Mental health connections

[UK Column 7th June 2019 ]

"This is a website which has this amazing story:  `UK University to monitor social media accounts to identify suicidal students` and it`s by a gentleman called David McCourt."

"`Northumbria University in the North East of England is set to take the radical step of using data collected from students` social media accounts in a bid to reduce climbing student suicide rates. The higher educational institution, located in Newcastle upon Tyne, will create an Early Alert Tool to offer aid to undergrads in crisis`."

"So this was a bit more of it. So the university is working in partnership with nine other organisations on the project and they`ve been awarded funding by the Office for Students (OfS). A total of £14.5 million has been put aside by OfS, £6 million of which will go to the social media scanning project, and another £8.5 million going to nine other collaborative projects."

"Now I find this quite extraordinary," says Brian Gerrish, "That these sums of money are being put into watching students` social media. "

"This is another paragraph: `Few details were given about what information exactly would be mined from students` social media accounts. The project will raise concerns about the invasion of privacy, but these issues could be eased somewhat by an opt-in policy that requires students to consent to being part of the program`."

"Now we spoke to the Office for Students and said: `Well, are students going to be able to opt in or opt out? And they said to us that: `Well they don`t know at the moment because the project hasn`t really been formulated`. So we`ve given money for a project which the donor of that public money doesn`t even know what these key details are about."

Mike Robinson comments: "So they`re going to hoover up all this data. Now twitter, facebook and so on, they provide apps to do that. So take part in those platforms, anybody can hoover up your data. But the question here for me is: is this going to end at identifying people that are at risk of suicide or perhaps will they be looking at other forms of thought crime?"

Brian Gerrish: "Well is this just going to be one arm of the Prevent strategy and project Channel, so that if you dare express anything the state believes is right wing extremist you`re going to be reported through to the Prevent system?"

"Let`s have a look at what the Chief Executive said. This is Nicola Dandridge and she said: `Whenever I talk to students, improving mental health support is consistently raised as a priority. Taking preventative action to promote good mental health is critical, as is taking a whole institution approach and involving students in developing solutions..."

"So apparently, we`re at the stage where students are not thinking about their education and how good that education is, they`re preoccupied with their mental health. If that`s true, we`re in a pretty serious position. I`m not sure what the truth is, but we`ll just follow this through a bit."

 

"Here`s the Office for Students. They`re independent, Mike, as always. They were appointed by central government, and they`re connected through to central government, but they are independent." 

"And we`ve got some interesting people here. Here`s Sir Michael Barber, the chair, and he started out as chief adviser to the Secretary of State for Education in 1997 and he was part of the Prime Minister`s Delivery Unit. So very much an establishment man but everything is independent of government here. And he did a little bit of work with consultancy McKinsey who, of course, has done a lot of work in most governments."

"We`ve got Gurpreet Dehal. He`s a trustee of the multi-school academy trust E-ACT. He also holds non-executive positions with the Ministry of Defence and Equity UK..."

"And we`ve got Martin Coleman, deputy chairman of the board and chairs the Provider Risk Committee. And I found this interesting... he`s a trustee of an organisation called Police Now. I had no idea what that was. So we followed through. Here it is."

"`Join us, change the story, and `Police Now is on a mission to `transform communities, reduce crime and increase the public`s confidence in policing by recruiting and developing outstanding and diverse individuals to be leaders in society and on the policing frontlines`. So you`re not a policeman any more. You`re going to be changing the whole of society."

Mike Robinson: "So this is Common Purpose for police."

"It`s Common Purpose for police; I would say so. And we`ve got some interesting people here. So we`ve got a David Spencer,  co-founder and chief executive officer. He was an officer in the Met Police. So I suppose that makes sense. But he`s done a lot of political degrees... If you have a look at the bottom."

`Dave has a Business degree from the University of Sheffield, a Masters degree in US Politics from the University of London, and is currently studying his research Masters in Politics from the University of London`. 

"We`ve got another police constable there, Tor Garnett... So Sir Ian Powell we`ve got, left Pricewaterhouse Coopers on 13th of June 2016 on completion of his second and final four year term as chairman and senior partner.  Pricewaterhouse, of course, very interesting company with lots of very big government contracts, but he then joined the board of Capita PLC on 1st September as chairman designate. So he`s chairman of Police Now and a member of the committee for the National Gallery."

"So interesting connections. And the other gentleman there, James Darley - well he`s been working in graduate recruitment and he`s got a background in credit Swiss bank. And it`s just interesting to say how does this relationship work? [It`s] where we`re really coming to. And I can`t explain it."

"No," says Mike Robinson.

"We could go on a little bit more. We`ll just do these. Director general for tax and welfare at HM Treasury, James Bowler. So he, according to this report, is the Director General for tax and welfare at HM Treasury."

Mike Robinson: "But he`s helping Police Now transform secure society."

"Yes."

"Good stuff."

"Yeah."

Mike Robinson: "I mean what can we say about this?"

"Not a lot."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mt5H3aChk

The Glastonbury experiment

"A 'weapons grade' phone technology that has sparked health concerns - and been linked with a spate of suicides at Bristol University - will be tested at Glastonbury Festival..."

