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JAMES Faye was the type of kid who had to have the last word. A victim of bullying, he expressed his frustration one day by throwing a table in class. He was sent to see a psychiatrist, who put him on anti-psychotic medication.

Twelve years later, as a university student, a psychologist diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder, with schizotypal traits – labels that struck him as absurd. Even as a child, he knew there was something unusual about the way his mind worked, but he was neither narcissistic nor delusional.

Disillusioned, Faye began researching his symptoms and read about Asperger’s syndrome when a friend was diagnosed with the condition. “The description jumped off the page,” he recalls. Weeks later, an Asperger’s specialist validated his suspicions.

Now 38, he says he doesn’t mind “being Asperger”. “I don’t see it as a condition, a defect or a disability. If it is a disability, it’s the only disability where people can be successful because of it. In every other condition, people seem successful despite it.”

But if Faye were to seek out a new diagnosis, chances are his condition would no longer be labelled Asperger’s.

Changes to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, the document that clinicians rely on globally to diagnose mental disorders, could render the term “Asperger” meaningless in medical terms.

It’s a shift that could have significant practical and emotional implications for the estimated 130,000 Australians with autism spectrum disorders – which are linked by impaired social or emotional understanding, but distinguished by varying levels of cognitive function and speaking skills.

Those once diagnosed with Asperger’s, which the DSM previously defined as applying to those with no speech delay or cognitive impairment, may now be told they have “high-functioning autism”. Faye’s psychiatrist has told him that under the changes, this would most likely be his new diagnosis. It doesn’t sit well with him. “Just because I have the sniffles, doesn’t mean I have a cold,” he says.

David Pringle, president of the Asperger Syndrome Support Network Victoria, is also concerned that the new taxonomy could cause confusion and a shift in status and the community’s understanding of the condition.

“People with Asperger’s are now finally receiving recognition, understanding and respect in the community broadly, and it’s taken decades,” he says. “Imagine if you are known as a lawyer all your life and suddenly you become known as a ‘legally qualified person’. People will ask, ‘what is that exactly’.”

There are also concerns that the changes could give governments an excuse to cut funding for educational aides and other assistance for children with autism spectrum disorders. Autism Spectrum Australia last year conducted a clinical comparison using the old and new DSM criteria, and found that while 84 per cent of 132 incoming clients met the old criteria for autism disorders, only 64 per cent met the new criteria.

“The research raises a red flag that there are some people who would miss out on [government] funding [who would otherwise receive it],” says ASA senior consultant Anthony Warren.

The medical community is divided. The American Psychiatric Association has defended changes to the DSM-V, as the new manual is known, saying the new taxonomy reflects “how symptoms of these disorders represent a continuum from mild to severe, rather than being distinct disorders”.

The association believes the new classification will “help clinicians more accurately diagnose people with relevant symptoms and behaviours by recognising the differences from person to person, instead of providing general labels that tend not to be consistently applied across different clinics and centres”.

The DSM-V’s predecessor, DSM-IV (published in 1994), described five separate conditions under the autism spectrum umbrella, including Asperger’s Disorder, Autism Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).

But DSM-V simplifies the criteria, listing only Autism Spectrum Disorder, and has created an entirely new category titled Social Communications Disorder, entailing difficulties in both verbal and non-verbal communication.

Warren says while some people who would now miss out on a diagnosis under Autism Spectrum Disorder would qualify under Social Communication Disorder, others would not.

While many clinicians praise the economy of the new system, it also has its critics.

Professor Tony Attwood, a Brisbane clinical psychologist and author who has treated more than 8000 patients with Asperger’s, is concerned that the new manual is much less descriptive than its predecessor.

For an experienced clinician adept at diagnosis, this would be of little consequence, he says, but for a government agency that reads the DSM as a kind of “legal text”, its relative brevity could be exploited to deny services. “There is a risk that in the current economic climate there may be a push to look for reasons to withdraw or deny services rather than provide them,” Attwood says.

In response to questions from Fairfax Media, the Victorian government said in a statement that it did not mandate how professionals diagnose autism, and there were no changes planned to the eligibility criteria its departments used to diagnose an Autism Spectrum Disorder. (These diagnoses are used to determined eligibility for funding, including speech therapy and learning assistance for children.)

