacktop and asphalt on the playgrounds. Put in green grass, flowers and large trees."

Places like the Urban Ecology Center and Schlitz Audubon Nature Center ­— both at which she has been actively involved — embody the philosophies she holds dear. "Ecology, the study and protection of the planet, is very important to me," she says.

Her advice to parents: "Start your children planting. Let them plant vegetable seeds. They will be amazed as they grow. Let them help water and get their hands in the soil. They will find worms, spiders, creepy crawlers — all good things for the environment."

Lois Schmidt and Janet Raasch
26 May 2010

http://www.gmtoday.com/content/m_magazine/2010/May/m_0510_20.asp

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France cracks down on binge drinking

Having a before-dinner cocktail or apéritif with friends is as French as baguettes and brie. So when groups of teenagers and young adults started using Facebook to organize giant outdoor cocktail parties across France, it seemed like a bit of innocent fun. But the fun turned deadly in the western city of Nantes this month at a cocktail party that attracted 9,000 people to the city centre. One man who had consumed at least 10 ounces of liquor fell off a bridge and died. Fifty-seven people ended up in hospital, many with alcohol poisoning. Another 40 were arrested for drunkenness, theft or violence.

Now, French authorities are scrambling to try to contain “le binge drinking” – a problem they say has spiralled out of control. “Our children are obviously suffering,” said Marc-Philippe Daubresse, the French minister responsible for youth. “They are expressing their unhappiness more and more by turning to alcohol.”

Binge drinking is a relatively new phenomenon in France, where people traditionally have grown up learning to drink in moderation at home. The government has tried to keep it in check by passing new laws that raised the legal drinking age from 16 to 18 and put strict limits on events like happy hour. But those measures seem to have had little effect.

Anonymous organizers put out the call for the first giant cocktail party, or apéro géant, last August, on a local Internet networking site in the southern city of Marseilles. The idea was to set a record for the biggest giant aperitif ever. About 2,200 people gathered with their picnics and bottles of wine, beer and liquor in a public square near City Hall.

Last November, a group of Facebookers took up the challenge with an invitation to an even bigger giant aperitif in Nantes. That party, in the city’s central square, attracted 3,000 people. The city sent dozens of social and health-care workers to try to make sure no one got hurt, but about 50 people were found unconscious and several had to be rescued after falling into the Loire River. There have been 56 apéros géants in France since, each bigger than the last and all of them in public places. The organizers rarely come forward and since there is no way to know how many people will show up, each has presented potentially greater problems for authorities trying to maintain public order without infringing on citizens’ rights to gather in a public place.

Experts on youth and alcohol policy say binge drinking has moved south from Germany and the United Kingdom as the traditionally strong family has lost its central role in French society. They admit they have found no effective way to stop binge drinking and say that short of measures such as prohibition, they doubt they ever will. Their only option may be to come up with policies to try to limit the damage, says Mark Burton Page, who is in charge of a Europe-wide project looking for the best way to control binge drinking.

Mr. Burton Page, 24, says the French coastal city of Brest had some success when it sent an array of social workers and mediators to a giant cocktail party there this spring. People still fought and vandalized public property, “but what they didn’t have was people fighting the police, which would have been quite bad,” he says.

After holding emergency meetings last week, the French government decided against a ban on giant cocktail parties. Instead, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said organizers would have to apply to their local city hall for permission three days before a party and promise that minors could not buy alcohol. He said organizers would also be held responsible for the cost of cleaning up.

The police in Paris took a tougher approach to a Facebook call for the mother of all giant cocktail parties in the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Sunday. According to the website, 50,000 people were expected. The Paris police banned the event and set up their own Facebook page that reminded potential apéro-goers that drinking is illegal in the Champ de Mars. On Sunday night, they sent hundreds of police officers to the park charged with searching bags and seizing alcohol.

Almost no one showed up for the party. Those who were there said they just came to enjoy the good weather. A new Facebook page is calling for another apéro géant in Paris this weekend.

