Also relevant: I read something recently about the rising number of kids playing violent video games.
Ed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recession taking toll on the young As parents lose jobs, demand soars for mental-health services for children in hard-hit Windsor ANDRÉ PICARD >From Monday's Globe and Mail April 13, 2009 at 4:12 AM EDT PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER As the economy stagnates, the number of children and adolescents suffering mental-health problems is soaring, and no place knows it better than Windsor. New data out of Windsor, an auto town hit early and hard by the recession, show that demand for mental-health services jumped 50 per cent last year. There is also anecdotal evidence that this increase has continued unabated as the local economy sputters - a portent of things to come across the country. The Windsor Regional Children's Centre has seen referrals jump 50 per cent in 2009, compared to a similar period in 2008, while the number of young people coming into the walk-in clinic for help has doubled. At another agency that deals with the most severe cases - children and adolescents who are suicidal - the number admitted has nearly tripled, to 27 young people a month from an average of 10 before the downturn. "In that period, nothing has changed except the economy," Connie Martin, executive director of Maryvale Adolescent and Family Services, said in an interview. "In almost all cases, one or both parents have lost jobs recently, and that has been a trigger for the child's mental-health problems." Ms. Martin said the most tragic case she has seen is a preteen who attempted suicide after his parents lost their jobs in the auto industry. "He felt like he was a burden on the family - that they couldn't afford to have him around," she said. Mary Broga, executive director of the Windsor Regional Children's Centre, said the impact of the recession on children and adolescents is more profound than many parents realize. When there are job losses or other money woes - and unemployment in Windsor hit 13.7 per cent in March, compared to the national rate of 8 per cent - the entire family dynamic changes. Parents can be anxious, depressed or irritable, and children tend to feel they are responsible. Ms. Broga said the centre is seeing an influx of two distinct types of clients as Windsor's economy falters: kids with no previous mental-health problems who are suddenly experiencing severe anxiety, depression or acting out; and children and adolescents with pre-existing mental-health conditions that are exacerbated by new stresses. Sherry Campeau's 14-year-old son Shayne, who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder, is in the latter category. He had been making steady progress since a suicide attempt two years ago, but his father being laid off for six weeks over Christmas and New Year's had a profound effect. "I've seen a steady increase in his anxiety since December. The gains we made in the previous two years were all taken back," Ms. Campeau said. While she is not employed in the auto industry - Ms. Campeau works as a teacher's assistant and is studying at teachers college - her ex-husband, her brother and her father all work for Chrysler. "There's a real feeling of hopelessness around here. We wonder if we'll ever get out of this," she said. "The kids feel it like everybody else." In fact, Ms. Broga said, they often feel it more acutely, particularly teenagers. "Adolescents see everything collapsing around them and wonder: 'What am I going to do with my life?' " When they are anxious, their schoolwork suffers, sleep patterns are disrupted and they get sick, physically and mentally. To make matters worse, they are reluctant to reach out to their parents, who are already stressed out. "If you have a parent - or two - with no money and no prospects of a job, the stress level goes way up in the house," Ms. Martin said. "It doesn't take much for a child to get in a bad place." To make matters worse, if a child gets sick, the stress level of parents shoots even higher, creating a vicious circle. Ms. Martin noted that while demand for services is spiking, funding for mental-health agencies has remained stagnant. In fact, a recent report from the Auditor-General of Ontario lamented the lack of funding increases, saying that children's mental-health agencies have had "considerable difficulty maintaining their core services and to do so have often had to 'rob Peter to pay Paul.' " Another report, prepared by former provincial Conservative and Liberal cabinet ministers Roy McMurtry and Alvin Curling, recommended an additional $200-million investment in children's mental health - a 40-per-cent increase over current funding - over the next three years.
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