Mental Health Awareness Week: Relationships
16/5/16
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the focus on this year’s campaign being relationships.
The Mental Health Foundation writes: “We believe we urgently need a greater focus on the quality of our relationships. We need to understand just how fundamental relationships are to our health and wellbeing. We cannot flourish as individuals and communities without them. In fact, they are as vital as better-established lifestyle factors, such as eating well, exercising more and stopping smoking.”
The Foundation is lobbying governments, public bodies and employers, and they have a challenge for you too: prioritise your relationships by making a relationship resolution. Some examples: “I resolve to tell people I love that I love them” or “I will say sorry to a, b and c” or “I resolve to be a better partner, friend, sibling, child, parent, relative, lover, colleague, teacher, student to x, y or z” or “I resolve to stop playing games” or “I will develop a better relationship with my self” or “I resolve spend less time relating to my phone, iPad or laptop, and more time relating to actual human beings.”
• The 6 relationship types: What colour is yours?
• Perfect love
• On sex and sexuality
16/5/16
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the focus on this year’s campaign being relationships.
The Mental Health Foundation writes: “We believe we urgently need a greater focus on the quality of our relationships. We need to understand just how fundamental relationships are to our health and wellbeing. We cannot flourish as individuals and communities without them. In fact, they are as vital as better-established lifestyle factors, such as eating well, exercising more and stopping smoking.”
The Foundation is lobbying governments, public bodies and employers, and they have a challenge for you too: prioritise your relationships by making a relationship resolution. Some examples: “I resolve to tell people I love that I love them” or “I will say sorry to a, b and c” or “I resolve to be a better partner, friend, sibling, child, parent, relative, lover, colleague, teacher, student to x, y or z” or “I resolve to stop playing games” or “I will develop a better relationship with my self” or “I resolve spend less time relating to my phone, iPad or laptop, and more time relating to actual human beings.”
• The 6 relationship types: What colour is yours?
• Perfect love
• On sex and sexuality
The mental health benefits of living by the seaside
Express.co.uk
Living by the seaside boosts mental health, makes people happier and more relaxed, according to new research.
In fact, the health advantages linked to a coastal home are so pronounced, scientists behind the study say more flats and affordable property should be built along Britain's shores so increased numbers of people can benefit.
American analysis of New Zealand data found residents whose properties had an ocean view were happier than their land-locked neighbours.
It is the first report to find a link between health and the visibility of water, which the scientists call 'blue space'.
The research shows how the sound of waves alters wave patterns in the brain lulling a person into a deeply relaxed state. Relaxing in this way can help rejuvenate the mind and body.
Also, floating in the nearby sea diverts blood from the lower limbs and pumps it towards the abdominal region - the part of the body near the heart - because we are no longer standing upright.
This fresh blood brings more oxygen to the brain making people more alert and active.
Professor Amber Pearson, of Michigan State University in the USA, said: "Increased views of blue space is significantly associated with lower levels of psychological distress. However, we did not find that with green space."
Child mental health crisis 'worse than suspected'
The Guardian
The crisis in children’s mental health is far worse than most people suspect and we are in danger of “medicalising childhood” by focussing on symptoms rather than causes, the government’s mental health champion for schools has warned.
Natasha Devon, who has been working in schools for almost a decade delivering mental health and wellbeing classes, said an average of three children in a class were diagnosed with a mental illness, but many more slipped under the radar.
Devon, who founded the Self-Esteem Team, was appointed by the government to look into young people’s mental health and find out what a good school support system looks like. However, she said the government was asking the wrong question.
“The question we should be asking ourselves is what are the emotional and mental health needs of all children and are they being met in our schools?” she said.
• Children in care too often denied mental health treatment, MPs warn (The Independent)
Teachers use early-warning system to spot mental health issues
Telegraph.co.uk
Top private schools – including Harrow and Wellington – are testing pupils’ mental health as teen stress levels reach all-time high because of social media bullying.
There are currently 15 schools using an early warning system that helps teachers identify potential self-harm and drug abuse and 30 were already involved in a recent study.
Teachers say they are opting for the tool as a preventive measure in an era where adolescents are facing old-age challenges in a “more pressurised academic environment”, which means some “are finding it harder to cope”.
The schools, which also include some from the state sector as well, are using the tool called Affective Social (AS) Tracking to present teens with a series of scenarios where they display patterns of thinking that may affect their behaviour.
UK online pedophiles 'could face counselling not arrest'
Newsweek
One of Britain’s leading law enforcement officials has suggested that some people viewing child abuse images online should be directed to counselling instead of being arrested.
Lynne Owens, head of the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, told The Times that the “massive” scale of online paedophilia meant that there was a case for trying to get low-level offenders to change their behavior by engaging with charities.
“[If] it looks like they’re not individually engaged in abusing children, they are just viewing the images, but we want them to stop, you can see it could be possible, with a whole load of ethical checks and balances, to try and make contact with them overtly and get them to engage with charities to improve their offending behaviour,” she said.
Owens said that as law enforcement was bombarded with huge numbers of referrals from Internet companies, the priority had to be protecting children. “I want to crack down and pursue those people who are abusing children now,” she said.
WORLD NEWS
China's unorthodox marriage counsellor or “mistress discourager”
South China Morning Post
Yu Feng, 45, dubbed the ‘mistress discourager’, tells how he helps clients – mainly desperate wives – by persuading husbands with mistresses to stay with their wives and families
“I am married, with two children. I believe marriage should be happy and an essential part of life – that everyone should be married.
Some people complain that marriage is a burden, but I don’t agree: if you take enough care you won’t face such difficulties.”