"A 5G mobile network is to be trialled during Glasto as part of EE's ongoing trials of the technology. 5G is the next generation of mobile network and is expected to begin publicly rolling out later this year, offering internet speeds up to double that of current generation 4G. EE has said it will install five temporary masts across the Worthy Farm site, which will enable festival-goers to connect to 2G, 3G, 4G and - for the first time 5G - networks. The trial will be the first time the technology has been installed at a festival."

"While many scientists believe 5G is perfectly safe, some - including a public health professor at the University of California - have described 5g as `a massive experiment on the health of all species`."

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/glastonbury-festival-test-mobile-phone-2790807

================================


"A Silicon-valley engineer turned technology health advocate, Jeromy Johnson discusses our attachment to technology and the health hazards such an addiction may hold. "

Despite the health warnings, along comes an even more powerful wifi technology, as this commenter on the above video has said.

Who`s behind government policy ?

"We suffer the consequences, but who makes the policy?" asks Brian Gerrish on UK Column News, Wednesday 18 July 2018.

"And as we`ve just heard at the start of our news today the British government is descending into chaos. But somebody behind the scenes is still pulling the strings and making the decisions." 

 

"Let`s have a look at this organisation which was flagged up to us a couple of days ago: the Horizon Scanning Programme team.  `Horizon Scanning is about exploring what the future might look like to understand uncertainties better`. And the UK government is crowing about this in quite a number of places. So apparently it`s not about making predictions, but systematically investigating evidence about future trends. Horizon scanning apparently helps government to `analyse whether it`s adequately prepared for potential opportunities and threats, and this helps ensure that policies are resilient to different future environments`."

"So we`ve got a Horizon Scanning Programme team `coordinating strategic horizon scanning work across departments, drawing on insights from experts in and outside government to challenge our thinking`. So note there that we`re bringing in experts from outside government. Who are these experts? It`s not easy to see but we`re going to work on this and see whether we can pin some of them down at least."

 

"But here`s the Horizon Programme team responsible for `coordinating work between departments and input from those experts outside the Civil Service; creating communities of interest around specific topics; improving cross-government horizon scanning; developing networks to gather and share information; bringing emerging issues to a senior-level audience`."

"So this is really incredible stuff. It`s working on government policy but they say `well it isn`t really`. Let`s have a look at the detail. How does this thing come about? Well prior to 2014 we had a Cabinet Office Horizon Scanning Secretariat and we had a Government Office of Science`s Horizon Scanning Centre. They merged March. That produced the Horizon Scanning Programme Team."

"We`ve got a Steering Group which is the Cabinet Secretary`s Advisory Group. And if you don`t know what these organisations are, I`m going to say we didn`t until recently. Research it yourself because there`s a lot of questions to be asked here."

 

"So here`s the overall chair. It`s our old friend Jeremy Heywood, immensely powerful individual within government and the Civil Service; and the overall minister the Rt Hon David Lidington CBE MP. Now he`s the Duchy of Lancaster, treasurer, so that`s a very important role. Previously he was [with] BP and another pretty high profile global company. So what takes place in these organisations? Well we`re hopefully now starting to get a glimpse. But what we can say with certainty is that they are closely tied in with what was the government`s Behavioural Insights team and this was the British government using applied psychology in order to change the way people.... think and behave."

"And apparently this organisation has had its own ten commandments and so we`ve got a Dr John Carney here, the Principal Scientist within the Systems Thinking and Consulting Group of the Defence Science and Technology lab but he`s previously been Team Leader for Horizon Scanning."

"He had this to say: `Don`t think that Horizon Scanning is about predicting the future - this is a common misconception. The value of Horizon Scanning is using it to change mind-sets.`  So that`s a pretty powerful statement there that. These people, not all of them are in government, certainly not put in positions of power by a democratic process, but they`re working to change our mind-sets. We`re not actually told how those mind-sets are going to be changed..."
 
"But this is the sort of stuff they`re getting up to. And the bottom one here caught my attention. `Social attitudes of young people`. We can find one of their papers here. The interesting thing about this paper is that there`s no authors mentioned on it. So they don`t seem to want to say who actually put the thing together in any detail but down at the bottom it says in capitals: `THIS IS NOT STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY`. Now this is a very interesting claim because of course this material is clearly being used as the basis of government policy ."

"So what sort of thing are they saying? They say `In some areas, we see little change in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences compared to older generations. For instance, when we ask people of different ages what is important in life, we find remarkably little difference between generations. Similarly, we see little evidence of generational shifts in willingness to justify selfish behaviour, such as tax and benefit fraud`. What an amazing label to stamp on a future generation. `Or appetite for being involved in community engagement. These areas where there are few, if any, changes between generations remind us that we should not overstate the possible changes over the next 10 years in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences`." 

"So clearly the government [is] working behind the scenes to change the way that young people think."

"And it goes on here. I found this staggering. `As well as shaping evolving attitudes, we would expect to see continued changes in the behaviours and experiences of young people in the next 10 years. One way that this could occur would be through an intensification of the trend towards longer routes and more complex routes to full adulthood and independence`."

Mike Robinson interjects. "What does that mean?"

"Well I`ve read it several times Mike. What I pick up from this is that they`re talking about delaying people becoming adult."

"But how can they delay people becoming adult when they sexualise them at ever younger ages and push more and more adult themes on to ever younger children?"

