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Kafka and the Doll Traveller

‍Kafka and the Doll Traveler written by the Spanish writer Jordi Sierra i Fabra. One year before his death, Franz Kafka saw in one of Berlin’s park, Steglitz City Park,a girl who was crying because she had lost her doll.

The writer calms her down by telling her that her doll had gone on a trip and that he, a doll postman, would take her a letter the next day. Based on a real life experience of  Franz Kafka, Jordi Sierra reconstructs the event, albeit surrounding it in fantasy and magic.

This description comes from the memoirs of Dora Diamant, who Kafka lived with in Berlin for half a year:

Over 13 days, he brought a letter to the park every day in which the doll tells of her adventures, which he himself had written the night before.

‘Your doll has gone off on a trip,’ he says. ‘How do you know that?’ the girl asks. ‘Because she’s written me a letter,’ Kafka says. The girl seems suspicious. ‘Do you have it on you?’ she asks. ‘No, I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I left it at home by mistake, but I’ll bring it with me tomorrow.’ He’s so convincing, the girl doesn’t know what to think anymore. Can it be possible that this mysterious man is telling the truth?’

Kafka goes straight home to write the letter. If he can come up with a beautiful and persuasive lie, it will supplant the girl’s loss with a different reality—a false one, maybe, but something true and believable according to the laws of fiction.

The next day Kafka rushes back to the park with the letter. The little girl is waiting for him, and since she hasn’t learned how to read yet, he reads the letter out loud to her. The doll is very sorry, but she’s grown tired of living with the same people all the time. She needs to get out and see the world, to make new friends. It’s not that she doesn’t love the little girl, but she longs for a change of scenery, and therefore they must separate for a while. The doll then promises to write to the girl every day and keep her abreast of her activities.

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‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.

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After a few days, the girl had forgotten about the real toy that she’d lost, and she was only thinking about the fiction that she’d been offered as a replacement. Franz wrote every sentence of this story in such detail, and with such humorous precision, that it made the doll’s situation completely understandable: the doll had grown up, gone to school, met other people. She always reassured the child of her love, but made reference to the complications of her life, her other obligations and interests that prevented her from returning to their shared life right now. She asked the little girl to think about this, and in doing so she prepared her for the inevitable, for doing without her.

By that point of course, the girl no longer misses the doll. Kafka has given her something else instead, and by the time those three weeks are up, the letters have cured her of her unhappiness. She has the story, and when a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.

One day the girl got her doll back. It was a different doll of course, bought by Kafka as a last gift for her. An attached letter explained ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:
Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’

https://www.arlt-foundation.org/blog-post/kafka-and-the-doll-traveller

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Parents need their voices to be heard.

Parents, can we talk about the toll our kids’ education has taken on us this year?

Article by: Christine Derengowski, Writer

We’re home but we’re not really home. It doesn’t feel like it anyway. It’s now a battleground for a few hours every day and it has been for months. I ask my five year old who’s standing on his chair to sit and he growls, “I don’t want to do computer school today.” I beg, I barter, I get mad, I wonder if it’s better to log him out and let him fall behind his class, I get him in his seat, but he’s not participating.

I’ve won the battle but I’m losing the war. He throws his pencil at the screen. He’s frustrated. I’m talking through gritted because I’m beyond frustrated now too. And I’m tired. I’m tired of doing a job I’m neither trained nor equipped to do. I’m tired of fighting a war in my heart between, “my kids are going to fall behind” and “this isn’t worth the fight”. I resent that my relationship with my children now consists of a daily power struggle over school. I miss the days when cherishing the little moments came so easily. Lately I have to remind myself to be present. Because after 11 months of this, I’m gradually checking out. I’m watching my kids do the same. I miss missing my kids. I miss picking them up from school feeling refreshed and having freedom to enjoy my time with them any way I choose. I feel like I’ve sacrificed our relationship at the cost of their education. It seems too high a price to have paid. And I regret that I’ve fought them so hard for so long. Because despite the fact that we’ve done everything we can on our end to complete the required work, my son is still behind.I feel like a failure every day. Like I’m the one being evaluated.His report card doesn’t reflect the amount of blood, sweat, and tears I’m pouring into his education. It doesn’t reflect the hours I’ve spent with him at his computer or how desperately I’ve tried to help him succeed.Remote learning provides no consideration for families. It requires a fully engaged adult on both ends of the computer.

