Monday 17 September 2012

The Olympics, Music and the mental health of David Cameron

Well Hello...

Sometimes 140 characters on Twitter or a Facebook status is just not enough to get 'Stuff' off ones chest!

So much has happened since I last blogged on here and way too much to try and construct some sort of context for this latest vent. Suffice to say, here we are and there has been some stuff and some things and it has led me to this point in time,

The UK is a bloody awesome place with some awesome people. At no time in my life have I appreciated that more  than now in 2012 just after we have hosted (with frikkin bells on) The Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. We as a nation really came together and showed the rest of the world how- Quirky is Cool -Music is the way forward- and nothing but nothing can dampen the British spirit.

It really pains me to say that we have done all of  this in spite of the worst government we have had since the 1980s. We are literally watching  our NHS fall apart in front of our eyes- small businesses closing, prices rising, incomes going down...local services being cut every week sports and leisure facilities closing ....and on and on...I could blog about all that but I haven't got time they may cut funding to the Internet ...as if.....
but my main issue is the way we treat our teenagers.

Facilities ( and I don't mean Youth clubs) for our teenagers are almost non existent and I mean medical services, Education. travel to school/college...parent support... again could go on but time is of the essence.

BUT my worst bugbear, my very worst annoyance, is that society has literally...

...stopped listening to them!!

We are teaching them shit!! Spirits are being broken!! Talented, enthusiastic, amazing children are being patronised, bullied and put down...not by their peers but by some of their teachers and mainly by a government filled with people who have never lived in the real world for a second!

Please don't get me wrong I fully believe the buck  stops with the parents. I am not a qualified teacher or a trained Psychiatrist but in this day and age I would have thought that stigma about mental health should not be apparent in our schools!!  How are we to break the cycle if the very people that are taking care of our children- for more hours in the day than we are- have no training or understanding of the basic problems teenagers face.

I am taking the radical step of deciding at the age of fourteen to home school my son. I can hear the gasps and the sighs and the 'Oh dears' from here but trust me at first I  felt that I had been left with no other option and now I feel that it is by far the best option.

Without going into too much detail I have been waiting for nearly eighteen months in the purgatory of the health system waiting for a referral to have a clinical assessment and not being able to have any treatment till my son is assessed. No shit Sherlock my son has got worse...he has not been able to attend school for a long time...his education is clearly suffering and so is he.  The Schools answer?..my son is an Enigma and education welfare?( just like to point out here that I asked for help from them in 2009) prosecuting me for non attendance. They should be fucking lucky I don't attend!!
The Doctors?  well they're just banging their heads against a funding brick wall....My son is not currently using drugs, stealing, causing criminal damage to people or property therefore he does not fit the criteria. He does none of these things he is unhappy sad and afraid sometimes suicidal. (one more point: mental health issues between the ages of 14 and 21 are the highest cause of suicide).
I've gone private...they are helping and it is looking likely that we are getting our referral. My son will be fine and will overcome any obstacle in his life because he has a Mum like me and loving siblings and friends and family.
Things need to change NOW.
I am calmer now...I shall drink tea..and download the syllabus for Maths GCSE....Oh but that's not going to be worth the paper it's written on by 2015......grrrrrrrrr



4 comments:

  1. Sounds like the school hasn't the slightest bit of interest either. That's down to its leadership. Your son can't wait for that to change.

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  2. Dom your kids are the luckiest I know...despite everything life has thrown at you you still fight and have passion and I absolutely admire you so so much...if j have a relationship with my kids like you do I know I will have done my job well xxx

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  3. Great piece! Until recently I'd worked in a secondary school for ten years,the school has now become an academy(don't even get me started on that). We don't educate kids now we just teach them to pass exams. Schools are churning out a nation of robots with all kinds of issues.In the coming years more and more will take the route you have and withdraw their children from mainstream schools for many different reasons. What it boils down to is that in terms of education, welfare and just some basic life skills we are failing our young people. Rant over, Phew!

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    1. Thankyou Darren! I completely agree with you, I have a friend who has just left teaching for similar reasons it's such a shame because she is amazing! Thanks for reading :-)

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