Anita Elash
24 May 2010

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/le-partys-over-france-cracks-down-on-binge-drinking/article1579482/

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CALIFORNIA

How do you get teens into a library?

All too often people, old and young, will stay away from all things unfamiliar. There are a lot of folks from my generation who refuse to have anything to do with a computer or a digital camera. Why?

Well, I hear lots of reasons from my contemporaries but, in general, all of their conversations tend to support that age-old business of not knowing how to access and work with that which they dismiss.

My friend's teenage foster son in no way resembles the old-timers. His hair is neither grey nor thinning. Instead, his hair is thick, shiny and combed into spikes I think is called a Mohawk. When I talked to him about his coming to Tuesday's event celebrating National Foster Care Month at the Altadena Library, he shuffled around, didn't look me square in the eye and mumbled several comments about not being into libraries. His foster mom said she'd thought about "the place" being a good spot for homework, but for as long as the young man had lived at her home she hadn't been able to convince him.

Exactly what does it take to get a young teenager into the library?

Well, I'd like to say going there with the kid and working through the process of acquiring a card, searching the stacks, signing-up for computer time, and examining everything else that's available. Sounds simple but it ain't.

Just because we've acquired parenting status doesn't mean we've reached familiarity with all things available.

Tuesday's event at the Altadena Library will help get Foster and Kinship caregivers and their charges on the same page. The event will include a brief tour conducted by Cassandra Stearns and Heather Fichow and the children and young adult librarians. They have put together a selection of fiction books for foster youth and a wide range of resources for caregivers to check out. Links to all this information can be found on the library web site at www.altadenalibrary.org. All libraries in Los Angeles County provide a Foster Youth Library Card program that encompasses special features. Applications will be available at the event for youth and their caregivers and foster parents who are being asked to please bring placement papers for verification.

Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's Foster Care Deputy, Helen Berberian; Steve Sturm with the Department of Children and Family Services Education Division, and local attorney, Joe Hopkins, will be there as well to deliver brief welcoming remarks.

Pauline Dutton, principal librarian, has developed welcome letters with a focus on programs available to assist students and help them get the best from their use of the facility.

"Uh, the library," my friend's teenager mumbled when it began to look like she'd have him in tow come next Tuesday.

"It ain't happenin. It's a bore," he grumbled.

Life is what you make it, and only those who aren't used to being at the library could share this kid's commentary. Will they come?

Well, Dutton asked me how many I was expecting. Even with my best guess, all I could answer was, "I haven't the faintest idea."

We're serving refreshments and have a few items to raffle off. We've asked for RSVPs to know how many plastic plates to provide, but . . .

Shirlee Smith
21 May 2010

http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_15137257

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NEBRASKA

HHS: We'll learn from 2 agencies

Nebraska officials expect to learn some lessons from the two private agencies that dropped out of the state's child welfare reform effort.

Department of Health and Human Services CEO Kerry Winterer said Wednesday the success of the reform depends on understanding what happened with the two agencies. He said the department plans to audit the agencies as part of its search for answers.

But HHS won't abandon plans to privatize a major portion of its child welfare services, Winterer told a panel of lawmakers. “That ship has sailed,” he said, “but at the same time, we can't afford to do this wrong. We can't afford to not learn from this.”

HHS contracted with five private child welfare agencies last fall to care for children and families in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Under the contracts, the agencies are to coordinate and provide a full range of services, in-home as well as outside the home. The goal was to reduce the number of children in out-of-home care and improve services for children and families.

Less than six months after the contracts were signed, two agencies dropped out, saying their payments from the state were inadequate.

Cedars Youth Services of Lincoln canceled its contract in early April, effective June 30. A week later, the state terminated its contract with Visinet after the Omaha-based agency filed for bankruptcy. Visinet folded April 15. Todd Reckling, HHS children and families director, said the department had looked at the agencies' financial state before signing the contracts. But it was up to the agencies, he said, to decide whether the money available in the contract worked for them. Agencies were expected to lose money on the contracts initially but to break even or make money as they began serving a larger proportion of children in their own homes.

State Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island questioned the department's reliance on “cost-shifing” or fund-raising by the private agencies to support state child welfare services.

Reckling called the practice a “shared partnership” rather than a shift in cost.

Cedars President and CEO Jim Blue has estimated the agency would have lost more than $5.5 million over the course of its 20-month contract. A statement from Visinet said the agency was losing about $10,000 per day.

Winterer said HHS officials want to answer such questions as whether the agencies went into the contracts with incorrect assumptions or whether costs were higher for the agencies than for the state. He said he hopes to have those answers by July 1, the beginning of the state's new fiscal year.  “It doesn't do us any good to string this out,” Winterer said, “but I don't want to rush to judgment.”

The lessons learned from audits and from talking with the current and former contractors could lead to changes in practices and procedures in the remaining contracts, he said.

The changes won't include more dollars for the contractors, though, Reckling said. Plans call for the amount put into contracted services to remain flat.

Martha Stoddard
20 May 2010

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100519/NEWS01/705209970

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Foster-fulfilment

For one Hobsons Bay family, their happiness comes from helping others.

Bonnie, a relief primary school teacher in her 40s, her partner, Rob, in his 50s, and their son Felix, 7, opted to help others over buying an expensive house, or owning a big screen TV. “There’ve been lots of books and articles written about how to get happiness, how to be happy,” Bonnie said. “There are people who are happy because they buy things, people who enjoy sport. I’m happy when I’m helping people.”

The family have been foster carers for about two years, have taken care of about half a dozen children and said they don’t see themselves stopping. “The little ones we’ve cared for have ranged from two to about five,” she said. Felix is used to having foster children at home. “So he’s used to kids coming in and out, he’s used to waking up in the morning and having someone in his room,” she said.

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare spokesman Josh Fergeus said Hobsons Bay only received three per cent of inquiries to become new carers in the North/West metropolitan region. This is despite there being the highest demand for placements in the state, with over 30 per cent of foster care placements, numbering over 500. Mr Fergeus said there was a “dire” need for carers, with over 1000 extra needed to prevent the system from collapsing. “This would leave local children with nowhere to go,” he said. He said at least 300 carers were needed in the North/West region.

In Victoria, there are over 5500 children in Out of Home care, including 1500 in foster care. But less than 975 foster carers are providing care for those 1500 children.

Bonnie said she received a lot of support from foster group Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services.

John Mitchell, Good Shepherd Youth and Family Service assessment co-ordinator, said the service offers training, 24-hour help line and foster carers can be flexible. He said anyone could be a foster carer. “Foster carers are ordinary people who do extraordinary things for children and their families,” he said. “The difference they make to those kids’ lives is unbelievable.”

Nicole Precel
18 May 2010

http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/story/89130

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NEW ZEALAND

'We treat our babies like dogs'

Serious cases of abuse against babies have leapt by two-thirds in just two years, according to official figures.

The Ministry of Health revealed 74 children aged under one year were admitted to hospital after violent attacks last year, compared with 45 in 2007. The surge comes as Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said children were being treated like "dogs". In an open letter to police, Bennett wrote: "It is unacceptable that our youngest, most vulnerable children are being treated like dogs. The shameful statistics have got to change."

The deaths of 3-month old twins Chris and Cru Kahui in 2006 led to a major Government campaign to stamp out child abuse. Millions of dollars were spent on advertising campaigns such as the Never, Ever Shake a Baby series.

Bennett admitted she was "absolutely horrified" at the findings. "There isn't one nice answer and, frankly, if there was we'd be doing it. Some of it's going to be tough stuff for us to get our heads around, like are we leaving children in people's homes too long or putting them back in the right families?"

Child Protection Services chief executive Anthea Simcock said more health professionals were recognising abuse-related injuries than before because of a higher awareness of the problem. "You have to look at the whole picture, you can't always assume it's one thing," she said. "One contributing factor could be more awareness.

"Some people will say recession-based stresses in the family could be an issue, some say it's poverty-based."  Simcock said poverty, combined with low education levels in families, lack of support, and younger parents, were also factors.

Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Holden, of the national adult sex assault and child abuse team, said most victims were abused by people they knew. Separate figures obtained under the Official Information Act show the agency charged with protecting vulnerable kids is intervening more than before. Child, Youth and Family took 85 newborn babies into its care last year, up from 78 in 2006, according to the Ministry of Social Development. The agency received 1005 warnings about at-risk kids from family members, police or other government agencies last year, more than double the 440 received in 2006.

Ministry of Social Development chief executive Peter Hughes said the number of children under one who die through maltreatment was three times higher than in the 1-4 age group. "Every five days a child under 2 is hospitalised because of abuse."

The police have also come under fire for being too slow to investigate child abuse cases.

Last year, the Independent Police Complaints Authority launched an inquiry into delays in investigating cases after a judge criticised Wairarapa police for slow responses. It was revealed there was a backlog of 108 files in Wairarapa. Police in Auckland and Christchurch were also battling to clear files, some three years old.

At the time chairwoman Justice Lowell Goddard said the authority had asked police for a robust audit of child abuse files to determine whether delays happened in other districts.

Anna Leask
Additional reporting: Rebecca Lewis
16 May 2010

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10645232

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CONNECTICUT

For some people’s children, basic needs met only in jail

In a very candid moment, it is said, a renowned psychology professor, who will remain nameless for obvious reasons, observed: “It’s not that Americans don’t love children. It’s just that they don’t love other people’s children.” That may sound like a tough judgment. But from my vantage point — as a teacher at Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, a maximum security prison for 650 young men, ages 14 to 21 — I think I can see, and illustrate, what the professor meant.

Inmates get few choices and no frills. Every workday, I am struck with what a terrible thing it must be to be in prison, and I am ever so grateful I get to go home at the end of my shift. More terrible still is that many inmates are, in terms of basic needs, better off in prison than they had been, or will be after their release. This is because inmates at Manson have a warm place to sleep, three meals a day, clean jumpsuits, schooling and health care.

While Madison Avenue and the media often portray our state as affluent, many Connecticut children do not get picked up after soccer by mom in her SUV, or go to summer camp in Vermont. Connecticut Voices for Children, an advocacy group, reports about a quarter of Connecticut children — more than 200,000 — are in households with annual incomes of $42,000 or less.

About 70 percent of schoolchildren in New Haven qualify under federal poverty standards for free and reduced-price lunches; in Hartford and Bridgeport, more than 90 percent do. I doubt anyone knows how many of these children get a decent breakfast or hot dinner, but it is safe to assume that many live in households making very tough choices.

As depressing are statewide figures on homelessness. On a cold night in January 2009, there were 801 children among the 4,555 homeless located by the Coalition to End Homelessness’ annual census.

To put a face on these facts, consider a bright, able 15-year-old I met a few years ago. He came from a shattered family and, though homeless himself, felt very responsible for the welfare of his younger brother. Not surprisingly, he was living very much on the edge. And, not surprisingly, I ran into him a couple of years later as a Manson inmate. As I do not discuss criminal matters with inmates; I do not know why he was there. I do know that there he got his three meals, a warm place to sleep, clean jumpsuits and his high school equivalency certificate.

In time, he was released to “the world” — as inmates call everything on the other side of the razor wire. I do not know where or to what he was released. But, my best guess is that, despite programs that help inmates return to “the world,” a young man-child like him, once out, is not likely to have all the basics provided in prison.

I think all this might suggest something of the indifference to other people’s children that the professor observed. But, more unsettling is the possibility that it suggests that we may be a country in which children have to go to prison before they are provided with their basic needs.

Lloyd Buzzell
13 May 2010

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/05/13/opinion/doc4beb5977dbd3c956638506.txt

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PENNSYLVANIA

Aged out of care and alone: Foster kids thrown into independence

An 18th birthday is usually viewed as the transition from childhood to adulthood even though many teens continue to see support from their parents well into their twenties. Unless they are in the foster care system. For them an 18th birthday catapults them into an unfamiliar world of independence.