Parents have been given a full time job on top of their full time jobs. We never should have had to choose between financial stability and educating our children, forcing parents to quit their jobs. We never should have burdened students with so much while surviving a pandemic.Families deserve better than this.

Our kids deserve better than this. They deserve their childhood back. They deserve parents who aren’t burning candles at both ends to teach them their abc’s. At what point do we acknowledge we’ve asked too much of parents?

That enough is enough for these kids?

We need choices that work for our families.

Parents need their voices to be heard.

Join me in the trenches at Christine Derengowski, Writer

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Homes schooling – a good perspective

written by Christine Derengowski, Writer

I’ve lost a year with my kids battling over school and I’m done.My seven year old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle. I had his writing homework in my hand from school.

He’d written several full, well-thought-out sentences.But he won’t do the same for me, at least not without a fight.I told him he didn’t have to write about his best day like his teacher asked, he could write about his worst. He could write about whatever he wanted as long as he wrote a few sentences.

He said he’d get in trouble. He said he was doing a bad job in first grade. He was on the brink of tears but didn’t know why, and it hit me, instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom. I said “you won’t get in trouble and you can’t fail first grade, in fact, you’re kind of a superhero yourself. ”He sat up in his chair just a little and looked at me with disbelief. I said, “Do you know that no kids in the history of kids have ever had to do what you’re doing right now? No kids in the history of kids have ever had to do school at home, sitting in their bedroom, watching their teacher on a computer.

You and your friends are making history.

”A visible weight lifted from his seven year old shoulders, “What does that mean? ”I told him it means I haven’t given him nearly enough credit for rolling with the punches. I told him how proud I am of him and his friends.

That kids this year are doing the impossible and they’re doing a really great job. I apologized for not saying it sooner and more often. A little tear fell down his cheek.

We’ve thanked everyone from healthcare workers to grocery store employees but we haven’t thanked the kids enough for bearing the burden of what we’ve put on their shoulders this year. We’ve said kids are resilient, and they are, but they are the real superheroes in this whole scenario for having ZERO say in their lives but doing their best to adjust every day. We closed his school-issued laptop and spent the rest of the day playing. This was supposed to be temporary and here we are a year later still trying to hold our head above water.

This is our home and I won’t turn it into a battle ground anymore over something we can’t control. Something that no longer makes sense.

Hug your little superheroes today and don’t forget to cut them the slack we’ve given everyone else.

Join me in the trenches at Christine Derengowski, Writer !!

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County Lines Comic Book

County Lines Comic Book: Liberty Lines Project, Sovereign Comics and Youth Unity are delighted to announce that we are launching a comic book on county lines! Our comic book is the first ever comic book designed to educate and empower children who are at risk of grooming and exploitation in the UK’s drug trade.

About Us & Our Project

Liberty Lines Project is a Community Interest Company dedicated to eliminating criminal exploitation in the UK’s illegal drug market. In collaboration with Sovereign Comics and Youth Unity, we are producing a comic book to raise awareness of modern slavery in County Lines drug trafficking. 

County Lines refers to the trafficking of illicit drugs from major cities to smaller towns and rural areas using dedicated mobile phone lines or ‘deal lines’. It often involves the exploitation of children and young adults to move and store the drugs and money. You can read more about it here. 

We chose the comic book form because of its direct and engaging format. The comic will run through the key aspects of County Lines, with a particular focus on the early warning signs of exploitation and ways to get help.

The comic will be distributed in schools and youth-centres, where it will provide an informative, engaging, and fun tool that parents, teachers, youth workers, and peers can use to educate young people about County Lines.

The comic is in its creation stage and we need your help to bring it to life! Our Crowdfunder is now live: https://lnkd.in/dvYGA7z

Our comic is the first of its kind – it is designed to open conversations with children, to empower them to recognise the signs of exploitation and raise concerns if they or their friends are at risk. Our narrative follows relatable characters; children will see they are not alone and that they too can become superheroes of their own stories. It will signpost readers to relevant organisations/helplines that work to support young people and their families.

We are also creating an interactive edition enabling children to explore different narratives where their choices determine the outcome of the story. We will provide copies of the comic to youth and education centres across the UK and use it as a tool to deliver training to children in secondary schools.

Any contribution, large or small will be much appreciated and help us to make this happen!

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Youth justice

Source:

Why is youth justice a human rights issue?

The trial and sentencing of children and young people for criminal offences engages a number of fundamental rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The rights most obviously engaged are Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), Article 5 (liberty), Article 6 (fair trial) and Article 8 (private and family life).