"Well that`s occurring at one end of the spectrum. Of course the other thing that`s actually happening is you`re seeing, for example, in social services documents that even when somebody`s got to the age of twenty one or twenty six they are still deemed to be under the control of the state. What I picked up from this is it`s almost like the state is expecting us to be children in the eyes of the state and anything they can do to increase the childish behaviour will continue." 

"If we go to the other extreme we could say that years ago we had people at the age of sixteen doing some really important work within apprenticeship. They had to turn up at work; they had to have the right tools, the right skills to do a skilful job. Many youngsters now at the age of sixteen are still effectively playing games."

"But who knows who devised the policy?"

"And on the back of that I`m going to thank this viewer for getting in contact with us. The email was this: `Dear Brian, Don`t know if this is of any interest ... The summer reading challenge in libraries this year is based on The Beano ... you know, Denis the Menace and Beryl the Peril ... but the staff have been told not to use the words PERIL or MENACE when speaking to the children! This disturbed me so I started to look into it`."

"It is all the work of The Reading Agency; and their partners include the British Council and the BBC. Funders include the Cabinet Offices` Social Action Fund and the Wellcome Trust .... There are evaluation forms and a family survey that staff seem to complete but details only available to staff`."

"Trawling around this site I found `The Public Library Universal Health Offer` from the SCL ... _{all very creepy ... SCL organise the `shelf help` books training young children in anxiety, depression, self harm, body image, eating disorders and bullying`."}

"And so it goes on. This is sort of part of the material this lady was looking at and I can see why she`s concerned about it. And let`s bring in the `Vision` of the Reading Agency."

"`Reading for pleasure enhances people`s literacy, life chances and quality of life. It is vital for our prosperity`. And number 2 here. `Libraries aim to be a force for social change through reading. They bring people recreation and pleasure, learning and literacy, health and wellbeing`. So we know this is linked up with the Cabinet Office and here we can now see that libraries themselves are aiming to be a force for social change."

Mike Robinson. "And they`re using childish material to do that."

"And they`re using childish material. And this was the second part of this presentation. I`ve just shown that first slide. And I couldn`t help but see this. `Libraries` reading work helps local authorities achieve key outcomes`. So this is nothing about assisting the individual. This is about assisting a local authority to achieve its outcomes and those outcomes have been set by the Cabinet Office and central government."

"And I`ll just end on this one, which was also sent to us. This is Rhonda Borough Council which is looking for somebody to fulfil a contract. They want a wellbeing game and the wellbeing game will be for 6 to 14 years. `This project will support school pupils to reflect on wellbeing. It will involve pupils reflecting upon their wellbeing profile and completing `real world` activities to help them develop within a wellbeing context. The main aim of the Wellbeing Game is through gamification to enable pupils to reflect on their personal wellbeing profile and to engage in the world of challenges that will help them build personal strengths and character. Pupils wellbeing challenges will then be linked to the virtual world to promote engagement. "

"With many young children committing suicide in South Wales I don`t get a warm feeling about that contract which is being offered particularly when we can see, or we`re getting closer to seeing, the real detail of the links back into the Cabinet Office itself and outside agencies that are helping the British government form policy."

See UK Column News HERE

Disgraceful statistics

The article begins: "Teenage suicides in London have increased at more than four times the national rate, as growing levels of deprivation and hopelessness grip young people in the capital."

"New figures show self-inflicted deaths among Londoners aged between 10 and 19 have more than doubled since 2013, rising by 107 per cent in the three years to 2016 – from 14 to 29 - while across England and Wales the equivalent number increased by 24 per cent."

"Experts attribute the sharp rise to the `over-pressured` environment facing teenagers in the city and a feeling among those in the capital’s deprived neighbourhoods that there is `no hope` for their education and job prospects."
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/teenage-suicides-london-national-rate-higher-deprivation-young-people-figures-a8387501.html

The above statistics came from the Brent Centre for Young People which explained that it had been "`flooded` with cases of mentally unwell young people in recent years, with the number of referrals across North London rising by 59 per cent between 2014 and 2017."

Referring to the suicides of teenagers and young people, Mike Robinson on UK Column News stated: "Frankly I find, you know, 500 children committing suicide in England and Wales to be a disgraceful statistic and it is a reflection of the type of lifestyles that are being forced on people these days, not only through the media, but as this report highlights the fact that this government and ... no government for the last 30 years has offered any hope ... for young people."

He goes on: "Yes we`re being offered retail jobs, coffee serving and shelf stacking. There`s no hope for young people and it needs to be reversed very quickly."

"Needs to be reversed," agrees Brian Gerrish. "And that means we all need to do things. Now one lady who stood up to be counted in a very big way is Christina England. Have a look on the internet if you`ve not come across Christina before. She`s written two books now warning about the dangers of vaccinations. But she`s produced this really excellent article: Medical Kidnap. Well she`s written in Health Impact News and she`s talking about the sheer number of children disappearing from the UK care system. Now why is this important? Well the information is now coming to the surface. We know things are being suppressed in the so-called mainstream media but we now have a number of really good, really well informed, journalists producing information elsewhere. So I encourage you to go and have a look at that later."

