Wise funding

Welcolme back!
 If this is your first look at this blog, welcolme too, I suggest you take a look at the previous first three posts, and watch the links, to help get a sense of what Brain child is all about.

In the UK, there is a growing number of children with mental health difficulties.  This is at a time when funding for a great many child support networks have or are being cut.

 Facts taken from Mind website;

  "10 per cent of children aged five to 15 experience mental distress including:

• emotional disorders (depression, anxiety and obsessions)
• hyperactivity (inattention and over-activity)
• conduct disorders (awkward, troublesome, aggressive and antisocial behaviour)."

"The cost of mental ill health in the UK is approaching £100 billion a year with estimates predicting that by 2020 depression will be second only to heart disease as an international health problem".

It has been suggested that this increase in mental disorders is also due to the increasingly stressful lives that we all lead ...  stressed parents = stressed children 
click on link for short video of the effect of stress on brain development (only takes 2 mins)

When we have limited resources we survive if we choose wisely. There is not enough money (it appears) for all the health care needs of the world. Prevention is the best medicine! The earlier any problem is addressed the better.

There is a low cost option that is really worth funding, along with support for parents, for some parents a lot of support will also be needed, but far better to spend a little money here than a lot more later down the line. Support for expectant parents is far too low in my opinion.

Click here for short video that is a really simple low cost suggestion that helps both new parents and child bond and reduce stress  (only takes 3 mins)

I have had the great privilege and joy in the past to personally witness two parents diagnosed with post natal depression begin to really enjoy being with their baby after just three sessions of a group baby massage class, and it gave them a chance to talk to one another and not feel the terrible isolation that can be felt by many new parents struggling to do what I consider is the hardest yet most important job in the world!