Kasie Olds entered the foster care system when she was eight years old. "We're not bad kids, we just come from bad situations," says Olds. Like one out of ten foster children Olds aged out of the system.

Independent living coordinators like Casey Spencer help teens prepare for that transition. "We see a range of youth from not wanting any services - we see the youth that want to take advantage of everything but they are really really scared," says Spencer.

"The hardest part is 'where am I going to be on breaks when I can't stay in my dorm' and 'how am I going to get the money to do it if I have to?'" says Matt Hudson, a former foster child.

"I was scared out of my pants when I was going," Olds says. "What am I going to do? How am I going to raise myself after being on my own, you know? How would I raise myself? What life skills would I bring?"

Very few studies have been completed tracking foster youth after they leave the system. But one of those studies three out of four kids say that independent living skills were presented to them before their exit date, and only a few receive hands on preparation.

Only 11% felt ready to apply for jobs, obtain health insurance and public assistance, and less than half knew how to get a driver's license. "I've applied for many jobs and got calls back - 'well, we don't think you're qualified enough for the job' - which puts a downer on me because I'm respectable and doing everything I need to do," says Olds.

Olds completes her freshman year at Pittsburg State University this month, an accomplishment many foster kids never reach. But she knows she deserves this after overcoming so much. "The state of Kansas pays for it once you age out," Olds says. "You have to do certain requirements - you have to meet with your independent worker once a month, you have to get a work study job, you have to keep your grades up and then you get your college paid for free. So foster kids think they don't get to go to college, but take what the state gives you."

Kansas foster children are entitled to four years at any state university or college. It is one benefit to surviving the system.

"That's a pretty big chunk of college expenses right there and then there are more additional funds available," Spencer says.

Matt Hudson's funds ran out after completing his undergraduate degree. Now he is a law student at Washburn University. Hudson is from Humboldt, Kansas and entered foster care after being abused by his father. "It wasn't easy, but eventually probably about the time I was graduating from high school, as I was starting to get involved in advocacy side of it and things like it, aging out maybe even as well, that overall time period, that's when the perspective changed to 'I wouldn't have what I have - I probably wouldn't have any of it if that wouldn't have happened,'" Hudson says.

A regional advocate for foster care Hudson believes while financial support is now in place for teens aging out there is still a huge gap in care and it can not be filled with dollar bills or independent living preparation. "It's not a solution that comes from funding," Hudson says. "It's not a solution that comes from some act of Congress unless they force people against their will to start caring about other people which I'm pretty sure they can't do. The biggest thing I can look back at is what people did for me and honestly if you look at the success of people in foster care it's probably going to come from those same places." An element that Matt Hudson, Kasie Olds, and foster care experts say is missing for kids already left without a family.

Nino Criscuolo
11 May 2010

http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12460045

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MICHIGAN

Lights of hope

With so many incidents of child abuse and neglect in the courts, there’s a growing need for people to become foster parents and advocates for abused children.

“We need you,” William Kennedy, director of the Monroe County Department of Human Services (DHS), told supporters at the first Light of Hope: Walk a Mile for a Child celebration Saturday afternoon at Munson Park. “There’s a continuing need for foster parents to provide a safe and nurturing home environment for children who have been removed from their homes. If not you, perhaps you know of someone who would make a great foster parent.”

DHS joined in a weeklong effort spearheaded by the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program in Monroe County to raise public awareness and funds in the fight against child abuse. CASA supporters and volunteers raised more than $4,500 with a torch relay Saturday and other pledges raised by more than a half-dozen schools in the county that held walks of their own.

Mr. Kennedy noted there were 29,400 cases of child abuse or neglect that were investigated in Michigan in 2009. About 663 of those incidents, or 1 percent of the total, originated in Monroe County and many were referrals from protective services. A total of 279 allegations were substantiated, he said. “Our top priority at the DHS is child safety,” he told chilled onlookers huddled under the shelter. “We want to provide protective services to help the children stay in their homes.”

The courts have entered 57 more children into the foster care program, boosting the number of county children being served here to 139, he said. He added he was “amazed” at the collaborative efforts of CASA, schools, RSVP and other youth organizations in the county to fight child abuse.

