Parliament: New measures to boost mental health in the community, Politics News SINGAPORE - Frontline staff from government agencies, including the police, will be trained to spot and respond to mental health cases in the community. Social service and community agencies will also receive basic training to identify and respond to people with mental health issues, and refer them to the Agency for Integrated Care for help. These are among the objectives to boost community mental health care that wereannounced in Parliament on Thursday (March 9) by Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor. "We will expand mental health and dementia services in polyclinics, to make care more accessible," she said. "Our target is for one in two polyclinics to implement mental health clinics by 2021." Such clinics would play a role in managing patients with dementia, depression, anxiety and insomnia, to name a few mental health illnesses. More allied health community intervention teams are also on the cards.
The link between stress and depression … and the 10 simple words that could help | Society It’s a damp, midweek afternoon. Even so, Cardiff’s walk-in stress management course has pulled in more than 50 people. There are teenagers, white-haired older people with walking aids, people from Caucasian, Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds. There is at least one pair who look like a parent and child – I’m unsure who is there to support whom. The course instructor makes it clear that she is not going to ask people to speak out about their own stress levels in this first class: “We know speaking in public is stressful in itself.” What is the common theme that links these people – and the varied group sitting there this afternoon and listening? Stress may once just have been a kind of executive trophy – “I’m so stressed!” The constant, stress-induced stimulation of key brain regions seems to be a major contributor to anxiety. So what is stress? This potent fear response isn’t like a switch, a simple yes/no thing. The stress response has numerous potent effects on us. Ten words.
I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul, Invictus The British boyWilliam Ernest Henley contracted tuberculosis of the bone when he was just 12 years old. He suffered from the disease until he was 25. Bythen it had progressed all the way to his foot. 13 years. The doctors then told him that they would have to remove his most severely infected leg immediately, and that if he were to survive, they would need to remove the other one as well. A strong willed person, he gave the doctors permission to remove just one leg, to the knee, but that he was keeping his other leg. In 1875, at the age of 25 he wrote Invictus from his hospital bed, the perfect expression of his response to the challenges of life. Invictus is Latin for “undefeated”. by William Earnest Henley Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud,Under the bludgeoning of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed. Rusty
Family, bomohs and why mentally-ill aren’t seeking help While treating mental disorders is in itself a challenge, encouraging access to the treatments has proven to be the bigger challenge. The reality is, a majority of those who suffer from mental disorders here do not seek or receive help – which is surprising for a country like Singapore, where modern mental health programmes, services and platforms are readily available. There have been increased efforts to provide such services and programmes especially in light of the ageing population, and pressures from work and family. Such efforts, identified in the National Mental Health Blueprint for 2007-2012, include (among other things) public education, outreach in schools, workplaces, integrated programmes such as the Community Mental Health Team and Mental Health-General Practitioner Partnership, and mental health research. Most also face financial constraints accessing health care services. As such, it is important to understand the cultural background of patients.
Early trauma affects birds’ song memory : Deakin Invenio Deakin research linking early trauma in birds with their ability to remember important songs used for survival could have implications for human development. The authors of a paper recently published in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences”, say their findings could shed light on the effects of early-life stress on speech and language development in children, as humans are the only other known group of animals apart from birds with dedicated parts in the brain for vocal learning. Lead researcher Professor Kate Buchanan, an avian behavioural ecologist in Deakin University’s Centre for Integrative Ecology, said the discovery was critical as the world’s birds used songs to help mate successfully and protect each other from predators, but now face increasing stress from changes to climate and habitat. “Of course, it would be unethical to run experiments with children to determine if stress affected vocal learning. “They are social birds.