However, state governments do have discretionary powers on funding allocation. Attwood says it is standard practice, after an Autism Spectrum Disorder is given, for government agencies to look back over the diagnostic criteria to ascertain a level of severity. And for children judged to be high up on the Autism spectrum, funding is sparse.

Rosslyn Chiarotto spent a year battling for a teacher’s aide for her five-year-old son (whose name she asked to be left out of this article) after his teacher voiced her suspicions that he had high-functioning autism.

At first, a psychologist told her that her son was not on the spectrum, but after Chiarotto provided testimony from his teacher, a speech pathologist and a paediatrician, he was reassessed, and found to have high-functioning autism.

After reporting to an expert panel, Chiarotto finally obtained government funding for a classroom aide, who would assist her son for two hours a day when he began year 1.

But now, five years later, the government support is about to dry up, and Chiarotto faces the task of re-entering the bureaucratic “maze” to provide her son with more assistance in secondary school.

Changes to the DSM concern her, as her son will, most likely, be reassessed under a different set of criteria. Although the child is bright, he struggles to concentrate. “Unchecked, he used to just sit there in early primary for a whole period stabbing an eraser with a pencil,” she says.

It pains her to even contemplate how he will cope unassisted with basic tasks in high school, such as finding his class and bringing the correct books to school. “Sending him [to high school] unprepared – it’s like spinning around your child blindfolded and having people poke him with a stick, as a parent you feel hopeless,” Chiarotto says.

While there are fears some will “fall off” the spectrum under the new taxonomy, the removal of “Asperger’s syndrome” is perhaps even more controversial. Yet many clinicians believe the label is inaccurate, and unhelpful.

Named after the Austrian physician Hans Asperger, the disorder was first outlined in the DSM manual in 1994. Its authors noted that Asperger’s could be distinguished from autism by an absence of language delays or learning deficits.

But according to Dr Cheryl Dissanayake, an associate professor in psychology at La Trobe University, such distinctions are spurious. She says that decades of studies in language acquisition, cognitive development (intelligence), physical growth and emotional responsiveness have shown no difference between Asperger’s and autism – apart from severity.

“The consensus is it’s too simplistic thinking about a label,” she says. “What systems like this [that include Asperger's as a separate diagnosis] are trying to do is calve nature at its joints. Does a distinct class of people with autism exist from a distinct class of people with Asperger’s? No it doesn’t, nature doesn’t work that way.”

Dissanayake’s position places her within a firm majority, but at its periphery, dissent simmers.

Nicole Rinehart, a professor of clinical psychology at Monash University, is among a clutch of researchers who has found differences between Asperger’s and autism.

She has conducted studies comparing the gait of children and adolescents diagnosed with both conditions using motion-capture technology designed for digitally animated films. Consistently and across all age groups, she has found differences in the way subjects walk.

“People with Asperger’s have a much more stiff and stilted gait, with less arm movement. The children with autism tend to be bouncier.”

While this may seem a superficial distinction, the findings, she says, hint at clinical differences between the two conditions that can be detected in the cerebellum – the part of the brain that plays an important role in motor control.

Rinehart says the DSM changes could threaten funding for research such as hers. . “We would lose the opportunity to understand the differences between Asperger’s syndrome and autism.”

It’s unclear how the omission of the Asperger’s in the DSM will take effect in medical settings.

Many clinicians have been told by government agencies that old diagnoses will remain valid, but there has been no official confirmation of this. The matter is complicated by the fact that the World Health Organisation’s system of disease classification, ICD-10, is still in use in Australia.

In response to questions, a spokesman for Families Minister Jenny Macklin referred only obliquely to the documents, saying that the DSM does not automatically apply here, but providing no clarification.

Pringle, of the Asperger Syndrome Support Network, wants the government to provide some answers, but believes the main effect of any ambiguity over the term “Asperger” will be social, rather than practical.

Given that the condition no longer carries the stigma that still blights people with autism, it’s understandable that someone with Asperger’s might regret the syndrome’s medical extinction. Since Asperger’s made its foray on to the DSM almost 20 years ago, the term has been absorbed into a non-scientific lexicon to connote super abilities. “Aspies” abound in popular culture (think Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory and Dr Temperance Brennan from Bones). That they helped to build and populate Silicon Valley is the stuff of legend.

