Massive rise in disruptive behaviour, warn teachers

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aggression, behavioural problems, boundaries, Children, emotional problems, family breakdown, low self-esteem, mental health issues, physical abuse, school, social media, stress, teachers, young people

Massive rise in disruptive behaviour, warn teachers

Teachers have warned that disruptive behaviour in classrooms has escalated sharply in recent years, as funding cuts to local services have left schools struggling to cope.

A survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) found that the vast majority of staff had recorded a rise in the number of childrenwith emotional, behavioural or mental health problems.

The union collated numerous examples of challenging behaviour, ranging from violent assault to defamatory campaigns on social media.

Suggested reasons for the deteriorating behaviour include a lack of boundaries at home, attention-seeking, an absence of positive role models at home, low self-esteem and family breakdown.

The ATL, which has 160,000 members across the UK, said aggressive cuts to the traditional safety net of local services have left schools dealing with complex behavioural and mental health problems on their own.

Earlier this month it emerged that two-thirds of local authorities have cut their budgets for children and young people’s mental health services since the coalition government came to power in 2010. A freedom of information request by the YoungMinds charity found that 34 out of 51 local authorities which responded said their budgets for children’s and young people’s mental health services had been cut, one by 76%.

Alison Ryan, the union’s educational policy adviser, said: “Services are struggling for survival or operating with a skeleton staff, so there’s now a huge pressure on schools to almost go it alone. Schools are absolutely on the front line of dealing with these children and young people and trying to provide a service that means they don’t fall through the cracks.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: “The huge funding cuts to local services mean schools often have to deal with children’s problems without any help.”

The survey of 844 staff found that 62% felt there were more children with emotional, behavioural and mental health problems than two years ago, with 56% saying there were more than five years ago. Nearly 90% of support staff, teachers, lecturers, school heads and college leaders revealed that they had dealt with a challenging or disruptive student during this school year. One primary school teacher in Cheshire said: “I have been kicked in the head, spat at, called disgusting names, told to eff off, had the classroom trashed regularly and items thrown. We accept children who are excluded from other schools so they come to us with extreme behaviour issues.”

A teacher in a West Midlands secondary school said: “One colleague had a Twitter account set up in front of him on a mobile called Paedo ****** [their name], which invited others to comment on him and his sexual orientation.”

Another teacher in a secondary school in Dudley added: “I’ve been sworn at, argued with, shouted at, had books thrown at me, threatened with physical abuse and had things stolen and broken.”

Bousted added: “Regrettably, teachers and support staff are suffering the backlash from deteriorating standards of behaviour. They are frequently on the receiving end of children’s frustration and unhappiness and have to deal with the fallout from parents failing to set boundaries and family breakdowns.”

On the positive side, most of the disruptive behaviour facing staff was categorised as fairly low level, with 79% of staff complaining that students talked in class, did not pay attention and messed around.

Some 68% added that students were disrespectful and ignored their instructions, 55% said they had dealt with verbally aggressive students, and a fifth with a physically aggressive student. Among secondary and sixth-form students, smoking was considered a significant problem.

On most occasions challenging behaviour was deemed an irritation which disrupted class work, according to 74% of staff, but 42% revealed that they suffered stress and almost a quarter said they had lost confidence at work. Forty of those questioned said they had been physically hurt by a student.

Can you tell if a friend has an eating disorder?

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"ednos", anorexia, binge eating, bulimia, Eating Disorders, low self-esteem, mental health issues, support

Can you tell if a friend has an eating disorder?

I found out during sixth form that three of my friends had had an eating disorder in their GCSE years. Each time, my immediate reaction – for which I now chide myself – was one of surprise: they’d always looked so healthy.

As someone who has since come through an eating disorder myself, and as a volunteer for Beat – the UK’s leading eating disorder charity – I’ve spent years encouraging people to look beyond the visual to recognise the disease.

Only 10% of eating disorders sufferers are anorexic – and easily identified by severe weight loss. Around 40% suffer from bulimia (binge eating and purging) and the remaining 50% from “ednos” (eating disorder not otherwise specified, a category into which binge eating falls).

Though some people struggling with bulimia or ednos are underweight, the majority have a normal BMI, while some are overweight. When I heard my friends’ admissions, I instantly fell into the trap of equating “eating disorder” with “emaciation”, forming a host of regrettable assumptions about their experiences.

It’s often assumed that anorexia is fuelled by vanity and a desire to emulate skinny celebrities. In reality, eating disorders, including anorexia, are serious mental health problems, triggered by a complex interplay of low self-worth, difficulties in coping with problems and – possibly – genetics.