Hoe vrouwen hun autisme camoufleren, en daar onder lijden Of ik last heb van het geluid, vraagt klinisch psycholoog Annelies Spek me. We zitten in een villa in de bossen van Eemnes – normaliter klinkt hier vogelzang en boomtoppengeruis, maar net vandaag snerpt er een cirkelzaag: verbouwende buren. „Een beetje”, zeg ik aarzelend. Hun variatie in autistische kenmerken is groot. De autist bestaat niet. Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat de verhouding man-vrouw bij autisme niet 5:1 is, maar 2:1 De man-vrouwverhouding bij ASS werd tot voor kort geschat op vijf op één. Ook internationaal gezien is er veel wetenschappelijke belangstelling voor het onderwerp. Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat de man-vrouwverhouding bij ASS niet 5:1 maar 2:1 is. Aan de verwachtingen voldoen Spek zelf schreef meerdere artikelen over vrouwen met autisme en geeft er regelmatig lezingen over. „Dat gaat wel met vallen en opstaan. Als dat leren aanpassen zo goed werkt, is het dan geen idee om sociaal gedrag bij jongens met autisme extra te gaan stimuleren? Bijkomende klachten
More kids in Singapore seeking help for mental health issues SINGAPORE: Depression, relationship issues, bullying, family problems – kids as young as five years old are seeking help for these problems. Suicide prevention centre SOS told Channel NewsAsia last week that it received about 1,900 calls from those aged five to 19 last year – an increase of 70 per cent compared to 2012. Another helpline Tinkle Friend, which caters to primary school students, saw a 50 per cent increase in the number of calls and messages on its online chat service from 2012 to 2016. Some of the questions stemmed from boredom and loneliness - “What can I do when I’m bored?” or “How do I make more friends?” But some children in more distressing situations asked questions like: “What will happen to me after my parents get a divorce?” In 2015, teen suicides rose to a 15-year high, with 27 suicides in the 10 to 19 age group, according to SOS figures. The students will keep a lookout for any signs of distress among their peers, and offer emotional support.
You are where you live: health, wealth and the built environment Socioeconomic disadvantage and its impact on where we live and work (and how we get between the two), has enormous implications for health and well-being. But the picture is not as clear cut as many people assume. The built environment’s influence on health starts in the home – the place fulfilling a raft of basic physical, social and emotional needs. But those struggling financially will find the high cost of housing a significant burden, typically resulting in basic health needs going unmet, as well as generating anxiety, stress and depression. Inner vs outer The geographic setting of the home is also important for health. These are usually the suburbs with good-quality and well-maintained parks and public spaces. More spread out neighbourhoods, particularly those on the fringes of our cities, are arguably not as healthy. Public transport tends to be patchy and long commuting distances in cars are the norm. A complicated picture Growing together
It Changed My Life: How a mother lost her 11-year-old son to depression, Singapore News The three notebooks are filled with doodles, comic strips, riddles and little stories, rendered and written in pencil. One quirky drawing has a parrot mouthing its response to the poser: What do you get when you cross a centipede with a chicken? Answer: Drumsticks for everyone. The illustrations spring from the fertile imagination of Evan, the eldest of Doreen Kho's four children. The 43-year-old businesswoman says her son once asked her: "Mom, do you know why I started to draw comics? Because my comics will make people smile and laugh." Ironically, Evan himself wrestled with depression and was often teary. His heartbroken mother says: "It's difficult to say he's in a better place. After much wrestling, Ms Kho, who has also been diagnosed with depression, decided to go public with her story. "I want people to be aware of depression, which is still a stigma. Her voice turns soft as she adds: "I've always thought I can do everything but I couldn't save my son." "It was a trying period.
Sick and suicidal: plight of women in UK jails | Society | The Observer On the day Diane Kent set herself on fire in her cell at Low Newton prison, County Durham, two months ago, she had already tried to hang herself twice and asked a prison officer to take away her lighter because she was scared of harming herself. According to incomplete prison records, her request was refused. How a woman who had repeatedly committed such extreme acts of self-harm was able to evade the observation of officers for long enough to set fire to herself, why she had a lighter in her possession, and why her request to have it taken away was denied are just a few of the reasons her family and her solicitor are calling on the government to hold an independent inquiry into Kent's case, instead of leaving it to the usual investigation by the prison service. For more than five weeks after her suicide attempt, 27-year-old Kent lay in a medically induced coma in the intensive-care unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. The findings have raised strong feelings among MPs.
Numbers up and ages down for child suicides: experts explain, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper Some children as young as eight years old are thinking of suicide to cope with their problems, says a psychologist. Citing an example, Mr Lawrence Tan told The New Paper: "Despite doing pretty well in school, a young patient faced performance anxiety and gave herself a lot of pressure. "She messaged a family member, saying she felt like a failure and a burden on her parents, and that they would be better off if she were gone." Statistics from Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), a suicide prevention centre, show that numbers are on the rise, with more young children contemplating suicide. In 2015-16, 77 children aged five to nine and 4,563 aged 10 to 19 called the SOS hotline compared to 14 and 2,366 in 2012-13. And in 2016, 22 young people from the age of 10 to 19 took their own lives. Psychologists flagged social media and lack of strong family and social networks as possible contributing factors. "They do not fully understand the gravity of suicide and might not realise that it is irreversible."