THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE LABELLING ON YOUNG PEOPLES LIFE CHANCES.(Posted Sept 2010.) +FIRST WATCH "CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS" THE INSPIRATIONAL TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Once a young person has become acclimatised to taking medication to resolve a problem in early life, what do we think they are likely to do, when they hit problems later in life?What choice do they feel will be open to them?                                                             Will the drugs they use then be legal or illegal?

                                                                                            
  https://ww.youtube/user/Humanagement2011

For more information on topic and the BBC radio programmes on over-prescription of drugs for kids go to link above:

Early prescribed Amphetamines can increase later crime rates in Y.P.involved.

Positive expectations are our most powerful resource.

If we have learnt anything from educational research then a paramount lesson is surely the power that expectations of a significant adult or adults have on a child's future behaviour.It can also be a collective influence of societal or sub-cultural norms that positively or adversely affect a young person's belief in themselves and their self-efficacy as a human being.

Education is the conversation between generations.

 So we create the shared culture and millieu in which young people either build resilience and flourish or become a greater risk to themselves and others,predisposed to a negative cycle of despair and plummeting self-fulfilling expectations.

The prolific increase in medics prescribing psychotropic (mind changing) drugs to younger and younger patients could be impacting negatively on their perceptions of the world they live in and their power to influence it.

Amphetamines are "Speed."

 In such a "Speed"  stimulated state of mind,it is perhaps not surprising, that some of the more affected individuals may feel they are invincible and all-powerful thus leading to their increased propensity to very controlling behaviour and social violence e.g. some of the young people involved in the U.S. multiple school shootings who were on prescribed psychotropic drugs at the time.

Features of the U.S. Model of Social Control.

-early mass labelling of dubious mental health conditions in children
-long-term mass psychotropic drug treaments e.g.8% of children on Methylphenidate at any one time,which is scandalous for any society.
-the damage of negative expectations / labelling with broad spectrum mental health conditions throughout life.
-highest levels of adult mental health problems and hospital admissions in western world (700 / 100,000 = 1.4 million in 2006)
-highest levels of adult imprisonment in world with 760 / 100,000 = 2.3 million adults incacarated at present.So much for the success of "Zero tolerance!"

As the ""Spirit Level",  R.Wilkinson and K.Pickett (Penguin 2009) states ,"the more unequal the society or state the more punitive that society is to its citizens,including incarcaration and the use of the death sentence.

- Juvenile delinquency rates in the U.S. are up to 25 times higher in groups that are medicated (psychostimulants) than in a control group.
  e.g. 36% involved in one or more crimes
         30% involved in two or more crimes
         20% had to be institutionalised
So the suggested relationship between early childhood medication - to - adult hospitalisation rates - to - adult incarcaration rates may well have some validity.At the very least research needs to be undertaken to explore this issue.
From: Satterfield,J,H. et al. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,56 - 64 (1987)

Should we emulate this regressive approach or do something radically different.One option is to choose the paths our nearer more progressive European neighbours e.g. Denmark have successfully chosen to follow in recent decades the exciting Social Pedagogy approach where highly qualified professionals act as daily "life coaches" for targetted young people.This is very successful with even the most deprived of young people and achieves vcery positive outcomes such as 6 out of 10 gain access to higher education compared to 6 out of a 1,000 in the U.K. Here the evidence is clear from the rates of adult hospitalisation and incarceration which are a fraction of the U.S. There is also much more community involvement in rehabilitation of offenders and proactive community based programmes etc.

This has to be a  better way to respectfully treat our young people rather than potentially abusing them with psychotropic drugs which have a life long negative impact.