Circuit Court Judge Joseph Costello, who founded the CASA program in 1997, lighted the torch at the Monroe County Courthouse to kick off the relay to the park. Despite 40 mph winds, Robert and Rachel Krueger and carried the torch nearly three miles to the park with assistance from Mike and Rachel Cornelison.

The runners were greeted by six CASA volunteers dressed in gold T-shirts who carried the torch for another mile around the sledding hill. The torch bearers included Vivian Walcesky, the longest current volunteer (12 years) who has served as advocate for 13 children; Lynnette Schramm, a volunteer for 10 years who has served 16 children; Micah Armentrout, who has advocated for 14 children; Kelly Schuck and Grant Garber. Mr. Garber, a DTE Energy employee who has served eight children, was the final torch bearer along with Nate Rodriguez, 3, and Nate’s mother, Dawn, both of whom raised $125 for CASA. The three used the torch to light a cauldron in the Kiwanis Shelter.

Dot Stacy, associate director of CASA who trained as a volunteer in the first class of volunteers in 1997, said the torch symbolizes “the light of hope to each child who waits in the foster care system for a permanent home.” Welcoming the relay at the park were 85 life-sized cutouts on the lawn representing the number of children waiting for advocates. Each cutout had a message. One sign said “Foster children should be seen and heard.”

Ms. Walcesky said it was an honor to carry the torch. “It’s more about the children” who are in the family court system, she said. “We want to help every one get out of the system.”

Lisa Nielsen spends two hours a week serving as an advocate for an abused girl she and her husband adopted before she became a volunteer. Mrs. Nielsen is one of 38 CASA volunteers who advocate for the best interest of children who are under the protection of the court system. “We are still raising children of our own,” Mrs. Nielsen told the crowd. “It’s sad what these children go through. I know their nightmares and fears and the scars left on them. ... They learn that we are one person they can count on and trust. I’m glad to be a part of this.”

Probate Court Judge John Hohman, another CASA supporter, said the “unsettling” winds reminded him of what foster care children go through every day. “It’s very unsettling not being completely grounded and knowing what’s going to happen from one day to the next,” Judge Hohman said. “CASA volunteers give us good information, which results in good decisions. They interpret the court rulings and costs for the kids to understand.”

About 500 students took part in an earlier walk hosted by Summerfield Elementary School. About 250 students at Manor Elementary School raised $2,800 with a walk, said Doug Redding, president of the Friends of CASA support group. He also recognized Cantrick School, Ida Elementary, Whiteford Elementary, Meadow Montessori and Monroe County Middle College for raising funds.

Dean Cousino
8 May 2010

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100509/NEWS01/705099973

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Teens with suicidal ideation need lengthy, intensive follow-up

Adolescent suicide is the third leading cause of death, next to accidents and murder, among young people 15 to 24 years of age in the United States. There are an estimated 8 to 25 suicide attempts for every completed suicide, with 1 in every 12 high school students contemplating suicide in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet, identification and treatment of at-risk youth experiencing suicidal ideation (SI) remains ill-defined, researchers said here at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2010 Annual Meeting. "We compared youth with SI to a group of adolescents without ideation but with similar depression. The group with SI had worse impairment that persisted for at least 6 months, meaning that they had more difficulties with school, behavior, and family and peer relationships. Despite their difficulties, levels of healthcare utilization were very low. This points to the importance of screening youth for suicidal ideation specifically," said Carolyn A. McCarty, PhD, research associate professor at Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington in Seattle, in an interview with Medscape Pediatrics during the meeting.

Dr. McCarty and colleagues used data from 99 adolescents, collected as part of the Adolescent Health Study, to clarify the clinical features of adolescents who were contemplating or planning suicide (SI-present). These adolescents were compared with 99 age-, sex-, and depressive-symptom-matched adolescents who, although having thought about suicide in the past, no longer had SI (SI-absent).