Which human rights instruments are relevant?

As well as the Human Rights Act 1998 and the ECHR, there are several international instruments that deal specifically with the rights of children subject to criminal proceedings.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which the UK is party, states at Article 3(1) that:

[i]n all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Article 40(1) of the CRC provides that:

States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child’s respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society.

Article 37, inter alia, prohibits torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the use of capital punishment or life imprisonment without possibility of release for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age, and provides that ‘[t]he arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time’.

The implementation of the CRC is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child; its most recent set of ‘Concluding Observations’ on the UK, in 2002, voiced concerns regarding the juvenile justice system.

Other relevant international instruments include:

  • the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules),
  • the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty,
  • the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines).

What are the controversial aspects of the system in England and Wales?

The youth justice system in England and Wales is open to criticism on three main grounds:

  • the low age of criminal responsibility,
  • the application of laws and procedures to children that do not properly take into account their age and maturity,
  • custodial sentencing – its overuse, and the conditions of custody for children and young people.

What is the age of criminal responsibility?

The age of criminal responsibility is the age at which a child or young person can be charged and prosecuted for a criminal offence. In England and Wales the age is 10. This is very low by European standards: in Italy, for example, the age is 15, while in Germany it is 14.

The presumption of doli incapax was designed to mitigate the low age of criminal responsibility. Unless the prosecution could prove that a child under 14 knew that their actions were seriously wrong (as opposed to merely naughty) they could not be held criminally responsible. But the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 abolished that presumption, and now the law has no mechanism for distinguishing between serious criminal offences and what could be described as ‘playground’ or bullying behaviour by 10-13 year olds – for example, the ‘robbery’ of dinner money from a classmate using minimal force.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 further encouraged prosecution by limiting the amount of times police could administer cautions to children and young people. It also widened the circumstances in which children could be sent to custody, by creating the detention and training order (DTO). These changes made it easier for children to find themselves in court or custody at a younger age.

What special provision does the system make for child defendants?

For many crimes, children and young people are tried in the youth court, which is staffed by magistrates or a district judge and which hears cases in private in order to protect the privacy of the child. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides at Article 40(2)(b)(vii) that States Parties shall ensure that ‘[e]very child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law’ shall have the guarantee ‘[t]o have his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the proceedings’.

However, over recent years, children have been made subject to Crown Court trial in an increasing range of cases. Crown Court proceedings are not designed for children. JUSTICE’s concerns centre on a child’s ability to participate effectively in a trial in the Crown Court, as Article 6 ECHR requires. The landmark cases of T v UK; V v UK((30 EHRR 121)) and SC v UK((App no 60958/00, judgment of 15 June 2004)) in the European Court of Human Rights have resulted in some modifications to practice and procedure. However, some argue that an alternative process is required.

Where are children in custody detained?

Children and young people sentenced to custody in England and Wales can currently be sent to three types of establishment:

  • Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) – these accommodate the vast majority of child prisoners, from age 15, as well as young adults. They are Prison Service establishments, although some are ‘contracted out’ and run by private companies.
  • Secure Training Centres (STCs) – these are run by private companies. Concerns about the treatment of children in custody, including in STCs, were raised in the Report of the Carlile Inquiry, published by the Howard League for Penal Reform in 2006. The inquiry was set up following the death of 15-year old Gareth Myatt in an STC in 2004.
  • Local authority secure children’s homes (LASCHs) – these tend to be used for younger children and those assessed as particularly vulnerable. As well as children convicted of criminal offences, they also accommodate looked after children (those in care) who need secure accommodation (for example, because they run away from other children’s homes repeatedly).

When a child is sentenced to custody, the court does not decide what kind of establishment they will go to. The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB), a government body, decides what types of custodial place to purchase and where to place the majority of children sentenced into custody.

What types of problems are there with youth custody at present?

Far too many children are being sentenced to custody, the numbers rising by almost 60 per cent between the early 1990s and 2004. While custody for children remains, officially, a ‘last resort’, the chair of the YJB was recently quoted in the Guardian as saying that ‘a last resort today is substantially lower than 10 to 15 years ago’.((Professor Rod Morgan, quoted in ‘Youth Justice system is in crisis, officials warn courts’, Guardian, 25 October 2006))

Within the custodial population, too many children are being sent to YOIs, where the regime is not suitable for more vulnerable children. This was highlighted by the case of 16 year old Joseph Scholes, who committed suicide in 2002 after being placed in a YOI despite having a history of self harm.

