An Ounce of Prevention

 

To guard adolescents against high risk behaviours such as substance abuse, they need to be surrounded by the right environment, a cohesive-supportive family, positive adult role-models, and schools that respond to the student's academic and social needs.

 

Benjamin Franklin ~ 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'

Applied Behaviour Analysis

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is an effective behavioural treatment programme widely used with children with autism to improve socially significant behaviours.

 

ABA makes meaningful changes in people's lives through the use of procedures that have been demonstrated to work. The goal of an ABA teaching environment is to build socially significant behaviours in a meaningful way and to a meaningful degree. Generalisation, spontaneity and fun are essential components of successful intervention.

  

A few years ago, Ireland was in the fortunate position of having 12 ABA schools that had been set up and staffed in a way that made possible comprehensive programmes for children with autism (Leslie, 2013). However, the changes implemented from 2010 mean this is far from being the case now. Members of the Division of Behaviour Analysis are either in or in close touch with these schools. They are now termed special schools and, because of the rules they operate under none of them can meet the specifications for an ABA school.

ABA aspires to help with serious behavioural problems. A serious behavioural problem is one that impairs the quality of life of the person to a significant degree, impacts negatively on the lives of others, is persistent (thus rarely goes away of its own accord), and is not readily removed by some simple or brief treatment or intervention.

Some of the problems of many children with autism meet these criteria. If help is not provided or not adequate, their behavioural problems may leave them trailing far behind their peers of the same age in personal, social and educational development.

 

For more information see the following links:

 

AutismIreland.ie

RainChild.ie

AbaSupport.ie

ABA Schools in Ireland & UK

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''If they can't learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn''  ~   O. Ivar Lovaas

The Cracked Jar

An Indian legend tells of a man who carried water to his village every day, in two large jars tied to the ends of a wooden pole, which he balanced on his back. One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.

For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.

It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him: ''I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home''.

The man smiled, and said: ''When we return, observe carefully the path''. And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew. ''See how nature is more lovely on your side? commented the man, I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?''

''All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.''

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Suicide and Ireland

Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of suicides registered in Ireland fell by 6% last year. The CSO's yearly summary shows 475 suicides were registered in 2013, compared to 507 in 2012. The CSO statistics show several counties recording rates of suicide well above the national average of 10.3 per 100,000 population. Males accounted for over 83% of all suicide deaths last year. The number of registered suicides in the 15-24 age group fell by 23% last year, however Ireland still has the fourth highest suicide rate in that age group in the European Union (RTE, 2014).

Women are likely to attempt suicide about three times more often than men, but men are, on average, three times more likely to actually kill themselves. These differences may be due to (1) a higher incidence of depression in women and (2) men's choice of more violent and lethal methods, such as shooting themselves or jumping off buildings. The suicide rate for both men and women is higher among those who have been divorced or widowed. Women's suicides are more likely to be triggered, although not certain to be triggered by any means, by failures in love relationships, whereas career failure more often prompts men's suicides (Shneidman, 1976). Further, a history of sexual or physical abuse significantly increases the likelihood of later suicide attempts (Garnefski & Arends, 1998).

Is suicide contagious?

Most people react to hearing the news of a suicide with sadness and curiosity. Some people react by attempting suicide themselves, often by the same method they have just heard about. Gould (1990) reported an increase in suicides during a 9-day period after widespread publicity about a suicide. Clusters of suicides (several people copying one person) seem to predominate among teenagers, with as many as 5% of all teenage suicides reflecting an imitation (Gould, 1990; Gould, Greenberg, Velting, & Shaffer, 2003). Suicide prevention charity Console has called for a real-time register of suicide data to be kept. It said it could then "act on timely and accurate statistics to put measures in place to prevent such phenomena as suicide clustering or contagion".

Why would anyone want to copy a suicide? First, suicides are often romanticized in the media: An attractive young person under unbearable pressure commits suicide and becomes a martyr to friends and peers by getting even with the (adult) world for creating such a difficult situation. Also, media accounts often describe in detail the methods used in the suicide, thereby providing a guide to potential victims. Little is reported about the paralysis, brain damage, and other tragic consequences of the incomplete or failed suicide or about how suicide is almost always associated with a severe psychological disorder. More important, even less is said about the futility of this method of solving problems (Gould, 1990, 2001; O’Carroll, 1990).

To prevent these tragedies, mental health professionals must intervene immediately in schools and other locations with people who might be depressed or otherwise vulnerable to the contagion of suicide. But it isn’t clear that suicide is ''contagious'' in the infectious disease sense. Rather, the stress of a friend’s suicide or some other major stress may affect several individuals who are vulnerable because of existing psychological disorders (Durand & Barlow, 2013).
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''The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness'' ~ Abraham Maslow

If you're not learning science...then shut the hell up!

Struggling to learn something? Can't quite get your head around that theory? That's your problem. . Sometimes I'm truly glad that I did not devote myself to studying science. Because theories are always being changed to account for new observations, they are never properly digested or simplified so that ordinary people can understand them. You have to be a specialist, and even then you can only hope to have a proper grasp of a small proportion of the scientific theories.

 

Further, the rate of progress is so rapid that what you learn at school or college is always a bit out of date. Only a few people can keep up with the rapidly advancing frontier of knowledge, and they have to devote their whole time to it and specialize in a small area. The rest of the population has little idea of the advances that are being made or the excitement they are generating.

 

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As the biggest library, if it is in disorder - is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer