Mental Health

One in ten young people in the UK has a mental health problem that has been recognised by doctors... More boys (8.1%) than girls (5.1%) have 'conduct disorders', but more girls (6.1%) than boys (4.0%) have emotional problems. For more details on the study that showed this, check out the BMA website.

Smoking & Drugs

13 under 18's died in 2004 from sniffing substances, according to new figures...

Smoking in 11-15s went down from 13% in 1996 to 9% in 2004

Sex

City University published a report (July 2006) about the problems in sexual health services for young asylum seekers. Get it here...

Between 1998 and 2003 the number of under 18 year old who got pregnant fell by 9.8%

At the moment, under 16's can get abortions without their parents finding out about it. However, a woman called Sue Axon is trying to make it against the law for a young person under the age of 16 to get an abortion without their parents knowing.

• in 2004 there were 32,700 children on the child protection register
• 20 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds report some serious bad treatment by parents during their childhood
• 16 per cent have suffered sexual abuse
• over a third have reported that thy have sometimes been uncared for
• 75 per cent tell no-one about their experiences
• the cost of child abuse is estimated to be £1 billion a year.
(McVeigh 2005)

2 June 2006 was the end of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.. The aim of the meeting was to agree a UN declaration about global progress on HIV/AIDS. However, there was little agreement about what was going on around the world and how to deal with it. The declaration said very little about treatment, leaving out any global targets for achieving universal access by 2010. Read the full story here

Food

The Westminster Diet and Health Forum published a report in July 2006 about obesity in young people, reccommending more education on diet for them.

Between 2002 - 2005 there were expected to be 38 fifteen to nineteen year olds going in to hospital in Salford with Diabetes. In fact there were 70. This is reflected all over the country, and is blamed on lack of exercise and poor diet...

Changing Diets, Changing Minds: How food affects mental health and behaviour is available at: www.sustainweb.org
Feeding Minds – the impact of food on mental health is available from: www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Check out McDonalds response to all the recent complaints that have been made about their food at their 'Make Up Your Own Mind' site. I do try to be balanced but must warn or their slight overuse of jargon in a way I think might be confusing... An example quoted from their site is below.

Is it correct that chickens are 'speed reared' for McNuggets? I read that it's only six weeks from egg to McNugget.

The British Poultry Council sets high standard of welfare in relation to the production of chicken, which is managed through a set of standards called Assured Chicken Production (ACP). McDonalds and other retailers and food manufacturers use thes, and expect these high standards of producers and farmers.

During their lifetime the birds must be well looked after to meet these standards, and we refuse to take meat from suppliers who don't meet them. Birds for human consumption are bred to reach optimum weight in around 40 days.

Now, what the first paragraph says is basically that McDonalds uses Assured Chicken Production - in other words, they will definately get their chickens. And in how long? 'around 40 days'... so that would be... five weeks and five days... So basically, their answer there was 'yes' - or maybe 'no, faster'.