There are also concerns about the use of practices such as strip-searching, segregation and restraint/’pain compliance’ techniques against children in custody, as were raised in the Report of the Carlile Inquiry.

Like the rest of the prison estate, accommodation for children in custody is becoming overcrowded. Overcrowding can worsen conditions in custody, putting pressure on staff and meaning that access to purposeful activities such as education and sport becomes limited. In YOIs, 15-17 year olds only have an average of 8 hours of education per week.

29 children and young people under the age of 18 have died in custody since 1990.

Where can I get more information?

National Association for Youth Justice

Youth Justice Board for England and Wales

Howard League for Penal Reform

INQUEST

Youth Unity

Researchers Reveal Kids Who Get More Hugs Have More Developed Brains

There’s nothing like the warmth and security of a loved one being enveloping you in their arms.  The simple act of giving and receiving genuine hugs can completely change your mood.  You feel loved, cared about, safe, and unique.  I’m not sure there is a single action that can replicate the feeling of giving and getting a hug.

It’s a good thing that giving is the same as receiving when it comes to hugs, right?  Now, science says you can be smarter for it. If you were about two feet long and weighed roughly 10 pounds, your brain would develop better.  Researchers reveal kids who get more hugs have more developed brains.

BABIES AND THEIR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TOUCH

When we think about learning, we consider reading, studying, using our hands, calculations, and other processes.  We started, as babies, we began exploring by touching things.  Of our five senses, touch is the first to develop.  From this, a newborn baby must navigate their new world.

According to an article from Stanford’s Medicine, Dr. Susan Crowe, an obstetrician, and director at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, outlines the nine instinctual stages right after birth.

“Birth cry, relaxation, awakening, activity, resting, ‘crawling’ (a shifting movement toward the breast), familiarization, suckling, and sleep.”

As soon as physically safe for both mother and baby, it’s time for skin-to-skin contact and guiding the baby toward breastfeeding.

Just the holding of the baby within the first hour, regardless of breastfeeding, can help in normalizing the baby’s body temperature, heartbeat, and pattern of breathing.  For many babies, it also decreases the amount of crying.  Simultaneously, the mother releases more relaxation hormones.  This also becomes the bonding time for mother and baby. Should the partner of the mother also hold the baby, it begins the bonding time for them as well.

BENEFITS OF INFANT MASSAGE

Infant massages could be integrated into this bonding experience, as well.  The same article in Stanford’s Medicine notes a wide array of benefits. According to Maureen McCaffrey, a certified infant massage instructor at Packard’s Children Hospital, these benefits consist of:

  • Better sleep patterns for the baby
  • Baby appears more aware of being loved, secure, and accepted.
  • Improved digestion and bowel movements
  • Babies demonstrate more comfort by less fussy behavior
  • Weight gain improves
  • Mother and baby appear more relaxed
  • Neurological function in babies is improved

Another study done at the University of Washington aimed to locate the area of the brain in which a baby registers both “felt” touch and “observed touch.” This study proves babies can discern between an actual physical touch vs. an image of a hand touching another person.  The study found that by seven months old, a baby can not only understand the concept of their “self,” but also knows their body is separate from another person.

THE POWER OF TOUCH FOR BABIES

That knowledge is what established the foundation for mimicking others’ behavior as well as developing empathy.  The researchers discovered through specialized imaging that touch registers in the somatosensory cortex.  Depending upon if it was an actual touch, what part of the body the contact occurred in, or if it was an image, the location, and strength of the signal within the somatosensory cortex in which it was registered changed.

What was also fascinating was recognizing that the baby, before it can speak or know the words for body parts, already understands that their hand or foot moves similarly to another person’s.  Through imitating how the other person moves, the baby is also able to move.  It is this process which makes both imitations, and later, empathy, possible.

In a study of the opposing focus, researchers learned of detriment to children who don’t receive touch.  A report in Pediatrics Child Health, published in PMC, outlines the results of various studies, one of which was the result of providing touch to children who were previously deprived.  The study focused primarily on limb movement as a form of sensory stimulation.  They discovered that with 10 minutes a day of handling, over ten weeks, babies “spit up” less.Overthinkers, pay attention to this one!https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.437.0_en.html#goog_975658294Volume 90% 

The babies with 20 minutes of daily tactile stimulation, over ten weeks, increased in their developmental scores.  In the case of premature babies, stroking their limbs, and mild limb movement demonstrated weight gain, longer alertness, more mobility, better adaptation to repeated stimuli, and awareness of their bodies. After a year, they scored high on weight and growth and motor skills and had reduced mild neurological dysfunctional symptoms.

OXYTOCIN AND HUGS

Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter produced in our hypothalamus and released from our pituitary gland.  Its levels increase during breastfeeding, orgasm, and hugs.

In regards to the effect on babies and their development, oxytocin encourages bonding between a mother and her baby.  This might explain why breastfeeding increases a woman’s hormone levels. It tends to foster feelings of trust, closeness in relationships, and maternal instinct or care.  Ironically, this hormone was discovered by scientists at the Weizman Institute to be the construction crew for its own future paths of blood vessels while in an embryonic brain.  Therefore, it facilitates the baby’s ability to produce oxytocin after the brain, his or her brain, fully develops.

While oxytocin has been nicknamed the “love hormone” or the “hug hormone,” it is more complicated than what was initially perceived.  It originally was recognized as the hormone that, when released in our blood, aids in uterine contractions during childbirth and induces labor.  Over time, it was discovered that it has a different reaction when it is released into the brain.  It then has variable effects on our cognitive, emotional, and social behavior.

MORE EVIDENCE

In the journal Nature, an article was published with outlined various studies which have been performed attempting to single out the role of oxytocin on our behavior.

The study focused on the response of female mice, who had never birthed, toward crying babies.  Initially, the female mice had little to no reaction toward the babies.  They then injected the mice with oxytocin, and they began responding as a mother would.  Interestingly enough, before the injection, their brain neurons were a bit scattered and unfocused.

After the injection, the neurons came together in focus as a maternal mindset would. Additionally, researchers noted that oxytocin appeared to decrease specific neurons. While hearing the cries, the oxytocin enhanced the cries and made them more important.  The scientists theorize this may be related to why some mothers claim they can distinguish their baby’s cry from another.

Another study posted in the American Psychological Association tested women at various stages of their pregnancy – the first trimester, the third trimester, and the first month after birth.  What they discovered was that more women with high levels of oxytocin in the first trimester bonded better with their child.  The women who maintained high levels of oxytocin throughout the pregnancy and the month after developed a closer relationship with their children.  They tended toward singing special songs, using more personal, specific ways to feed or bathe their baby, etc.

UNDERSTANDING OXYTOCIN AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

The general understanding of how oxytocin affects our emotional and social behavior is a bit complex.  Essentially, if you are with an individual or group of individuals, and experience an interaction that triggers higher levels of oxytocin as a positive experience, then you will view those individuals as safe, trustworthy, and develop affection toward them.  Conversely, your brain will then see others who are different than those individuals as less credible, not safe, and you will be more guarded.  This is one method in which you establish your “tribe” of friends and establish who your family is.

Additionally, it may play a role in your social memory.  Through the release of oxytocin, your memory views a specific event more favorably than one where it didn’t release oxytocin.

What does this have to do with hugging your child and brain development?  Researchers continue to study oxytocin due to its very complex nature. However, it’s important we understand that how we perceive friends, family, and strangers and interact emotionally with each other is definitely a factor in our memory and behavior.  This holds true for a baby who is newly forming their understanding of the world based on how they interpret the actions of those around them.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON HUGS AND CHILDREN

Science may still be struggling to find the formula for why touch is so important and how our brain assimilates it in regard to our development, but most parents seem to understand it regardless.  The results from hugging a baby, a child, your teenager, or your spouse are ones most of us can recognize.

Source: www.powerofpositivity.com

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COVID-19: School closures could cost each child £40,000 in lost lifetime earnings

Source Sky News

Pupils who have lost six months of schooling can expect to lose approximately £40,000 each in income over their lifetime.

The cost of lost schooling to children affected by pandemic-related school closures has been estimated at £350bn.

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that pupils who have lost six months of normal schooling could lose approximately £40,000 each in income over their lifetime.

For 8.7 million school children in the UK, this makes a total of around £350bn and a “massive injection” of resources is needed to help them catch up, the IFS said.

The paper suggested learning time could be maximised by allowing students to repeat a school year, lengthening the school day, or extending the academic year.