To recognise and understand these conditions, we need to look for behavioural signs as well as weight changes. For example, a friend with an eating disorder may become more withdrawn, preferring to spend time alone rather than engage in social situations they used to enjoy.

They may become extremely anxious at meal times and try to get out of events that revolve around food – you may notice they have taken to eating alone.

An obsession with calories and fat content can be an indicator, as can strict avoidance of certain food groups.

Some people with eating disorders – particularly anorexia – choose to engage in lengthy discussions about food, sometimes as a way of indulging through conversation, and sometimes to find out more about others’ eating habits against which they can measure their own.

Look out for physical and emotional symptoms: side-effects can include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, frequent illness and mood swings.

If you suspect a friend has an eating disorder and you want to help, you’ll need to raise the subject gently. Reading through these dos and don’ts before broaching the topic will help, but don’t beat yourself up if the conversation doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped: your friend will appreciate your concern.

Offering to go with your friend to a GP appointment can be a helpful first step, as GPs refer people on to services that can help them.

Peer-to-peer support can be a really valuable way of complementing professional services. Student Run Self Help (SRSH) is a network of groups run by trained students in many universities across the UK. It aims to provide a safe, confidential space for students with eating disorders to share their experiences; attendance does not require a diagnosis. Going to groups for the first time can be daunting, so offering to accompany your friend might give them the confidence to turn up.

“When students face mental health problems, they are most likely to turn to their friends for support,” says SRSH founding director Nicola Byrom. “The problems faced by young people with eating disorders are often wrapped around issues of low self-esteem, so knowing that you have friends there to support you can make the world of difference.”

Recovery can be a slow process – you’ll need patience as well as understanding to help rescue your friend from the turmoil they are going through

a helpful first step, as GPs refer people on to services that can help them.

Peer-to-peer support can be a really valuable way of complementing professional services. Student Run Self Help (SRSH) is a network of groups run by trained students in many universities across the UK. It aims to provide a safe, confidential space for students with eating disorders to share their experiences; attendance does not require a diagnosis. Going to groups for the first time can be daunting, so offering to accompany your friend might give them the confidence to turn up.

“When students face mental health problems, they are most likely to turn to their friends for support,” says SRSH founding director Nicola Byrom. “The problems faced by young people with eating disorders are often wrapped around issues of low self-esteem, so knowing that you have friends there to support you can make the world of difference.”

Recovery can be a slow process – you’ll need patience as well as understanding to help rescue your friend from the turmoil they are going through.

Hospital admissions for eating disorders jump 16 per cent

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anorexia, binge eating, bulimia, Children, control, diagnosis, Eating Disorders, GPs, hospitalisation, low self-esteem, osteoporosis, suicide, treatment, young people

Hospital admissions for eating disorders jump 16 per cent

Hospital admissions for eating disorders,  which carry the highest death rate of any psychiatric condition, have leapt 16 per cent in the last year and are up by almost 50 per cent in a decade.

Experts blamed the rise on a failure by doctors to diagnose those affected early in the course of their illness, before it takes hold. There has been no increase in eating disorders overall  for 20 years.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) said there were 2,290 admissions of adults and children with eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia and related conditions in the year leading to June 2012.

That is a 48 per cent increase on the 1,533 admissions a decade ago  in 2002-3. More than nine out of ten patients were female and over half were young people aged from 10 to 19. The ages ranged from under 5 to over 60.

The small number of very young children hospitalised (under age 10)   are thought to have had mechanical problems with eating, distinct from the psychiatric condition, a spokesperson for the HSCIC said.

The eating disorders anorexia and bulimia are associated with low self esteem and a desire for control which becomes linked with body shape, size and weight. They carry a high risk of death by suicide or starvation, rising to 20 per cent after 20 years.

The US singer Karen Carpenter,  Scottish child star and TV host Lena Zavaroni and  Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston are among celebrities who have died from anorexia.

The eating disorders charity b-eat said a media and social culture which  focused on women’s weight and shape aggravated the condition, though it did not cause it. An estimated 1.6 million people suffer from eating disorders.

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of B-eat, said: “I spoke to a 12 year old girl who said: ‘ Why have I got to go to hospital when they [celebrities] are on the front of the magazine.’ It reinforces their view that they are not ill – trapping them in their illness.”

She added:  “We know that 40 per cent of callers to our helpline have not spoken to a health professional. Lots are not putting themselves forward. Studies show community treatment has better outcomes but it is very variable across the country. People are not getting early treatment. Hospital admission is a last resort.”

The longer the condition went “unchallenged” the more serious the consequences, she said, including osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) caused by poor diet.

“We see girls of 20 with the skeleton of 80 year olds,” she said.

