image are taken from e-mail circulations.
Summary of the article regarding the cause of the children mental problem are parents handover the care to babysitters, stress, pressure at school, exposure to environmental toxin and exposure to television before age of two.
Quoted from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/3/focus/3617972&sec=focus//
Care for mental health of the young
THE National Health and Morbidity Survey 1996 found the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in children between the ages of five and 15 was at a high 13%.
However, we note from the recently released Third National Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 – conducted 10 years after the Second Survey – that the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in children and adolescents has risen to 20.3%. This means an increase of more than 7%.
Perhaps one of the reasons for worsening mental health in Malaysian children is the fact that many parents now hand over the care of their children to babysitters.
Evidence from overseas studies has shown that day care at nurseries for children under the age of two can lead to increased incidence of anti-social behaviour and aggression.
Stress related to factors such as poverty, poor parenting, deplorable physical living conditions, bullying, exposure to domestic violence, sexual abuse, divorce in the family, death of a parent, discrimination and other hardships have all been linked with mental health problems.
The pressures of school can also affect the mental health of children, especially the weaker ones. Much has already been said about the state of education in the country, and the Health Ministry could push for a sound revamp of the schooling system as soon as possible.
Teachers who oversee kindergartens and Year One have to be carefully hand-picked. This is the entry point for children into formal schooling, and as it is, the occasion can already be traumatic for a child.
It can be made all the worse when a teacher is less than understanding, and this may adversely effect the child's whole approach to education.
The effects of excessive exposure to environmental toxins, such as heavy metal lead, can also manifest as problems such as attention deficit syndrome or hyperactivity.
Even exposure to television before the age of two has been linked to creating symptoms such as attention deficiency.
The people look to the Health Ministry for sound and prominent leadership in the area of health, especially to arrest the worsening trends of psychiatric morbidity in our youngsters.
S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS,
President, Consumers Association of Penang.
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Don da Pantaier's
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