Those with autism, unfortunately, still suffer from misconceptions, according to Lyndel Kennedy, author of the Hidden Dif-fability: Discovering Aspergers.

She says many believe, erroneously, that autism is characterised by intellectual disabilities and “weird” behaviours that are fixed for life. “I have had parents come to me and say, ‘Thank god my child has Asperger’s, not autism’,” she says.

Faye remains convinced that Asperger’s is a different condition to autism.

He compares his world view to the head-up display on a fighter jet – the transparent screen on to which data and co-ordinates are projected to save the pilot from looking away.

Guided by his “internal road map”, he can swiftly navigate his way through crowds and more often than not correctly anticipate whether a person in front of him will turn left or right or proceed straight ahead.

Faye attributes his ability to read subtle cues to an atypical brain function. He resents suggestions he is in any way impaired – he used computer programs to teach himself to read facial expressions – and delves into science fiction to illustrate the point.

What would happen, he asks, if a pearl diver were to grow gills? Most likely, he says, his gift would be cast as a deformity – simply because he was physically equipped for a life less ordinary.

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Visit theage.com.au and the tablet for video interviews.

Article source: http://www.theage.com.au/national/a-life-changer-20130329-2gzf2.html

Video: US school psychologists share knowledge
(ABC News)

Australian schools need more psychologists to combat a crisis of cyber-bullying, self-harm and suicide attempt among students, experts say.

With one school psychologist for every 3,000 students in some states and territories, psychologists say students are not getting the mental health support they need.

Australian and overseas experts in school psychology are meeting in Melbourne today to discuss the issue.

Dr Monika Thielking, a researcher at Swinburne University and convenor of the Psychologists In Schools Interest Group, is speaking at the event.

Dr Thielking says Australian schools need more psychologists.

“We have ratios of anything between one to 500, right up to one psychologist to 3,000 students,” she told ABC News Breakfast.

“It is really low. Mental health is real and it’s an issue we should be taking seriously, and early intervention for children is important.”

She says student issues range from cyber bulling to anxiety and depression.

“Cyber-bullying is huge,” she said.

“We also have in some areas a real crisis around young people who are self-harming and suicide attempt as well.

“Particularly in remote areas of Australia there are children that aren’t being given the types of mental health support that they need.”

Dr Thielking is calling for action from the state and federal governments.

“We see a big need for psychologists in schools in Australia,” she said.

“We know that students that are mentally healthy do better at school, and psychologists are there not only to diagnose problems, but to also assist parents and teachers themselves in creating a positive school environment.

Call for reform

Professor Mark Terjeson from St John’s University in New York is also attending the conference. He will be speaking about the highly-regarded American school counselling services.

“In the US there are both state and national standards for school psychology training, and there are also international standards,” he said.

“That is one of the things we have been looking at, to see what standards could best meet the needs of the students in schools in Australia.

“We do need to be careful in taking a model that exists in other countries and assuming the same model will work in Australia.

“There are very unique aspects of the school setting and family setting and the problems children may have, so we need to be careful to collaborate a working relationship to build the profession to best meet the needs of students.”

Professor Terjeson says historically, school psychology focuses on assessing and identifying students with learning disabilities.

“However, we have seen a shift in the last five to 10 years of more mental health services dealing with anxiety, dealing with depression, and the prevalence of autism internationally has continued to increase as well,” he said.

“So we have made shifts in terms of our training to focus on some of those areas and those are things that we are working on developing here also.”

Article source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-26/australian-schools-facing-psychology-crisis/4594234?section=vic

Photo: The leaked document reveals the Government is considering setting up a Wellbeing Institute in Adelaide. (ABC TV)

Video: Government wellbeing strategy leaked (7pm TV News SA)

A proposal to measure the wellbeing of every South Australian child is one of the several recommendations contained in a confidential Government proposal obtained by the ABC.

The leaked draft ‘Wellbeing Strategy’ was developed by psychologist and thinker-in-residence Martin Seligman.

The document also proposes establishing an international institute of wellbeing in Adelaide and teaching resiliency to teachers and mental health workers.

A secret budget bid shows the introduction of the strategy would cost the State Government more than $7 million over four years.

Premier Jay Weatherill says the strategy is being considered as part of the budget process.

“Professer Seligman is a world leading thinker in this area of positive psychology and he’s made a number of interesting recommendations to Government,” he said..