Dr Lucy Serpell, a clinical psychologist at University College London and expert in eating disorders, said: “The problem is the lack of good out-patient treatment and the failure of GPs to pick up the disorder and refer. When the patients come to us they are so unwell we have to get them to hospital to be stabilised. We don’t like admitting 15 year olds to hospital.”

An outpatient service for eating disorders established three years ago in north east London had seen admissions fall in three of the four boroughs where it was available – but not in the remaining one.

“We can see the difference – patients get admitted to hospital more in the fourth borough because they are not being treated soon enough. All the evidence shows people are better off where there is a specialist service.”

In anorexia sufferers lose weight rapidly, becoming skeletal and ill. Bulimia typically starts with an effort to restrict the diet severely, but this cannot be sustained and ends with a binge, followed by vomiting and the cycle begins again. Eating is the one area of their lives that they feel they can control.

Case Study

“I think it is mainly the pressure to look a certain way in the media”

Charlie Crompton, 21, spent six months in hospital when she was 17 after an eating disorder led to her weight plummeting to five stone.

“It started when I was 15 but it wasn’t until I was 17 that I was admitted to hospital. At my worst I weighed five stone. My mum had been pressuring me to go to the doctors as I was just getting thinner and thinner, they kept weighing me and I kept losing weight so the next step was hospitalisation. I think my illness was due to lots of different reasons. Just growing up is hard sometimes. I was also under a lot of exam pressure and I felt under pressure from my friends and the media to look a certain way. I wanted to look good.

Looking back it now all seems very strange. I think that when you’re ill your brain isn’t working properly so you can’t really understand what’s happening or why you are acting the way you are acting. I didn’t realise I was ill. In hospital they put you on a feeding routine to get you back into eating. That restores your weight and as your weight comes back up your brain starts to work normally again. When you have gained enough weight they let you out of hospital and you start therapy to stop you doing it again.

“For me I had actually booked a holiday about a year before so I needed to get out of hospital to go to America. I don’t think they were convinced I was ready but I was really determined not to miss that trip. I was discharged on the Friday and went on holiday on the Monday on condition that I had lots of checkups and support as soon as I got back.

“I’ve now been recovered for almost four years. I can understand why the figures might show a big increase in teenage girls being admitted to hospital. I think it is mainly the pressure to look a certain way in the media. But there’s also a lot more awareness nowadays so perhaps it is also that more people are coming forward for help.”

 

Life after cancer

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anxiety, Cancer, chemotherapy, Depression, diagnosis, finance, low self-esteem, mastectomy, reconstructive surgery, relationships, stress, support, treatment

Life after cancer

Cancer news usually involves unremittingly grim stories about carcinogens or rising cancer rates. But recently there was something more positive. A Cancer Research UK report shows that deaths are “set to fall dramatically” by 2030. The 17% drop will be the result of major improvements in diagnosis, treatment and fewer people smoking. Many more of us can expect to survive cancer.

This is marvellous news but unfortunately it’s not the full story. “It is not that a magic wand has been waved and they are all cured,” says Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support. “It actually means many people will be living longer with the disease. The impact of cancer does not suddenly stop when treatment is over. Many cancer patients have to deal with the physical and emotional effects of their cancer for years afterwards.”

Christina Buffham, 32, from Staines, was diagnosed with breast cancer when her son, Jack, was only four months old. During her maternity leave from British Airways she had a mastectomy followed by gruelling chemotherapy. “I got the all-clear on Jack’s first birthday,” she says, “and I thought, ‘Life’s going to be brilliant now.’ I was euphoric. But when all that dies down, it hits you: your body still isn’t right and you are terrified that the cancer will come back.”

This is a common reaction. “Rates of depression and anxiety are very high when treatment ends,” says Dr Michelle Kohn, director of Living Well, a programme that offers emotional and practical support to cancer patients at Leaders in Oncology Care, a private London-based clinic. “Other emotional issues, such as low self-esteem, anger, stress or sleep problems are also widespread.”

On top of this, cancer survivors are often battling with physical and practical challenges, anything from huge financial losses, to the side effects of medication, profound fatigue, a confused-feeling known as “chemo brain”, or lymphoedima (swelling). Their loved ones, meanwhile, might be increasingly baffled as to why they can’t bounce back and make the most of life. “People suffer for years, often in silence, without any real support,” says Kohn. “Life after cancer can actually be very difficult and lonely.”

It does not help, says Devane, that, “the current system is woefully inadequate at supporting the changing nature of cancer survivors”. In the United States, most major cancer units have survivorship programmes where teams of psychologists, nurses, and other specialists offer ongoing information, advice and emotional support to patients when treatment ends. This, of course, is funded by health insurance. In contrast, NHS post-treatment psychological or practical services are limited, to say the least.

