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Posts Tagged ‘mental health’

It’s not often that Cheryl Ziegler gets to spend a relaxing night at home. Between driving her daughters to softball practice or taking in one of her son’s baseball games, Ziegler’s schedule is booked.The proof is in her calendar. The Lennox mom of three, 16-year-old Mikayla and 11-year-olds Alison and Jacob, has each event highlighted and color-coded. “That’s how I know who needs to be where and when.”

There have been times, Ziegler says, “when I was not home during an evening for over two weeks at a time.”

That kind of busy life is all too common for American families, many experts say. And with school starting soon and fall activities beginning, for many families, it will only get worse.

But what do you do when you want to make sure your child has the activities and skills to get ahead? For some parents, the answer is to slow down and focus on more unstructured family time, rather than racing from one activity to the next.

It’s easy to get stressed, Ziegler says.

Her kids are only doing what they love – they’re not just getting involved in activities just for the sake of getting involved.

Practically from the moment parents give birth, they’re offered a number of structured activities for themselves and their kids. From their first new baby group to their kid’s high school theater habit, they are urged to spend the next 18 years devoting every waking moment to enrichment activities – and with the school year gearing up again in the next month, parents will be hearing more about extra-curricular classes, activities and sports their kids can join.

Many of these activities have a lot to offer. But some take a lot of time, spurring some families to say “enough already” and slow down.

Societal change

Like the slow food movement, whose proponents suggest taking the time to savor rather than gulp and preserve traditional standards of excellence with ingredients and cuisines, the slow family movement is about focusing on changing the way society thinks about family living.

It’s the idea that more isn’t always better, says Carrie Contey, a nationally recognized parenting coach and co-founder of the movement. “It is about allowing family life to unfold in a way that is joyfully and consciously connected,” she says. “This means slowing it down, finding comfort in the home, and creating the space to see and honor the family as an entity, while simultaneously keeping sight of each member as a unique and valuable individual.”

via Busy families struggle to find time | argusleader.com | Argus Leader.

EXCLUSIVE – By Anthony Bond Wednesday, 9 June, 2010

SCHOOLS in the county have been warned over the way they handle pupils with mental health problems after a court found that Suffolk County Council discriminated against a boy with a ‘school phobia’.

At the end of last year, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal found that the county council and the governing body of the east Suffolk secondary school unlawfully discriminated against the boy, now 16, on four separate claims.

It followed an unsuccessful prosecution by the county council and the school against the boy’s parents for failing to ensure their son attended school regularly. The boy and the school involved cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Following the tribunal decision, the county council and school appealed against two of the four claims of discrimination which related to the prosecution against the boy’s parents.

But, despite the school winning its appeal, the tribunal judge rejected the council’s.

In his judgement, Upper Tribunal Judge Ward blasted the authority, saying it “proceeded obdurately” with the prosecution against the boy’s parents – despite being provided with medical evidence from the youngster’s GP and a child psychologist showing that he was suffering from mental health problems which affected his attendance at school.

Judge Ward said the council “closed its mind” by continuing with the prosecution.

Last night, the boy’s father, who can’t be identified, told the EADT: “This decision means that after all the heartache we have gone through, it might change the county council and the schools and the way that people like our son are dealt with from now on.

“Hopefully the council will have been shaken up so that it will not keep prosecuting parents of children with these sorts of disabilities.

“We have a son who needed help and all they could do was go through their silly procedures and instead of giving us help they made our lives very difficult.”

Judge Ward also warned that this case should cause the council to “revisit its approach to such prosecutions” and said that schools in similar situations in the future should “carefully consider” how it deals with such cases.

As a result of the appeal decision, the judge has ordered that Suffolk County Council send written apologies to the boy and his parents by June 18 which are to be signed by Eddy Alcock, the chairman of the council.

Despite winning this appeal, which found that the school could not have influenced the council to stop the prosecution, the school did not appeal against the earlier tribunal decision which found that it unlawfully discriminated against the boy by failing to make reasonable adjustments to his education.

As a result of this, the governing body of the school must also ensure that written apologies are sent to the youngster and his parents by June 18.

A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: “Naturally the council was disappointed not to be successful in the appeal in this case. We have accepted the outcome of the Tribunal and will comply with its decision.”

THE boy involved developed chronic anxiety following time-off due to a viral illness when he first joined the secondary school.

He was diagnosed by a clinical psycholgist as suffering from a school phobia.

His parents always maintained that the school and the county council failed to offer their son the support that he needed because they never understood his mental health problems.

In June last year, the council took the parents to court for failing to ensure their son attended school reguarly.

If found guilty, they could have been sent to prison for three months and fined up to £2,500.

The council continued with the prosecution despite the child psychologist, to whom the boy was referred, saying it was worsening his mental health.

Despite this, and the fact that the couple have other children who successfully attended the same school, the decision was taken to prosecute the parents.

But following a one-day trial at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in Ipswich, the parents were found not guilty.

At the same time, they took the council and school to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal for unlawfully discriminating against their son’s mental health by failing to make reasonable adjustments to the way in which he attends school.

via Schools warned over how they handle mental health problems – News – East Anglian Daily Times.