“I’m very supportive of the general thrust of these recommendations.

“It’s a very powerful idea, especially the ideas about preparing our youngest people with the psychological resilience to cope in what can be a difficult world.

“We do a lot of things that support children in terms of their learning but learning about life and being able to cope with relationships is a really important thing.

“I’d like to find some way of supporting these recommendations but of course we’re very constrained with the resources that we have.

“These are certainly not recommendations that have received any endorsement from government.”

The Opposition Leader Steven Marshall says the government should be embarrassed the information is now public.

“It’s another week, it’s another leak in the Labor Party,” he said.

It is the second budget leak in a fortnight.

The ABC also revealed details of a police request for 25 additional officers.

Article source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-19/govt-plans-child-wellbeing-strategy/4582216?section=sa

Article source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/defence-failing-on-abuse-colonel/story-e6frg8yo-1226592769136

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Soldiers who have served in Afghanistan say the Defence Department is unprepared for the number of servicemen who will return with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ray and Pam Palmer, the parents of commando Scott Palmer, who was killed in Afghanistan, are among those who believe the impact will be much higher than Defence’s estimates of about one in 10 serving staff.

Private Palmer was among the first on the scene when his colleague Private Damien Thomlinson drove over an improvised explosive device, which was to claim both his legs.

Now … Paul Chapman’s family share his suffering from PTSD. Photo: Michelle Smith

Mrs Palmer, from the Northern Territory, said she noticed a big change in her son before he returned for his third tour of Afghanistan in 2010. He later died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash.

”He developed a twitch, a sense of nervousness and was reluctant to go out in case a car backfired,” she said.

”The government is not ready for the number of people that are going to come back with PTSD. They think it is going to be a ripple but it is going to be an enormous wave.

Then… Sergeant Major Paul Chapman in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2011.

”The government should realise they stuffed up with Vietnam; not helping the guys when they came back. Let’s not make the same mistake twice,” she said.

Ian Hickie, of the brain and mind research institute at the University of Sydney, said the estimated rates of PTSD were as accurate as they could be. ”Australia has done one of the best surveys on this in the world; I think probably the best survey. The figures that have come out of that are accurate at this point,” he said.

However, he warned it was impossible to predict if the rates would remain steady.

”The figures only tell us what the situation is now. We can’t predict what they will be in the future. But we do know that [PTSD] is absolutely one of the major injuries of war that affects people for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Warrant Officer Paul Chapman, 44, from Tweed Heads, has been diagnosed with PTSD. ”This is going to blow out of all proportion,” he said. ”At the moment it’s OK but it might take couple of years for PTSD to start kicking in. It’s massive but no one wants to talk about it.”

Australia has 1550 personnel in Afghanistan but that number will not decrease substantially until towards the end of the year.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs spends about $165 million a year on mental health services.

The Department of Defence finances healthcare while personnel are still in the forces. Between July 2009 and June last year, it spent $65.4 million on mental health.

The issue of how the government handles PTSD was thrown into the open by the former commander of Australia’s forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan, Major-General John Cantwell, who told Parliament recently that ”one in eight will suffer some profound and potentially life-changing influence”.

About 1180 servicemen are being treated for PTSD, including about 800 who served in Timor, where the risks were substantially less than in Afghanistan. ”We have exposed thousands and thousands of young and old Australians to some pretty brutal experiences,” General Cantwell said.

The director general of Defence’s mental health, psychology and rehabilitation branch, David Morton, said: ”We have improved responsiveness to these things because we recognise we will see more people coming through.”

From ‘kill mode’ to civvy street

Warrant Officer Paul Chapman, a father of two, was providing fire support for artillery in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when a rocket-propelled grenade explosion flung him into a shipping container and knocked him out.

”It was pretty traumatic … I never told anyone about this until I got back home in 2011. I tried to fit back in but I felt like I was excluded from everyone.

”I thought about suicide a few times when I was in my room because I didn’t know what was going on. I developed road rage. I would drive down the shops and I would be abusing people, chasing them down. I was shaking uncontrollably.”

A doctor sent him to a psychologist. ”I am glad someone noticed it because otherwise I don’t think I would be here today. It’s a man’s world in the army, you don’t show any weakness.