The 198 adolescents were 13 to 17 years of age (mean age, 15 years), 70% were female, and 84% were urban dwellers. Participants in both groups underwent a battery of analyses, including the depression-diagnostic Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and assessments using tools such as the Columbia Impairment Scale and Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17. As well, generalized estimating equation analysis was used to determine the functional capability of the adolescents at baseline and 6 months later.

Care was taken to ensure that all participants were statistically comparable at baseline and follow-up, based on their assessed level of depression, Dr. McCarty said.

Participants' healthcare utilization data for the year preceding the study and for the year following enrolment were also compared.

The SI-present and SI-absent adolescents were not significantly different in terms of externalizing suicidal thoughts, episodes of anxiety, and alcohol/drug abuse, Dr. McCarty told meeting attendees. However, the SI-present youth were more functionally impaired at baseline and at 6-month follow-up than their SI-absent counterparts. In the midst of their misery, only 13% of those experiencing suicidal thoughts sought out a mental health specialist in the 12 months before the study. After the study started, rates were even more dismal, with only 9% seeking help. "They're not receptive or they're not going to treatment, or something else," said Dr. McCarty.

The observation that control of depression can still leave at-risk adolescents struggling to cope with daily life suggests that youth with SI might be better served by treatment that lasts longer, is more frequent, and is more tuned to their particular needs, the researchers asserted. "This is such an important issue. Adolescent suicide is a pressing public health problem, and is strongly associated with underlying mental health issues, especially depression," Elizabeth A. Schilling, PhD, from the Division of Behavioral Sciences and Community Health at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut, told Medscape Pediatrics.

"Because depression is treatable, it is very important that these adolescents are identified and that resources be made available to them for treatment. Although more treatment may be better in many cases, some studies have determined that even brief counseling interventions have a measurable positive impact," Dr. Schilling said.

The study was funded by the University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Brian Hoyle
5 May 2010

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/721295

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Doctor to discuss defiant children

As part of Children's Mental Health Week, Kinark Child and Family Services present a Healthy Families workshop this Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Peterborough Public library.

Dr. Kevin Nugent, a Kinark psychiatrist, will speak on the topic of Oppositional and Defiant Disorder in Children and Teens: Understanding Them and Creative Management Strategies.

The free workshop will be of interest to parents experiencing extreme difficulties with their child or teen. At the workshops, about 60% of participants are parents; another 20% are teachers and the other 20% could be health professionals and others.

Children with ODD are often self-centred and spiteful. They don't listen, cooperate or take responsibility for their actions. ODD can have a lasting effect if not treated. "Delinquency and trouble with the law are a high risk for this group, Nugent says. But how do parents know if their teen is going through adolescent growing pains or is in serious trouble? ODD affects all aspects of a child's life, not just one area. "When it has a significant impact at school and at home, when it holds them from succeeding" says Nugent.

Although ODD has been on the radar screen since the 1980s, not a lot of research is available about it and there is still some controversy around it. "Some professionals call it a disorder, while others do not," said Nugent. There are overlapping conditions that accompany ODD, like learning disabilities, ADHD and anxiety. As well, parenting approaches can be a major influence. "The big emphasis is working with the parents," said Nugent. Nugent will devote the first half of his talk to describing the condition and the second half on what to do to handle situations with a child who has ODD.

As a child and youth psychiatrist, Nugent did his residency at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and spent five years as a child psychiatrist in Thunder Bay. He speaks regularly on mental health issues. He came to Kinark nine years ago because of his belief in a community-based approach to children's mental health. Locally, Kinark has been running Healthy Families workshops for nine years and usually holds between three and six per year. The workshops grew out of the need for more hands-on parenting advice," said Kinark program director Alan Vallillee.

According to Vallillee, one in five children in Ontario have mental health challenges and only about 20% of those get help from an agency like Kinark. "The problem is getting good information about their concerns," he said.

Alexsandra Thomson
4 May 2010

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2562723

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Lacking parental support, teens seek out peers and parties

It was more than just drugs, strobe lights and thumping bass that drew Dana to party culture.

