Each month we define and discuss a word of character development with all of our students. This month the word is Leadership. It will be defined this way.
Young students: Leadership means: “I make great choices so follow me!”
Older students: Leadership means: Inspiring people into action to achieve a common goal.
If you would like to see how we will deal with this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of September.
This morning a group of Balanced Life Skills parents and students got together and prepared lunches for the clients of the LIghthouse Shelter. We finished so fast that when some folks arrived the work was already done and the lunches were delivered. The spirit of giving of our time, talents and resources is strong in our school. In talked about charity in the month of August and are following it up with discussions on Leadership in September.
Leadership is when we take an idea or a cause that we are interested in and engage others to achieve a common goal. I was so happy that some of the volunteers this morning suggested that we should help out with lunches for those in need more often. I believe that we will be able to do accomplish this goal with the action of our students and parents.
If you would like to share in this work, email Balanced Life Skills and lets see if we can schedule a time, once a month, to assist those in our community who need our help. Thanks to our helpers this morning for the quick work you made of our project this morning.
I have been looking at the information available in regard to dangerous trends facing children today. One of them as we reported earlier is depression. In a response to that the Food and Drug Administration reports in September 2009 that more than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs. This includes not only teens, but more shocking, is the growing use of drugs in tens of thousands of preschoolers.
From 2000 to 2007 there has been a doubling of the prescriptions of antipsychotic drugs for privately insured 2-5 year olds, with only 40% of them having received proper mental health assessments. Even more disturbing, children from lower income situations were far more likely to be given a prescription than having counseling for the child and the whole family – due to the difference in the cost of the two ways of approaching these issues.
Here is a link to the story found in the NY Times this week about one such boy and the story of 5 years of diagnosis, drugs, therapy and the end result.
“Families sometimes feel the need for a quick fix,” Dr. Gleason, a Columbia medical graduate who had led a team that wrote 2007 practice guidelines for psychopharmacological treatment of very young children, said. “That’s often the prescription pad. But I’m concerned that when a child sees someone who prescribes but doesn’t do therapy, they’re closing the door that can make longer-lasting change.”
At the end of September, I will be releasing a report on the research I have been doing on the 6 Most Dangerous Trends Facing our Children Today. I look forward to sharing it with parent groups in our community. For more information please feel free to contact Joe Van Deuren at Balanced Life Skills.
Do you know what this means: %*@:-( ? Or this: ~~#ZZZZZZ ?
If you do not then you are not a teen that is using drugs or alchohol. Parents check out this article and understand the importance of communication with your teens.
There are some great resources in this article that you can refer to that will help decipher the codes being used in messaging.
I have been working on a report of the 6 most dangerous trends facing our children today. One of the most stunning pieces of research I have come across is that the fasting growing age groups for depression are pre-schoolers. Then last week this article came out in the NY Times. Here is the link to the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29preschool-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
In the coming weeks I will be ready to present the findings of the work I have been doing to parent groups. Depression is just one of the trends that have surprised me. This report will include not just the problems but some of the solutions too.
Coming up this September there is an event that while difficult to talk about is an important one to our community. It is the Out of the Darkness Walk held on September 18, 2010. I will join hundreds of others on this walk to raise money to prevent suicide. Last year over 350 individuals joined us in this effort.
Since the Out of the Darkness Walk in 2009 I have had the privilege to be a part of the Youth Suicide Awareness Task Force here in Anne Arundel County. There have been 44 of us trained to teach others how to recognize the signs of those who may be considering ending their life. This year with a grant received from, Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention, along with the work of this Task Force we will be training an additional 19 individuals and completing the training of many individuals (gatekeepers) in our community. The groups being trained at this time are the majority of those in the school system and many other youth leaders, coaches and public service individuals.
I have personally never undertaken a more important work. I also have never seen so many agencies, faith groups, public service groups, non profits and community members ban together in an effort to protect our youth from the #3 cause of death among 15-24 year olds.
If you are going to be in Annapolis on September 18 I would like to invite you to join me (us) in this cause. If you are interested in having a group of parents or other adults to be trained in QPR, the training for those of us who have contact with young people (gatekeepers), please let me know and we will make the arrangements for this training to take place.
In the near future I will be releasing a report on the 6 most dangerous trends facing children, many of them are factors that lead up to suicide attempts. I have been working on this along with a few others for the past few months and the information is shocking. As shocking as it is, being aware of the trends allows us to do something about them with our own children.
You can sign up for the walk at this website.
Please feel free to let me know that you will be joining us at the walk.