"According to a growing number of reports, thousands of children are simply disappearing from the UK Care System (The equivalent of the `Foster Care` system in the U.S.) every year, and what is said to be happening to them is too awful to contemplate."  
"On May 7, 2018, an article published in The Independent, titled `Hundreds more children `farmed out` to care homes miles from where they live despite pledge to cut number`, reported that the number of children in the UK who were being sent to residential homes hundreds of miles away from where they live had risen by 4 percent." 

"The Independent reported that, last year alone, over 9,000 of the children who had been sent away to these homes had gone missing..."  

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4a0zG-7nn4

Life not worth living

Or a slippery slope ?

"There’s an understanding that, when you work in mental health, a lot of your resources will be focused on trying, to the best of your ability, to prevent your patients harming themselves."

"It was therefore with some surprise that I read about a 20 year-old-woman in the Netherlands who had chosen to be euthanized. Having been sexually abused from the age of 5, she was considered to have an ‘untreatable’ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, reportedly co-occurring with anorexia, depression and hallucinations."

"It has since emerged that, while only two mental health patients were euthanized in the Netherlands in 2010, this rose to 56 in 2015. A recent review showed that the overwhelming majority of those with mental health problems who chose to be euthanized were women with long-term conditions, often with some kind of trauma."

"The right to end your life is a complex topic and perhaps one which it is very difficult to have a settled opinion about."

https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/discursive/first-do-no-harm/

The Highland Investigation and Children`s Services

I`m placing this slide from the UK Column News [21 October 2016] out of context just in case people do not want to read any further:

There will be a meeting of the Highland Investigation at the Royal Highland Hotel, Station Square, Academy Street, Inverness on Wednesday 24 October 2016 at 7pm.  Anybody who is interested in helping the investigation or who wants to find out more is welcome. David Scott will be attending.

"Right," Mike Robinson begins: "To lead into David`s stuff mainly we`re just going to highlight this little article from Demos here:
Commissioning in Children`s Services - What Works? So Demos the think tank, what are they saying? They`re saying:"

"Despite significant policy attention and political action, looked after children and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) remain some of the most vulnerable children in the country with their later life outcomes - social, educational and health related - remaining stubbornly poor. It is no coincidence that in Ofsted`s inspections of local authority children`s services departments from November 2015 to March 2016, three-quarters were given one of the two bottom ratings: `requires improvement` or `inadequate`. These failings have profound impacts on the lives of children and young people."

"Two sets of pressures are putting children`s services departments under considerable strain. First, demand for children`s social care is rising. Between 2008 and 2015, local authorities saw a 22 per cent rise in referrals and a 16 per cent increase in the number of children in care. - That statistic alone is spectacular Brian. - It is not only the volume of demand but the kind of demand that is exerting pressure: the needs of looked after children are becoming more complex, and the introduction of Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs), although a positive move forward, require local authorities to think more creatively about how they will meet the needs of children with SEND."

"Of course, part of the problem there is that demand particularly for children with special educational needs is being driven by the fact that extra benefits are given and there`s pressure on parents to actually register their children as requiring special educational needs. And second they say local authorities are facing continued and severe cuts to their budgets. And so what do they go on to talk about ? They basically go on to talk about the privatisation of care in children`s services. And this is particularly dangerous of course because once that type of thing ends up in private hands we get even less oversight..."

Brian Gerrish joins in: "Well, of course, at the moment some of the most vulnerable children with multiple special needs are being looked after by private companies [because they] can be earning 230, 40, 50, 60 thousand pounds a year per child. So this is big money business." David Scott is asked what he thinks about that.

"Well all these things - when you`re dealing with a government that has coercive powers of taxation - so they`re taking money essentially at the pointy end of a bayonet and then that`s being distributed, not controlled in any way by the people for their collective benefit, but being siphoned off to well connected private interests. You have really the worst of both worlds. You have all the drive of the private sector but rather than being a drive towards satisfying customers, the customers, in fact, become a commodity and their only drive is to satisfy politicians. [It] is an invitation to corruption on a vast scale."

 

 

"Now let`s start here with the Inverness Courier. Now this is going back a few years, 2011. Janitor charged with showing indecent images to pupils. Now this is an introduction to the Highland Investigation and you had a number of articles here on this particular school. School janitor is placed on sex offenders` register - the fact that children were being shown indecent cartoons and this one from the Highland News saying: Bullied girl (9) tries to strangle herself with ties."

"This is one of the first areas we have been looking at in the Highland Investigation," explains David Scott. "And we`re putting this up here today just as an indication of the sort of information we`re seeing. We`ve got a huge amount of information coming forward and we hope to have more when we meet folk next week ... in Inverness..."

"Now Ardesier is a very interesting case: one small primary school and one example. The janitor, Mr Thomas Brown, he was the janitor at more than one school. He had been showing indecent images to children in Ardesier primary school playground but it was [after] his conduct at another primary school that he was [then] charged and convicted and put on the sex offenders` register. Now the parents at Ardesier found there was no investigation or even acknowledgement publicly for what he was doing in Ardesier primary. The whole thing seemed to be hushed up. So one of the themes we`re seeing at Highland is that problems, embarrassing incidents etc, rather than having the disinfectant of sunlight, are concealed and hushed up and there is no proper investigation."