”I’m on a lot of medication, heaps of it. [My wife] Lisa took it really hard.

”Me and my mate were talking about how do we reprogram people when they get back? You are in kill mode, then back to civilian street. It’s really hard.”

with Sarah-Jane Collins

Article source: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/defence-illprepared-for-ptsd-time-bomb-20130223-2ey6k.html

CHANNEL Nine’s 60 Minutes interview with Matthew Newton last night attracted just over 1,214,000 million viewers.

Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/tv-radio/matthew-newton-60-minutes-interview-watched-by-12-million/story-e6frf9ho-1226580194879

TROUBLED actor Matthew Newton claims he has given his first “clean” interview to this week’s 60 Minutes.

The son of showbiz royalty Bert and Patti Newton tells Channel 9′s Liz Hayes he has previously used the media to run an “agenda” and is not trying to “convince” anyone he’s genuinely on the road to recovering from the mental illness which has railroaded his life and entertainment career.

The 36-year-old has repeatedly avoided conviction on separate assault charges in Australia and the US, on the grounds of diminished mental health.

Hayes asks Newton why the public should believe he’s well now.

It is believed Newton has sought treatment for a complicated personality disorder, including severe panic attacks, anxiety and manic depressive symptoms, which he blamed for alleged assaults on his former girlfriend, Rachael Taylor, a Sydney cab driver and a US hotel manager (who all brought cases against him).

Newton tells Hayes he’s “not going to try to convince you” and “I haven’t come with an agenda. I have come with an agenda before. I mean this is the first time I have spoken really to anyone not on some medication, of some kind.”

In the brief clip released by Nine, Hayes asks if it’s his “first clean interview” and Newton replies: “I guess you’d call it that, I mean I’m not medicated.”

The full interview will air from 7.30pm in the 2013 return of 60 Minutes.

Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/matthew-newton-says-60-minutes-interview-the-first-where-he-wasnt-medicated/story-e6frf96o-1226578177364

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• Who’s who on the Royal Commission
• What the commission will cover

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said too many people have turned a blind eye to the shocking crime of child sexual abuse, as she announced the terms of reference for the royal commission in Sydney on Friday.

Ms Gilllard said that it is clear that too many children had been subject to sexual abuse in institutions and were not provided with a safe childhood.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard: “I believe our nation needs to have this royal commission.” Photo: Anthony Johnson

Describing child abuse as a ”hideous, shocking and vile crime”, Ms Gillard said, ”I believe our nation needs to have this royal commission.”

Ms Gillard said to survivors of child sexual abuse, ”we want your voices to be heard. Even if you felt for all of your life that no one’s listened to you.”

The prime minister said the Royal Commission would focus only on child sex abuse in institutional contexts.

NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan will lead the royal commission on child sexual abuse. Photo: Nic Gibson (pool photo)

”It will not deal with child sexual abuse in the family, it will also not deal with abuse of children which is not associated with child sexual abuse.”

Ms Gillard said the Royal Commission would provide advice and recommendations to the government ”in as timely a way as possible”.

When asked if church heads would be asked to appear before the Royal Commission, Ms Gillard said this was a question for the commission itself, before adding: ”I would be saying to the whole nation that we’ve all got an obligation to shine a light on what’s happened in the past.”

Senator Andrew Murray has been appointed as a commissioner with the royal commission on child sexual abuse. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

The Royal Commission will be led by Justice Peter McClellan AM.  Justice McClellan is the Chief Judge at Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

The government has also appointed five other royal commissioners.

They are: Bob Atkinson, the former Queensland police commissioner; Justice Jennifer Coate who served for 20 years as a magistrate and county court judge in Victoria; Robert Fitzgerald, a commissioner in the Productivity Commission; Professor Helen Milroy, who has extensive experience in child and adolescent health; and former Western Australia Democrat senator, Andrew Murray.

Robert Fitzgerald Photo: Kylie Pickett

All commissioners will be appointed for three years and will provide an interim report within 18 months. The will meet over the phone on Monday and in person on Tuesday.

The terms of reference put an end date on the royal commission of December 31, 2015, but Ms Gillard said that could be extended.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said that there was a lot of preliminary work to do before hearings started.

Judge Jennifer Coate Photo: Penny Stephens

“I don’t think people should expect those hearings to start in a matter of weeks,” she said.