ISIS offers marriage counseling to stop jihadi brides from fleeing
New York Post
ISIS is being forced to offer marriage counseling to stop their brides from fleeing the terrorist group during tough times.
The terrorists opened their first “relationship counseling center” for troubled jihadi lovebirds in Raqqa, Syria, according to the UK Sun.
A photo, released by the Islamic State’s media branch, shows one tearful wife seeking help from a shrink next to a box of tissues.
Male ISIS fighters — connected to any number of brutal beheadings, bombings or other atrocities — have attended the sessions, too, according to the site.
Thousands of Western women, many of them British, have joined ISIS after being radicalized online in the past two years.
But times are tough in Raqqa, where airstrikes have caused food, water and power shortages, making tense marriages even more strained.
“At least before [ISIS] we had electricity, we could bake and cook. Our basic needs were met. Now we are back to ancient times,” one of the women told dissident site Open Your Eyes.
“There’s no electricity, no drinking water. There are no services,” another moaned.
ISIS has lured female recruits by promising them a new life in Syria.
Express.co.uk
Living by the seaside boosts mental health, makes people happier and more relaxed, according to new research.
In fact, the health advantages linked to a coastal home are so pronounced, scientists behind the study say more flats and affordable property should be built along Britain's shores so increased numbers of people can benefit.
American analysis of New Zealand data found residents whose properties had an ocean view were happier than their land-locked neighbours.
It is the first report to find a link between health and the visibility of water, which the scientists call 'blue space'.
The research shows how the sound of waves alters wave patterns in the brain lulling a person into a deeply relaxed state. Relaxing in this way can help rejuvenate the mind and body.
Also, floating in the nearby sea diverts blood from the lower limbs and pumps it towards the abdominal region - the part of the body near the heart - because we are no longer standing upright.
This fresh blood brings more oxygen to the brain making people more alert and active.
Professor Amber Pearson, of Michigan State University in the USA, said: "Increased views of blue space is significantly associated with lower levels of psychological distress. However, we did not find that with green space."
Child mental health crisis 'worse than suspected'
The Guardian
The crisis in children’s mental health is far worse than most people suspect and we are in danger of “medicalising childhood” by focussing on symptoms rather than causes, the government’s mental health champion for schools has warned.
Natasha Devon, who has been working in schools for almost a decade delivering mental health and wellbeing classes, said an average of three children in a class were diagnosed with a mental illness, but many more slipped under the radar.
Devon, who founded the Self-Esteem Team, was appointed by the government to look into young people’s mental health and find out what a good school support system looks like. However, she said the government was asking the wrong question.
“The question we should be asking ourselves is what are the emotional and mental health needs of all children and are they being met in our schools?” she said.
• Children in care too often denied mental health treatment, MPs warn (The Independent)
Teachers use early-warning system to spot mental health issues
Telegraph.co.uk
Top private schools – including Harrow and Wellington – are testing pupils’ mental health as teen stress levels reach all-time high because of social media bullying.
There are currently 15 schools using an early warning system that helps teachers identify potential self-harm and drug abuse and 30 were already involved in a recent study.
Teachers say they are opting for the tool as a preventive measure in an era where adolescents are facing old-age challenges in a “more pressurised academic environment”, which means some “are finding it harder to cope”.
The schools, which also include some from the state sector as well, are using the tool called Affective Social (AS) Tracking to present teens with a series of scenarios where they display patterns of thinking that may affect their behaviour.
UK online pedophiles 'could face counselling not arrest'
Newsweek
One of Britain’s leading law enforcement officials has suggested that some people viewing child abuse images online should be directed to counselling instead of being arrested.
Lynne Owens, head of the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, told The Times that the “massive” scale of online paedophilia meant that there was a case for trying to get low-level offenders to change their behavior by engaging with charities.
“[If] it looks like they’re not individually engaged in abusing children, they are just viewing the images, but we want them to stop, you can see it could be possible, with a whole load of ethical checks and balances, to try and make contact with them overtly and get them to engage with charities to improve their offending behaviour,” she said.
Owens said that as law enforcement was bombarded with huge numbers of referrals from Internet companies, the priority had to be protecting children. “I want to crack down and pursue those people who are abusing children now,” she said.
WORLD NEWS
China's unorthodox marriage counsellor or “mistress discourager”
South China Morning Post
Yu Feng, 45, dubbed the ‘mistress discourager’, tells how he helps clients – mainly desperate wives – by persuading husbands with mistresses to stay with their wives and families
“I am married, with two children. I believe marriage should be happy and an essential part of life – that everyone should be married.
Some people complain that marriage is a burden, but I don’t agree: if you take enough care you won’t face such difficulties.”
ISIS offers marriage counseling to stop jihadi brides from fleeing
New York Post
ISIS is being forced to offer marriage counseling to stop their brides from fleeing the terrorist group during tough times.
The terrorists opened their first “relationship counseling center” for troubled jihadi lovebirds in Raqqa, Syria, according to the UK Sun.
A photo, released by the Islamic State’s media branch, shows one tearful wife seeking help from a shrink next to a box of tissues.
Male ISIS fighters — connected to any number of brutal beheadings, bombings or other atrocities — have attended the sessions, too, according to the site.
Thousands of Western women, many of them British, have joined ISIS after being radicalized online in the past two years.
But times are tough in Raqqa, where airstrikes have caused food, water and power shortages, making tense marriages even more strained.
“At least before [ISIS] we had electricity, we could bake and cook. Our basic needs were met. Now we are back to ancient times,” one of the women told dissident site Open Your Eyes.
“There’s no electricity, no drinking water. There are no services,” another moaned.
ISIS has lured female recruits by promising them a new life in Syria.