David Scott says that the reason the Highland Investigation is going back a few years is because it takes in the period 2006 to 2009 which was the time of the trial of the Named Person scheme and the GIRFEC approach. He states: "So what was happening in Highland then is being rolled out across the whole of Scotland now."

"Now the second case you mentioned there which was also at the same primary... the girl there was being very badly bullied."

=============

"But the incident left several pupils at Ardersier Primary School traumatised, according to her mum, and Brooke has now been offered a place eight miles away at Croy Primary. But the family is still angry at education bosses who are now refusing to meet transport costs to her new school. Her mum Pauline MacGregor (36) told the Highland News: `The bullying had gone on for months and nothing was done about it despite us reporting it to the head teacher. We moved to the area in 2007 and Brooke was enrolled at Ardersier Primary. The bullying didn't start until March or April that year. It was incessant. One boy was the ring leader, but she has been targeted by both boys and girls in the class`..."

"The final straw for the family came two days before Brooke's ninth birthday when they say the youngster tried to kill herself in front of her classmates. When single mum Ms MacGregor went to school to collect her daughter, she said Brooke's teacher met her in the playground. `She was very upset. She was in tears when she told me what had happened. She said there had been an incident and explained Brooke had put a tie round her neck and was trying to choke herself.` Other pupils were standing around chanting `Go Brooke, go` and that's what alerted the teachers. `We were told her lips were blue and her teacher got a terrible shock. I just felt sick. You hear about young teenagers being driven to suicide by bullying but Brooke is only nine.`"

"Brooke's grandfather John Masson (63) said his granddaughter had no problems at her previous school before moving to Ardersier for family reasons. `We have letters from her previous head teacher describing her as a bright and happy child. But that changed since she came to Ardersier. She has some friends but now she is afraid to leave the house. We kept her off school for a few days after she tried to choke herself and the school gave her a support worker. But Brooke told us all she was asked was about her home life. She never got asked about the bullying`..."

"Education chiefs claim one of the boys accused of bullying Brooke has been excluded from the school, but Mr Masson insists that boy was not responsible for the bullying... The family have now been told a place has been found for Brooke at Croy Primary but because it is at their request they are responsible financially for her transport arrangements. Ms MacGregor is on benefits and is a carer for her father who has health problems. `We can't afford to get taxis to take her to school,` said Mr Masson. `The authorities seem to forget she is the victim here yet the boy who has caused this nightmare is still in school.` A Highland Council spokesperson said: `We cannot comment on any individual pupil's circumstances`..."

====================
 

David Scott does not actually read out the emboldened section but I think it is highly relevant since the Named Person pilot was on the go at the time. It looks more like the authorities were trying to find something `on` the family rather than dealing with the bullying.

Brian Gerrish is asked by David Scott if he would be interested to hear what Her Majesty`s Inspector of Schools had to say about the school just a few months after that incident.

"Well, of course, I would be extremely interested. I may suspect I know what`s coming."

"Well here we go: Now bear in mind the scene that`s just been painted there. This is what HMIE after a thorough examination of the school said: `Children behave well in and around the school. Most are confident the school will deal effectively with any incidents of bullying. Children feel safe and valued in school and know what to do if they have any concerns. Staff have a very positive relationship with children. They`re committed to the wellbeing and support of all children and have appropriate awareness of child protection issues`. So that gives you an idea about how much you can rely upon the government, upon the state, regulating itself. This is of course garbage."

Brian Gerrish agrees: "It`s a pattern we see across the country, wherever you go. If you try to expose there`s a failing within a public body, all that happens is there`s a closing of ranks and they defend themselves."

"There`s more to come on the story of that little girl but we`ll keep that for following weeks; but actually it gets worse, the way the family was treated subsequently by the Highland Council; it gets worse."
 

 

"Well the Scottish National Party seems to be having a problem with what? What are we talking about here? - references to the holocaust?"

"Well possibly the worst judged political stunt in the history of political stunts," David Scott thinks. "And this is the very famous Brain family. You will appreciate that we all know that the Scottish government will not get involved in individual cases, except of course when they do, and they`ve got hugely involved in this case. It`s obviously been in their political interests to do so. The Brain family faced deportation having contravened the requirements of their visa. The Home Office in London it would seem was actually being quite lenient with them and trying to find a compromise but this was seized on by the Scottish National Party, made into a political issue."

"And in came Mr Brain to the Scottish National Party conference. Now bear in mind Nicola Sturgeon doesn`t get involved in individual cases. Here he is on the stage at the Scottish National Party conference and he`s wearing a little badge... memories of the holocaust. It`s yellow and it`s a diamond in this case with the letter `F` on it which he explains stands for foreigner... So it`s not subtle but I`m sure you see what they`re trying to do in terms of painting the British state as evil and themselves as good..."

"Here you have a family actually being fairly well treated over a fairly minor dispute over a visa and that`s the metaphor you go to. It`s crass; it`s embarrassing and it cheapens the political language and it coarsens the political language as well because everyone goes running around calling everyone else a Nazi and all of a sudden you don`t have any sort of exchange of ideas or examination of the facts... Mental activity closes down and it becomes simply a matter of abuse and grandstanding, which this was."