The royal commission, first announced last November, will focus on ”systemic failures and issues” in the response of organisations and institutions to the sexual abuse of children.

The Commissioners will be able to look at any private, public or non-government organisation that is or was in the past, involved with children. This includes government agencies  schools, sporting clubs, orphanages, foster care, and religious organisations.

Former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

The government did not specify how much the Royal Commission would cost.

Mr Roxon said: ”You can clearly see by the appointment of six commissioners that we expect that it will be a far-reaching inquiry that involves a lot of people and a lot of organisations.

”Our government’s been committed to provide the resources that are necessary.”

Professor Helen Milroy.

Ms Roxon said the commission would have ”far-reaching powers” that could enable them to override confidentiality agreements previously made regarding settlements, or to issue immunity from prosecution.

But she said the public needed to moderate expectations of those powers.

”It is important to remind the public this Royal Commission is not a police force, it is not a prosecuting body,” she said. She also said that if anyone had an allegation about child sexual abuse, they should take it to the police.

The government was due to announce the terms of reference late last year, but before Christmas, it said that the terms of reference would not be finalised until the new year.

While royal commissions do not have the power to prosecute individuals, the government will ensure allegations of sexual abuse raised by the commission can be investigated and, if proven, prosecuted.

Fairfax understands the terms of reference will require commissioners to establish a process for the referral of cases to the police.

The terms will also give commissioners the power to set up a special ’’investigative unit’’, which will work closely with police to investigate and prosecute past abuses.

There have been about 200 formal written submissions on the commission’s terms of reference, plus about 600 emails.

The government said the submissions highlighted the need to tailor hearings to support victims through the process of preparing and giving evidence, and to report crimes to police.

Submissions also stressed the need for the commission to take whatever time was needed to investigate individual and systemic abuses properly, but said recommendations should be implemented quickly.

Ms Gillard announced the royal commission last year after scores of reports of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and allegations of institutionalised cover-ups. But the government also came under pressure to broaden the inquiry beyond the Catholic Church.

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, welcomed the announcement of the royal commission but accused the media of waging a campaign against his church.

The inquiry into institutional responses to abuse will not only look at perpetrators. It will also cover those who were ’’complicit’’ – for example by moving on alleged offenders – or those who, by ’’averting their eyes’’, committed acts of omission.

It will also examine police responses.

Terms of reference welcomed 

The government’s announcement has been welcomed by church and victims groups and other community organisations.

Chief executive of the Catholic church’s newly-formed Truth, Justice and Healing Council Francis Sullivan said the church was committed to “fully cooperate and engage” with the commission.

“We have no idea who the commissioners will ask to appear before them,” he said.

“But one thing you can be assured of is the Catholic church leadership has made it clear they will fully cooperate so the people the commission wish to speak with will be there.”

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman said her organisation was happy to see the terms of reference as a “starting point”.

“We knew from the original announcement that the institution of the family was not included. It would be ideal obviously for the needs of survivors to all be acknowledged… but this is a substantial royal commission,” Dr Kezelman told Fairfax Media.

“It’s good to see that there are several commissioners, representing the police, judiciary, mental health and the legislative side.”

Dr Kezelman said that everyone involved should either have previous experience in or be educated on dealing with trauma.

UnitingCare Australia national director, Lin Hatfield Dodds, said the broad expertise of the six commissioners should ensure a professional and balanced approach to the essential work of the Commission, while Swimming Australia President, Barclay Nettlefold, also welcomed Friday’s announcement.

Opposition and Greens back the terms of reference 

The Coalition, which supports the Royal Commission, said it had examined the terms of references.

“They appear to us to be sufficiently comprehensive to enable the Royal Commission to inquire into the evil of child sexual abuse in whatever institutional context it may have occurred,” shadow-attorney George Brandis said in a statement.

“It is very important that the Royal Commission not be constrained in pursuing its inquiries in relation to all institutions, both public and private, where there is reason to believe child sexual abuse may have taken place.  For instance, there is a great deal of evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children within indigenous communities, which the Royal Commission will have the opportunity to examine.”

Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne welcomed the announcement, but also expressed specific concern about indigenous children.

“I reiterate my hope that this can bring some peace to shattered lives, help bring perpetrators to justice, lift the shadow off all those good people in the church striving to do good for others, and make sure churches and other organisation can never again cover-up child abuse or allow victims to be ignored.

