March 18, 2013
News Clips
- 60-Plus Minutes of Physical Activity a Day Where Kids Live, Learn and Play
One of the problems is that kids are sitting more and moving less. Most spend nearly half of their waking hours in school without any scheduled physical activity time. Daily physical education (what most of us know as PE) is provided in only 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools across the nation.
Huffington Post
March 14, 2013 - Focusing on Violence Before It Happens
In the days after the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Tony Beliz and his staff at the county’s mental health department here made a series of calls. They checked in with a 16-year-old boy with a fondness for bomb-making chemicals who, two years before, told them, “I have to get rid of the bad people in this world,” and described a “special plan” he said he would put into action in a few years.
New York Times
March 13, 2013 - Be cautious of mind-altering drugs for kids: doctors
Doctors warn about the ethical and medical implications of prescribing attention-boosting and mood-altering medications to healthy kids and teens, in a new statement from the American Academy of Neurology.
MedLine Plus
March 13, 2012 - Many Teens Afraid to Intervene in Sexual Assault, Survey Finds
National effort launched to raise awareness, encourage involvement.
More than half of all teens and young adults in the United States know a victim of dating violence or sexual assault, according to a new national survey.
HealthFinder.gov
March 13, 2012 - For frustrated bad boys, violent video games become more alluring
Are people playing violent video games blowing off steam, or are they developing habits of violence that may play themselves out off-screen? In the wake of a wave of school shootings that have touched off debate about the roots of violence, those are more than academic questions.
Los Angeles Times
March 13, 2013 - Richmond teens open up in “Male Teen Talk”
A group of ninth and tenth grade students are getting the opportunity to learn true lessons of life at Armstrong High School. However, it is up to them to determine whether or not the lessons will eventually pay off. The lessons are part of a new program called “Male Teen Talk”, where young men are encouraged to talk, and more importantly, listen.
nbc.com
March 13, 2013 - School Policies Show Promise, Problems in Providing Mental Health Care
School-related policies can both hinder and encourage the provision of mental health services to children, the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University writes in a new report.
Education Week
March 8, 2013
Policy
- Representative Napolitano Introduces the Mental Health in Schools Act
Representative Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, introduced H.R. 628, the Mental Health in Schools Act, to revise and expand projects relating to children and violence to provide access to school-based comprehensive mental health programs. The bill has received broad support from the mental health, education, and child welfare communities. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) introduced companion legislation in the Senate last month with nine cosponsors.
International News
PAKISTAN
- Reproductive rights: ‘Parents, teachers and kids don’t know enough’
Just 39% of girls and 50% of boys in Lahore know about reproductive health rights and 53% of girls and 48% of boys in Karachi, according to a report by Lifeline, a Lahore-based NGO. The situation in Islamabad is relatively better, with 62% of girls and 67% of boys aware of these issues.
Tribune.com.pk
March 15, 2013
UK
- Act early for a mental health revolution
There is an understandable reluctance to identify any child as mentally ill, but it is in early years that most mental health troubles have their roots and there is a high price to pay, says Dr Andrew McCulloch, chairman of Mental Health: from Strategy to Reality conference
PublicService.co.uk
March 14, 2013