The IFS paper warned: “Without significant remedial action, lost learning will translate into reduced productivity, lower incomes, lower tax revenues, higher inequality and potentially expensive social

“The lack of urgency or national debate on how to address this problem is deeply worrying.

“The necessary responses are likely to be complex, hard and expensive. But the risks of spending ‘too much’ time or resources on this issue are far smaller than the risks of spending too little and letting lower skills and wider inequalities take root for generations to come.”

Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the IFS, said: “The inescapable conclusion is that lost learning represents a gigantic long-term risk for future prosperity, the public finances, the future path of inequality and wellbeing.https://interactive.news.sky.com/2020/covid-19-coronavirus/world-country-rates/index.html

“We therefore need a policy response that is appropriate to the scale of the problem. One useful benchmark is the £30bn it normally costs for half a year of schooling in the UK.

“That doesn’t mean we need to spend that much. But it does strongly suggest that the £1.5bn allocated across the UK so far doesn’t even start to match the scale of the challenge. A much larger policy response would allow us to consider radical and properly resourced ways to help pupils catch up.”

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote an open letter to parents saying he was “in awe” of the way they had risen to the challenge of educating children at home, in many cases while working from home themselves.

But James Turner, chief executive of social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, said the long months of disruption would have “repercussions for many years to come”.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The government will need to put in place much more substantial catch-up funding to repair the damage to education caused by the pandemic, and all of this funding needs to go directly to schools and colleges.”

A government spokesperson said: “We will invest a further £300m in tutoring programmes, building on the existing £1bn COVID Catch Up Fund, but the prime minister was clear last week that extended schools closures have had a huge impact on pupils learning, which will take more than a year to make up.

“The government will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their learning over the course of this parliament.”

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Coronavirus doctor’s diary: We’re getting self-harming 10-year-olds in A&E

Source: BBC

The pandemic has had a deep impact on children, who are arriving in A&E in greater numbers and at younger ages after self-harming or taking overdoses, writes Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Children are a lost tribe in the pandemic. While they remain (for the most part) perplexingly immune to the health consequences of Covid-19, their lives and daily routines have been turned upside down.

From surveys and interviews carried out for the Born in Bradford study, we know that they are anxious, isolated and bored, and we see the tip of this iceberg of mental ill health in the hospital.

Children in mental health crisis used to be brought to A&E about twice a week. Since the summer it’s been more like once or twice a day. Some as young as 10 have cut themselves, taken overdoses, or tried to asphyxiate themselves.

There was even one child aged eight.

Lockdown “massively exacerbates any pre-existing mental health issues – fears, anxieties, feelings of disconnection and isolation,” says A&E consultant Dave Greenhorn.

While Bradford has been in lockdown longer than some other parts of the country, there is no reason to believe this is a local problem. Dave says fellow A&E consultants he’s spoken to in Scotland, Portsmouth and Northern Ireland all report a significant increase in mental health attendances – among all age groups, children as well as adults.

Self-harming “used to be the mind-set of older teenagers but we are seeing much younger children doing this now” says Ruth Tolley, a matron on the paediatric ward where children are taken if it is not safe for them to return home.

It may then take the combined efforts of several nurses to prevent further self-harm on the ward.

Eating disorders are also on the rise, says paediatrician Helen Jepp. So are overdoses – where children take their parents’ medication, or their own – and cases where children rush out of the house and behave recklessly or dangerously on the street.

A child psychiatrist who works with Bradford’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) says the caseload fell at the start of the pandemic then returned to normal levels. For him what’s new is not the quantity but the severity of the work. “We have been seeing more intense distress,” he says. “Young people are in a worse state than usual.”

Short presentational grey line

Consultant Dave Greenhorn describes a recent evening in A&E. It’s a busy one – there are 94 people in the department, including a pale-looking teenage boy, lying quietly in a cubicle.

Dave asks if he’s OK, but there is no answer and no eye contact.

The notes show that the boy has attended the Emergency Department every other day for two weeks. Before now he has taken small overdoses and told staff he wants to die. He has a child and adolescent psychiatrist and support worker but there is no firm diagnosis of mental illness.

One of the problems is that lockdown has prevented everyone from accessing their own safety valves. The boy has previously mentioned that he misses going out with his friends. Now he’s stuck at home, and so are other members of his family. Unable to get away for a few hours peace, the mum says she’s at the end of her tether and can’t deal with her son at home on this particular night.