“Our only concern is the absence of specific reference to Aboriginal abuse. We certainly encourage the Commissioners to ensure that they visit indigenous communities, examine the issues specific to them, and take into account the cultural sensitivities surrounding giving evidence.”

with Jonathan Swan, Paddy Doulman and AAP

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Article source: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/too-many-blind-to-vile-crime-of-child-sex-abuse-pm-20130111-2ckan.html

Many survivors may still be in shock and anxiously awaiting news about their property and possessions, Professor Louise Newman from Monash University says.

“Many people will still at this point in time be in a state of real disbelief or shock about what’s actually happened,” said Prof Newman, the director of the university’s Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology.

She said people reacted differently to trauma, with some experiencing quite severe distress while others appeared normal in the face of loss.

Still others felt a sense of relief at having survived, Professor Newman said.

People often wanted to be with others who had been through the same experience, she said.

Scott Griffiths holds the date plaque of his home that was destroyed in Dunalley. Picture: Sam Rosewarne

“It’s very important to seek that companionship and support with other people, but not to be overwhelmed and embarrassed by feeling very strong emotions … because that’s part of the whole response, a very normal response to such major, frightening events,” Prof Newman said today.

She said it was important to quickly identify vulnerable people, such as those with existing mental health problems and children who may need additional support.

“It’s very important to think about children … who may have a very limited understanding of what has actually happened,” Prof Newman said.

She said the experience in Victoria following the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires had shown that schools could play a pivotal role in identifying and supporting children who may be feeling the effects of trauma.

While some survivors could be very resilient, others could later display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and may require treatment, Prof Newman said.

Dunalley and Copping fires aftermath: A sculpture of Adam and Eve survived the fire at Yaxley Estate. Picture: Sam Rosewarne

People who experience ongoing problems with sleeping, relaxing or intrusive memories months after the event should seek counselling, she said.

“Most people recover very well, but if people have concerns … or find that they are just not able to get back on track, they should certainly seek advice earlier rather than later,” Prof Newman said.

Pam MacFarlane comforts her dog Tess at the Hobart town hall after being evacuated from fires on the Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania. Picture: Newton Matthew

Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/professor-says-bushfire-survivors-will-struggle-with-range-of-emotions/story-fndo48ca-1226548860729

PREGNANT women in one of South Africa’s poorest areas are drinking heavily to deliberately harm their unborn babies in order to claim higher welfare payments.

There has been a spike in the number of babies born with disabilities in the country’s Eastern Cape, where crime and unemployment are widespread and newborn babies represent a form of income for mothers.

Sky News reports that impoverished families receive 250 South African rand ($28) per child per month, but the state’s disability allowance is far more “lucrative” at 1200 rand a month ($134).

Women who drink heavily during their pregnancy run a much greater risk of giving birth to children with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Children with this condition are born with characteristic physical and mental defects, including short stature, and small head and brain, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

WHO reports South Africa has had the highest number of FASD cases in the world since 2002.

There is no cure for FASD and treatment is focused on mental health and medical services to manage the resulting lifelong disabilities that include learning difficulties, behavioural problems, language, delayed social or motor skills, impaired memory and attention deficits.

The Eastern Cape Liquor Board has launched an awareness campaign in an attempt to teach young women about the consequences of drinking heavily whilst pregnant.

A major problem is the prevalence of illegal drinking houses called shebeens, where homemade, highly addictive and damaging alcohol called kah-kah is sold.

Kah-kah is a milky brown liquid and while its exact ingredients are unknown police have found batches made from yeast, water and battery acid.

“If I don’t drink this, I’m like someone who is sick,” one mother told Sky News, swigging from a transparent bottle containing kah-kah. “I can’t sleep, and I can’t think straight but when I have this then I am better and I can do anything.”

She said she drank about “five or six bottles a day” and that this started from “about nine o’clock” in the morning.

While police frequently raid shebeens and shut them down, new shebeens open up just as quickly.

“[Kah-kah is] cheap to produce and this represents an income to these people,” Colonel Abdoerahgmaan Humphries told Sky News.

Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/south-african-women-drinking-to-harm-their-unborn-babies/story-fnd134gw-1226548840980