The Docherty family

"Now these points David I think we consider them in relation to the failure of the Scottish state to do anything to protect the Docherty family. As far as I know there`s no communications with the family. Can you give us a sort of update and also say what if anything Nippy Sturgeon has been doing to help the Dochertys."

"She`s done nothing to help the Dochertys. She may have been doing quite a lot to harm the Dochertys; we`re not quite sure because obviously it`s all secret; but certainly nothing to help. Now we haven`t heard from the Dochertys for three weeks. We`re getting very concerned about their safety; whether they are... ok and breathing the free air of Ireland, or not. We don`t know."

"It illustrates ... here you had a family who`ve had their four children violently seized... without any lawful excuse by a foreign state; Nicola Sturgeon does nothing. We have one family who has a minor dispute over a visa application and Nicola Sturgeon puts them on the stage at the party conference. She takes part... She leads a standing ovation as they walk on to the stage... "

"Can you imagine the impact which she could have had in the Docherty case? With that degree of power, with that degree of media attention, with that degree of focus on her; she could have stopped the Docherty case right now. She could have sorted it because if she had brought Brian and Janice Docherty on to the stage in that way, what would have happened? I tell you this, their kids would have been back very quickly... It`s almost certainly the case that the mere threat of doing that would have seen all of the government agencies involved resolve this situation."

"But she will not move; she will not act. She will not act in order to make sure that entities charged with behaving in a lawful manner are doing their job; and that`s the very excuse she`s given for acting in individual cases in the past."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFa-cav8-BM

An inquest is being heard more than six years after youngster`s death

"A 15-year-old boy sent to live in a children's home was found hanged after months of abuse at the hands of his carer, an inquest heard."

"Aaron Leafe is feared to have taken his own life just six weeks after finding the courage to report predator Anwar Ismail."

"Before his death, he gave a recorded interview to police which eventually led to Ismail being jailed for child sex abuse."

"Now, more than six years after the tragedy, an inquest is finally being held into the youngster's death."

"Chesterfield Coroners Court heard Aaron was first taken into care just before his 12th birthday. He had become increasingly difficult for his mother to control and was regularly picked up by police."

"Aaron was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and later with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3832076/Asperger-s-sufferer-Aaron-Leafe-hanged-sexually-abused-carer.html#ixzz4NIdq2fw9

Majority of antidepressants may be unsafe for children

"The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenagers with major depression, experts have warned."

"In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo..."

"The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, warns that antidepressants do not appear to offer a clear advantage in treating children and teenagers – and could change doctors’ approach towards prescribing treatments."

"`Major depressive disorder is quite prevalent in children and teenagers,` said University of Oxford researcher Dr Andrea Cipriani, who led the report."

"Not only are these cases extremely underdiagnosed and under-treated, but the condition tends to present itself in a different way in children."

"Depressive symptoms in children and adolescents are rather undifferentiated; you’ll notice more irritability, aggressive behaviour and problems in school – so the consequences of depressive episodes of children can be dramatic, increasing risk of suicidal ideas and attempts."

"We recommend that children and adolescents taking antidepressants should be monitored closely, regardless of the antidepressant chosen, particularly at the beginning of treatment," said Professor Peng Xie, who co-authored the report."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/depression-antidepressants-children-ineffective-suicide-a7071051.html

David Healy - Hearts and Minds: Psychotropic Drugs and Violence

Mechanisms of antidepressant-induced violence

"A link between antidepressant use and violence needs a plausible clinical mechanism through which such effects might be realised. There are comparable data on increased rates of suicidal events on active treatment compared to placebo."

"In the case of suicide, several explanations have been offered for the linkage. It is argued that alleviating the motor retardation of depression, the condition being treated, might enable suicides to happen, but this cannot explain the appearance of suicidality in healthy volunteers."

"Mechanisms linking antidepressant treatment, rather than the condition, to adverse behavioural outcomes include akathisia, emotional disinhibition, emotional blunting, and manic or psychotic reactions to treatment. There is good evidence that antidepressant treatment can induce problems such as these and a prima facie case that akathisia, emotional blunting, and manic or psychotic reactions might lead to violence."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564177/

Child abuse victim given lethal injection

"A victim of child sex abuse has been allowed to end her life after doctors decided her mental disorder was incurable, it's been reported."

"The woman, in her twenties, was molested between the ages of five and 15 and had been suffering with post-traumatic stress since the abuse began."

"She underwent 'intensive therapy ' and though her psychological condition improved, doctors in the Netherlands decided to accept her request to die, the Daily Mail reported."

"The woman, who has not been named, suffered from severe anorexia, chronic depression, suicidal mood swings, self-harming, hallucinations, obsessions and compulsions, according to papers released by the Dutch Euthanasia Commission."

"Her condition had left her almost entirely bedridden and her psychiatrist said `there was no prospect or hope for her`, describing her suffering as `unbearable`."

"A final medical report approved the `termination of life` order and the woman was given a lethal injection of drugs last year, the report said."

"The papers reportedly concluded that the woman had been `totally competent` in making her decision and there was `no major depression or other mood disorder which affected her thinking`."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/child-sex-abuse-victim-aged-7943266?ICID=FB_mirror_main

The routine failures in mental health

"A leaked report by a government taskforce has painted a devastating picture of England’s mental health services, revealing that the number of people killing themselves is soaring, that three-quarters of those with psychiatric conditions are not being helped, and that sick children are being sent `almost anywhere in the country` for treatment."