The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI), a partnership between the Department of Health and Macmillan, was launched in 2008 to help improve the situation but it has a massive job on its hands. According to NCSI research, 60% of cancer survivors have unmet physical or psychological needs; over 33% have problems with close relationships, careers, or have difficulty performing household duties; over 90% have suffered financial losses. Waving these people off with a six-month follow up appointment, is simply not working.

The NCSI is launching a range of programmes that take a more holistic approach to the needs of cancer survivors, for example encouraging physical activity, or helping with issues including work and finance. “It is essential the NHS now implements these solutions,” says Devane. But there is a very long way to go.

Other cancer charities, in smaller ways, are also trying to plug the gaping hole in post-cancer care. The charity Maggie’s runs a free six-week programme called “Where Now?” that aims to help people adjust to life after treatment ends.

There are, in fact, many highly effective ways to cope with tricky post-treatment issues. But without expert guidance, few people know where to begin. “The fear that cancer will come back again is huge for me,” says Christina. “It’s impossible to ignore. There are reminders everywhere, on TV, the newspaper, the internet. Other people also say things without realising the impact they’re having – more than once I’ve had people tell me about someone they know whose cancer came back, spread and killed them.”

In fact, Christina’s cancer has already returned, twice. And she has also had to contend with complications from breast reconstructions (so far she has had four reconstructive surgeries). She is now cancer-free and “determined to enjoy life to the full”. But still, whenever she feels unwell the fear sets in and – despite a supportive family – she says that she can feel very alone.

“My GP is brilliant,” she explains, “But there’s only so much she can do. The consultants are absolutely inundated, and understandably, since I don’t have cancer, I can’t be their top priority. But I also know that all three times my cancer was dismissed at first by doctors, so it can be terrifying, if I feel an unusual symptom, to be told to wait and see.”

None of this must dampen the brilliant news about falling death rates. But there is a clear message behind the headlines, and one that must not be ignored: NHS post-cancer treatment services need to change dramatically.

 

Time to lay responsibility at the rapist’s door

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behaviour, blame, challenge, low self-esteem, perpetrators, prevention, rape, relationships, responsibility, Sexual Violence, support, Teens, vulnerability, women

Time to lay responsibility at the rapist’s door

A 15-year-old boy was describing to me and a group of 12 other young men his relationships with teenage girls. He held firm with his opinion that if a girl came round to his house it implied that she wanted to have sex. But there was one boy in the group who, even in the face of pressure from the others, was certain that “even if she’s naked, she’s not supposed to be raped”.

I was interviewing the young men about their experiences of relationships for the Female Voice in Violence project, and it was clear that the majority of the boys did not understand the concept of rape. They could not see it.

Would you “see” rape? This is the question being asked in the second stage of a government campaign to raise awareness of abuse in teenage relationships. The initiative is launched at a time when there is an increasing focus on young women’s experiences of sexual violence. To date, those shouldering the responsibility of rape prevention have been the victims: girls are blamed for making themselves vulnerable to rape, and their low self-esteem or a craving to belong is the reason, we are told, that they place themselves in situations where they may be victimised. Now, however, it is the turn of those who commit sexual violence to be challenged to recognise it.

It is right that girls are supported to reduce their vulnerability. However, there is a growing sense of frustration among girls, and some services that work with them, that this vulnerability is communicated as the cause of sexual violence. The message they hear is that girls are raped because they are vulnerable. Where, they ask, is the space to consider the responsibility of those who are perpetrating abuse? So a campaign that challenges the perpetrators to ask whether they see rape is welcome.

Girls have told me they are relieved that they are not once again being told to modify their behaviour in order to avoid abuse. Those same girls would call for services to support victims of sexual violence; these are essential. However, providing services to pick up the pieces, or reduce vulnerabilities, will never, on their own, prevent sexual violence. Until the behaviour of rapists is understood and challenged the abuse will continue.

The campaign signals a move to reframe and revisit questions about how to prevent sexual violence, so it is crucial that the response on the ground is able to mirror this. While investment has been made in services for boys and men who commit forms of violence such as gun and knife crime, little attention has been given to preventing their use of sexual violence. This needs to change.

Young people’s views are shaped by a mosaic of messages, images and attitudes. Professionals need to be supported to challenge these ideas in order to stem the development of abusive attitudes and behaviours.

Challenging the ideas that normalise sexual violence, from the outset, should underpin any such preventive work. The inclusion of men and boys in this debate is critical. The young man who condemned rape in the face of peer pressure is not a one-off. We need to understand the difference in attitudes between young men. Only then will we move from seeing rape to stopping it.