Now 20, Dana started partying when she was about 15, just before she moved out of her father’s house near Markham and spent a summer, homeless, in Toronto. “Partying was a vacation — it helped me relax,” says Dana. “I would have been a hell of a lot more depressed if I didn’t have that break in the clouds. It reminded me that there was happiness out there.”

Dana spent much of her childhood in the care of nannies while her parents travelled. By age 6 or 7 she had developed an eating disorder that required her to be hospitalized and hooked up to an IV because she had lost so much weight. “My parents were always fighting, they were never there,” she says. “I suppose it was my subconscious mind doing the one thing it could to have control, which is, I’m going to eat, or, I’m not going to eat.”

Her parents started sending her to psychiatrists at age 7 or 8 and she was diagnosed with clinical depression, that still comes and goes. By 14, Dana says she"kicked and screamed" and refused to keep seeing psychiatrists, as she said they only upset her more.

It’s not unusual for kids who feel they lack parental support to seek it from their peers and sometimes this can lead them to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, experts say. The support of friends can be helpful, but narcotics and intoxicants can lead to more serious problems.“I don’t want to negate the importance of feeling connected to people,” says Joanne Schenfeld, manager of the Youth Addiction and Concurrent Disorders Service that is part of Child Youth Family Program.

“The central theme of adolescence is learning to connect to peers, creating close relationships to people outside of your family. The risk is of doing it in the context of activities that may ultimately cause more harm over the long term,” she says.

Dana’s parents split up when she was 9, and she stayed with her dad while her mom travelled the world and “kept in almost no contact.” By age 17, Dana had tried to kill herself three times. Her parents turned a blind eye to these suicide attempts, she says, because they didn’t know how to deal with them.

After her stint of homelessness Dana moved in with her mother, who had settled in a small town outside of Orangeville. The transition from big city life to the dirt roads of a rural town was “almost oppressive” for Dana. She found herself visiting Toronto every other weekend to party and to collect drugs such as ecstasy and the street version of an anaesthetic called ketamine to bring back home. “Drugs helped preserve my sanity, as strange as it may seem to say that,” she says.

Despite the drugs and partying, she maintained honour roll grades and finished high school. It was her friendships with other youth she met at raves that really helped her pull through. “I had a lot of friends that I had met when I didn’t have anywhere to live, and they became my family,” says Dana. “Everyone had this unity, because we were all there for one thing, and that was to have a good time. It wasn’t that we all wanted to do drugs and hear loud music. You could do that in your basement. Everyone just wanted to be together.”

Dana says she has always been “careful” with drugs, researching them thoroughly, and has never been dependent on substances. “Drugs helped me see things from different points of view, which is key in my understanding the world and myself,” says Dana. “When you’re depressed it’s hard to think of anything except for the fact that you are depressed, why you’re depressed and being angry at the circumstances.”

Dr. Marshall Korenblum, the chief psychiatrist at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Children, says that self-medicating is one of several reasons why young people experiment with illegal substances. “There’s either anxiety or depression or some other feeling that they’re trying to get rid of by using the drugs,” says Korenblum.

One of the problems with self-medicating, says Korenblum, is that illegal drugs are not standardized or controlled. “You never know what kind of a dosage you’re getting and you never know if it’s clean,” he says.

Shenfeld and Korenblum list brain damage, impaired judgment, exacerbation of existing psychological issues, problems at school and difficulties developing proper coping skills as some of the risks of adolescent drug use.

Korenblum also says that one of the dangers of self-medicating is that it can mask the problem, thus delaying diagnosis and treatment.

“I found that drugs helped me focus a lot more and, not mask my emotions, but organize them better,” says Dana, who has graduated from college and is on her own, making a living as an artist. She attributes her improved mental state partly to taking antidepressants for about six to eight months, although she had bad withdrawal when she stopped, and partly to “growing as a person.” She still believes overall that prescription drugs are more dangerous than street drugs because people assume they’re safe.

Alexandra Posadzki
1 May 2010

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/mindmood/mentalhealth/article/802905--lacking-parental-support-teens-seek-out-peers-and-parties

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