"Details of the damning assessment have come to light just as the prime minister is planning to herald a transformation of mental health services."

"The report, due to be published on Monday to coincide with an announcement by the prime minister on funding and new initiatives, lays bare a system that is routinely failing people from every walk of life."

"While the prime minister is expected to trumpet his focus on mental health – six years after he pledged to put mental wellbeing at the centre of his government – his own taskforce condemns years of underinvestment and lays a significant portion of the blame on the current administration."

"The study, overseen by Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, makes clear that the situation is dire despite promises of reform. `Many people struggle to get the right help at the right time, and evidence-based care is underfunded,` the draft report says. `The human cost is unacceptable and the financial cost is unaffordable`..."

"Suicide in England is now rising `following many years of decline`, with 4,477 people killing themselves in an average year."

"There has been a 10% increase in the number of people sectioned under the Mental Health Act over the past year, suggesting the needs of the sick are not being met early enough."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/13/mental-health-services-crisis-britain-revealed-leaked-report?CMP=share_btn_fb

It is extraordinary that at a time when mental health networks are being built up around children, and charities are moving into schools on the understanding that they will provide preventive interventions, those who are actually crying out for help do not always get the support they desperately need.

Perhaps it is time charities stopped preaching about possible future scenarios and paid more attention to the issues existing today.

As for the increasing number of sections, one of the reasons for that which is not highlighted in the article, is that sectioning has been made easier.  Expect further increases.

Analysis shows antidepressants double suicide risk in under 18s

"An analysis of 70 trials of the most common antidepressants - involving more than 18,000 people - found they doubled the risk of suicide and aggressive behaviour in under 18s. "

"Although a similarly stark link was not seen in adults, the authors said misreporting of trial data could have led to a ‘serious under-estimation of the harms.’ "

"For years families have claimed that antidepressant medication drove their loved ones to commit suicide, but have been continually dismissed by medical companies and doctors who claimed a link was unproven."

"The review - the biggest of if its kind into the effects of the drugs - was carried out by the Nordic Cochrane Centre and analysed by University College London (UCL) who today endorse the findings in an editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). "

"After comparing clinical trial information to actual patient reports the scientists found pharmaceutical companies had regularly misclassified deaths and suicidal events in people taking anti-depressants to `favour their products`."

"Experts said the review's findings were `startling` and said it was `deeply worrying` that clinical trials appear to have been misreported."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/12126146/Antidepressants-can-raise-the-risk-of-suicide-biggest-ever-review-finds.


What happened in Columbine ?

 

 

Were antidepressants involved ?

Mother takes her own life on day of eviction notice

"A mother threatened with eviction from the house where her son took his own life was found hanged in the same spot, an inquest heard."

"Frances McCormack, aged 53, had been badgered for Bedroom Tax after the death of her 16 year old son Jack Allen in 2013, the coroner heard."

"The eviction notice arrived at her home the same day Ms McCormack's body was discovered on August 10 last year."

"A handwritten note was found in her bedroom, part of which was addressed to David Cameron on the hardship the Bedroom Tax was causing."

"It was dated 10 days earlier and made no mention of the eviction notice, the inquest heard."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/grieving-mum-found-hanged-near-7223683#ICID=sharebar_facebook

Pushing people over the edge

"GUIDELINES on how to deal with suicidal benefits claimants have been handed out by the Department for Work and Pensions to Scots workers tasked with rolling out the UK Government’s controversial welfare reforms."


"As part of a six-point plan for dealing with suicidal claimants who have been denied welfare payments, call-centre staff in Glasgow have been told to wave the guidance, printed on a laminated pink card, above their head."


"The guidance is meant to help staff dealing with unsuccessful applicants for Universal Credit who are threatening to self-harm or take their own life."


"A manager is then meant to rush over to listen in to the call and workers – who insist they have had no formal training in the procedure – must "make some assessment on the degree of risk" by asking a series of questions."


"One section of the six-point plan, titled "gather information", demands that staff allow claimants to talk about their intention to commit suicide."


"The call-centre workers, who earn between £15,000 and £17,000 a year, must "find out specifically what is planned, when it is planned for, and whether the customer has the means-to-hand", according to the guidance seen by the Sunday Herald."


"Staff are also warned in the plan that they may have "thoughts and feelings" about the situation afterwards and offered reassurance that "this is all part of the process of coping with the experience and is normal".


"Glasgow-based call-centre workers have accused the DWP of asking them to carry out the job of a psychologist or social worker."

Read more : http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13620988._Suicide_guidance__given_to_benefits_staff_preparing_for_desperate_calls_on_welfare_reform/

Some of these claimants will have children.　

Suicide might not have been preventable

From the BBC:

"The death of a 14-year-old girl under care of social services might not have been preventable even if more steps had been taken, a serious case review says. Seren Bernard's body was found in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, in April 2012 but police ruled out crime."

"Her mother Sarah Pollock complained to an ombudsman after the death claiming her concerns and views were ignored. The Local Safeguarding Children Board which published the report said the death of any child was a profound loss."