Dave’s attempts to coax the boy to talk to him are unsuccessful, so he makes sure the youngster has some juice and a sandwich and asks the nurses to keep trying to get him to engage when they have a minute – though they rarely do.

On previous admissions to the paediatric ward the boy has been hard to look after, so it’s been agreed he shouldn’t be sent there, but he doesn’t want to go to an adult ward. In the end he spends the night in A&E.

Short presentational grey line

The pandemic has underlined for all to see just how important school is for children. Education is only part of it. There is also the social life, and children benefit from routine, boundaries and adult authority figures outside the home.

Teachers are also experts at spotting problems such as anxiety and self-harm that has taken place at home. A lot of referrals would normally arise in this way.

For older children, school is the framework that will enable them to reach university or employment, and some struggle when it appears to give way.

Seema [not her real name] attempted suicide and started self-harming when exams were cancelled last summer.

“We tried very hard for our exams – you’re taught that your entire future revolves around these exams, but that crumbles right in front of you and it’s really shocking. It has a huge impact,” she says.

“I felt like stabbing myself… I was in a constant state of anxiety.”

Now 17, she is doing a lot better, though she still misses contact with teachers and friends, and would like schools to organise online groups for students to socialise, not just meet for lessons.

Her family hasn’t been able to understand her problem, but she has now been getting help.

One crucial beneficial change that has come out of this epidemic of mental ill-health is that professionals from all the different agencies in Bradford have come together to support the children in their time of crisis.

Gone are the delays in referrals between different teams – the health service and social services are acting as one.

“Covid has brought services closer together,” says paediatric ward matron Ruth Tolley. “We needed an urgent meeting with the safeguarding team and various other agencies and we were able to pull that meeting together in two hours – getting people together and getting a plan, that is really positive.”

Paediatrician Helen Jepps agrees. She got a call about a teenager one morning, logged on and saw that a number of teams were already discussing the case – social workers, Camhs and voluntary organisations. “It feels a real privilege at the moment to have that close contact,” she says.

But this is little consolation for the damage that is being done to children’s lives.

The past 10 months of lockdown and school closures may have seemed unending for parents, but for a 10-year-old it will have felt like a lifetime. Their youth is being stolen from them.

John Wright

Prof John Wright, a doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio.

NSUL- Navigating Space Under Lockdown-high

Navigating Space Under Lockdown

A research study & film documenting the perspectives and experiences of young, racially minoritised adults from across England.

Given the relative invisibility of young adults in national discussions and policy approaches relating to COVID-19, The Ubele Initiative has partnered with University College London’s Bartlett Development Planning Unit and Youth Unity, to bring you Navigating Space Under Lockdown (NSUL), a collaborative, mixed methods research project, documenting the perspectives and experiences of Black and racially minoritised young adults (aged 18 to 35) in England, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to a gap in current understandings, the project explored how young people’s experiences of home, work, mobility, community and well-being have been affected by the pandemic and by prolonged periods of lockdown.

With the support and guidance of 12 peer researchers, the project reached out to over 200 young adults from across England, through focus group discussions, an online survey, a podcast series and a short film, to capture some of their diverse voices and experiences.

The project is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Please visit: https://nsul.org.uk
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P.L.A.N.N Wholesome ​Empowerment ​Group

Youth Unity is happy to announce P.LA.N.N are coming back again this year to host an area with her visions boards and workshops. More information on the workshops will be added in due course, but in the mean time check this lady out!!

http://www.plannweg.org.uk/

Supporting YOUR journey towards a better version of yourself…..

​​Through building on 
Self Confidence,
Self Esteem,
Self Worth and
​Self Image

We do this through making your connections to build on SELF LOVE 
What does SELF LOVE mean to you? 

By definition….Self-love is the holistic regard for your health, wellness and happiness..

The journey to self love is not linear, it has it’s PEAKS and TROUGHS, it’s a journey that has a bending road and we can note these experiences in such stages: self hate – self dislike – self awareness – self neutrality – self acceptance – self like – self love.

To us, self love is grown through the ability to love your OVERALL SELF AND BEING. So how do we get there? This begins with the way you view and value yourself, your life and your position in the world.

According to Professor Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox: Mind Management for Confidence, Success and Happiness, it is explained that the being is made up of FOUR different but INTERCONNECTED entities; self WORTH, self ESTEEM, self CONFIDENCE and self IMAGE.

​We will help you to EXPLORE the benefits and practicalities of how to develop in these areas of YOUR LIFE raising your self-love awareness.