The ‘Healthcare’ System Itself Could Well Be A Major Contributor To What’s Wrong With Kids Today

Children today face a myriad of challenges, many that we as parents and grandparents have very little awareness or understanding of. Yet we are often on the receiving end of the negative impacts which play out in disturbing behaviour, outbursts, or regressions into solitude and sadness, which no kid should have to bare.

It can be heartbreaking, especially when even the most basic communication to try and help, or understand the cause is strained and misinterpreted. This is often because the kids themselves don’t know and can’t fathom the depth of the psychological assaults against them.

The Covid years were obviously a massive contributing factor, with the disruption of schooling, the stamping out of normal socializing, the encouragement of ‘group norms’ and the rampant, and often institutionalized, bullying and victimization. These all had huge, and catastrophic impacts on the normal healthy development of children and teenagers, many of whom now don’t even know how to deal with other people, especially adults.

In a study published in February 2024 in Academic Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers investigating the pandemic’s effect on mental health among youth found that rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours significantly increased during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic period. “Our findings show this is a real problem that we need to urgently address on all fronts,” said Laura Prichett, Ph.D., M.H.S., the author of the study.

Sadly, this was one of literally thousands of similar studies, which all come to the same conclusion: The way Covid was handled and the insensitive and draconian application of the Covid mandates were extremely damaging to the mental health and psychological wellbeing of children.

Yet, we haven’t even acknowledged this, never mind “urgently addressed it on all fronts” as Prichett concluded that we must. Instead it appears that our formal ‘healthcare’ system is buckling down with the usual over-analysis and over-medication, which history should have taught us by now, is reckless and counter productive.

Back in August last year (before they were taken to court by Children’s Health Defence for “endangering children”), the  American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said in a clinical report that children as young as 6 months old should begin regular screenings for mental or developmental issues at every wellness-child visit.

Critics of the report fear the recommendations will lead to misdiagnosing and further overmedicating children. “It is alarming that pressure is being put on pediatricians by the AAP to actively look for signs of depression in a 2-year-old,” Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT, said in an interview with The Defender.

Pushing mental health screening for children leads to the expectation of psychiatric problems being woven into standards of care, said Robert Whitaker, author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.”

Whitaker explains that, “…the screening instruments the pediatricians will employ will have been constructed to identify a certain percentage of children as being in need of ‘treatment’.” This implies (once again) that the whole system is designed to ‘identify’ and then treat at a high cost an ever-increasing number of otherwise normal, happy kids to keep sustaining the highly profitable pediatric ‘mental health’ industry.

And at what cost? No doubt at the cost of your kids’ happiness and their healthy development and long-term social integration. Sure, there are certainly some kids that definitely need help, but to essentially go fishing for as many new profitable ‘clients’ as you can is neither healthy nor in the best interests of normal children or long-term societal wellbeing.

Then, on top of all this, you can apply the added pressure of online cyberbullying, the extreme peer-pressure to conform, the need to maintain an ‘acceptable’ online presence, and the suspicion of all adults and ‘authorities’, and you have a pretty volatile mix of contributors to the plight of kids today.

Our challenge now is firstly how to understand this all, and then how to help alleviate it in a way that works for both ourselves and our kids and grandkids, and that is where Leah Crowell comes in.

Leah is a sociologist and practicing child and youth care professional with 25 years experience. During her career she has worked in research, daycares, public schools, and various recreation programs. Leah is focused on the social, emotional, and cognitive development of our young people and on March 18th she will be offering an exclusive Canada Health Alliance training course on how we can help our kids by building their confidence and resilience.

To find out about the modern threats our kids face and the simple safeguards we can apply to help them, enrol on Leah’s training course now at: https://canadahealthalliance.org/event/discover-whats-wrong-with-kids-today/. Or you can email us at info@canadahealthalliance.org with ‘Leah’s training course’ in the subject line and we’ll make sure your online reservation is confirmed.

The session costs $30, or just $20 for paid CHA members, which will be well worth it considering how it could change your relationship with your kids and really help improve their quality of life. Check out the website link and enrol now!

Sources for this article include:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2024/03/johns-hopkins-childrens-center-study-shows-negative-impact-of-covid19-pandemic-on-youth-minority-mental-health
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/medically-reckless-aap-pushes-mental-health-screenings-kids-6-months-old/