"The review, in which Seren was referred to as Child M, was written by an independent author provided by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering." [Independent ? ]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-25881966th

From Wales Online:

"In summing up, Swansea coroner Paul Bennett said that while there were communication problems between the agencies involved in her care, this ‘did not in any way cause or act as a contributory factor in her death.’" [Notice how the BBC failed to mention the communication problems between the agencies.]

"He concluded that Seren Bernard killed herself and had intended to end her life."

"Speaking after the inquest outside the town hall, Seren’s mother Sarah Pollock said: "My lovely daughter Seren took her life when she was under the care of the local authority."

"I am pleased that the coroner has recognised this and that he has found that there were communication failures between the authority and CAMHS in the safeguarding of Seren."

"I just hope that no other parent has to endure what I have been through, finding justice in the last five years."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/seren-bernard-inquest-coroner-rules-9484246


Was Seren taking medication I wonder?  That is not something that coroners want to consider but the method of suicide raises that issue.

See: http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/bridgend-suicides-of-young-people.html

Mass shootings correlated with antidepressants

Warning

Adverse reactions are most likely to occur when starting or discontinuing the drug, increasing or lowering the dose or when switching from one SSRI to another. Adverse reactions are often diagnosed as bipolar disorder when the symptoms may be entirely iatrogenic (treatment induced). Withdrawal, especially abrupt withdrawal, from any of these medications can cause severe neuropsychiatric and physical symptoms. It is important to withdraw extremely slowly from these drugs, often over a period of a year or more, under the supervision of a qualified and experienced specialist. Withdrawal is sometimes more severe than the original symptoms or problems.

http://ssristories.org/ 

The Coatbridge hoax ?

By JuliaM at Orphans of Liberty
"Coatbridge Police, in Lanarkshire, pleaded with teenagers not to get involved with the Paracetamol Challenge as it can lead to organ failure and death.""Eh..? The what?" "… young people dare each other to take excessive amounts of the drug on social media.""Do they?  Do they really..?"

"Well…no."
"But snopes.com reports that there is no evidence young people are daring each other to take excessive doses of paracetamol, and the #paracetamolchallenge hashtag is mainly populated with tweets discouraging teenagers from attempting it.""Hmmm. Maybe Coatbridge Police should investigate themselves over misuse of social media..?"

http://4liberty.org.uk/2015/05/30/so-the-police-are-spreading-urban-myths-now/

Ordinarily media outlets take care when reporting teenage suicides for fear of copycat incidents. But this nonsense about a paracetamol challenge has been going on for weeks.

I think Julie M is rightly suspicious. It`s time to call a halt to it.

Bridgend suicides of young people

"The suicides have turned Bridgend-a working-class former mining town of some 39,000 people near the western shore of South Wales-into a place of palpable sorrow and dread. Nestled in a valley and often shadowed by dark clouds and thick fog, the town cannot escape the specter of so many unexplained deaths, and authorities there are desperately trying to prevent copycats. Two years ago police asked the media to stop covering the suicides, which has led many to believe the death toll is higher. An officer at the Bridgend police station told a reporter for PEOPLE, "I'm not allowed to talk about it. It would be my job." And the South Wales police department declined to comment beyond saying through a press officer that "we do not believe the deaths were linked."

"The absence of concrete answers or plans on how to control the deaths has led to wild speculation: Could the deaths be the work of a serial killer? Could there be a suicide cult? Did the victims-most of them normal kids, many with solid plans for the future-make some kind of secret pact to meet on the other side? Prior to the news blackout, police insisted there was no evidence of such a cult or pact. Yet there is no denying the connections among the victims or the feeling each hanging somehow triggered the next-an unstoppable contagion that has left locals terrified. After her husband's death, "If my son was late getting up, I was petrified, and he felt the same way about me," Michelle, a schoolteacher's assistant, says of her son, now 19. "I still wonder sometimes what am I going to find upstairs."

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20595753,00.html

Dr David Healy is a psychiatrist and author who has written a post about the Bridgend suicides. He raises the point that coroners often do not take heed of the medications, such as antidepressants, that the deceased person had been taking. Yet it is known that many drugs can trigger suicidal tendencies and this has been demonstrated by him in trials of healthy individuals.

In the England and Wales there are roughly 5000 suicides in roughly 60 million people per year. This would until recently have led to around 2000 hangings per year, 34 hangings per million people per year, 3.5 per 100,000 people per year.

Bridgend in South Wales has a population of 40,000. The greater Bridgend area has a population of 130,000. There should be 18 hangings per 100,000 people over a 5 year period, 24 per 130,000 per year.

In recent years however in both the US and UK there has been a rise in the number of hangings so that this mode of death now accounts for 50% of cases. If this applies in the Bridgend area, we might expect 28 hangings per 130,000 over a 5 year period, roughly 6 per year.

There were in fact 79 hangings in Bridgend between January 2007 and February 2012. The hangings continue unabated, so the true figure may be in the 90s. This means there have been 16 per year – an excess of 10 or more hangings per year.

The police could find no evidence to link the deaths but according to the coroner it was the sensationalist reporting by the media that was causing copycat suicides. One link that was ignored was the fact that many of the deceased young people were on antidepressants.

Having coroners refuse to keep a public record of drug intake and browbeat the media into keeping silent seems like the worst of all possible worlds.

http://davidhealy.org/left-hanging-suicide-in-bridgend/