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The Maintenance of Children’s Mental Health as a Problem of National Security
Larisa V. Lezhnina
At the turn of the century many scientists and public figures deemed the development of civilization to be in a world crisis, since it does not satisfy the true needs of contemporary society or contribute to the future survival of humanity. For example, UNESCO declared the main task of the twenty-first century to be ensuring the survival of humanity. In 1995 at the international conference in Moscow entitled "Health of the Nation and National Safety," the health of the population was cited as a precondition for social and economic stability and national safety, such that human health has ceased to be merely a medical problem. Furthermore, the population’s health has also been named a factor influencing national safety in the “Concept of the National Safety of Russia” (2000) and in the Presidential Decision Directive NSTC-7, establishing U.S. health policy (1996). At the turn of the twenty-first century scientists were forced to recognize that the issue of mental health became even more urgent than physical health because the various physical handicaps are overcome today by the use of various mechanical devices and adaptations. The increase in life expectancy in contemporary society has led to a catastrophic decrease in the ability to maintain psychological equilibrium. The psychological “diseases of civilization,” including anxiety, stress, depression, and phobias, have sharpened in recent decades. According to Gro Harlem Brundtland, the general director of the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 450 million people today suffer from mental or neurological disorders and psychosocial problems. Depression ranks fourth in the ten leading causes of the global burden of disease, with between ten and twenty million people attempting suicide every year (8). Dr. V. Yastrebov, the Russian representative in WHO, states that approximately one third of the earth’s population suffers from some sort of mental or psychosocial disorder, including anxiety and depression (2). In today's Russia, according to data from the same source, this number comprises six to seven million people. Annual expenditures in the U.S. for people who suffer from depression are estimated at $44 billion, which is the same as the total expenditures for cardiovascular diseases (1). Therefore, the scale of the mental health problem according to quantitative parameters is already gigantic, and scientists are preoccupied with the prevalence of mental disorders among children and adolescents. According to the data of the Russian Ministry of Public Health, child specialists have expressed concern in recent years for the deterioration of the mental health of Russian children and adolescents. In the year 2000 more than 717,000 children up to fourteen years of age and 238,000 children ages fifteen to seventeen were observed in psycho-neurological establishments in Russia. In the last five years, the frequency of mental pathology among children up to fourteen years of age has increased by 16.7%. The head of the Administration for the Medical Problems of Motherhood and Childhood, Anatoliy Korsunskiy, notes that mental disorders (18.6%) occupied the leading place among the causes of children’s disablement (3). These data do not include children with latent disorders of mental development who attend public educational establishments and who do not pertain to the prior data. Their condition can be described as “not yet sick, but no longer healthy.” The discussion deals with the mental health of children, which can be categorized by the state of mental development, emotional protection and individual experience, which ensures the adequate adaptation of children to the constantly changing environmental conditions and the successful mastering of various social activities typical for their age group. According to the data of Russian psychologists, the number of pre-school age children with developmental problems approaches 30 to 40%, while the number of elementary-school age children with the same problems is at 60% (L. N. Vinokurov, 1994; O. V. Zashchirinskaya, 1995). The Institute of Sociopolitical Research has conducted studies showing that the number of completely healthy students decreases from 30% in elementary school to 16% in high school. Furthermore, approximately 50% of pre-schoolers up to seven years of age already require qualified psychological assistance because of their aggressiveness, anxiety, and hyper-activity. The majority of specialists believe that this is the result of profound macro-social changes in Russian society. Dr. N. M. Rimashevskaya, the director of the Institute of the Social and Economic Problems of the Population, defines this situation as “the social price of reforms that is high enough to place the Russian gene pool in jeopardy” (4). Such an increase in the occurance of mental disorders is observed not only in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but also in the most developed western countries. Numerous confirmations of this were obtained by the author of the current article in the course of studying the theory and practice of psychological support to children with developmental problems in the U.S. in the years 2001-02. According to official evaluations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one in ten American children suffer from mental illness on some level. However, only one in five children receives mental health service, which is just as it was twenty years ago (10). In some cases the inaccessibility of medical service leaves the parents of such children with no other alternative than to place their children in the custody of the public child welfare system (7). According to the results of independent studies published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the number of pre-school age children taking psychotropic medications increased dramatically in the 1990’s such that within the period from 1991 to 1995 the use of some antidepressants for children increased by more than 200% (5), (12). 80% of all American children exhibit behavioral problems that require psychological assistance and therapy. Statistics indicate that these problems do not frequently resolve themselves during childhood, but, on the contrary, become aggravated with age. Thus, psychosocial disturbances are widespread among American college students. According to the reports of 274 campus counseling centers, 89% of their patients were hospitalized for their psychological problems in the 2000-01 academic year. 60% of student patients were counseled in stalking incidents, and 10% of them committed suicide while in counseling (6). In all probability the number of American children with latent psychological problems is rather large. Thus, in her analysis of research published on this issue between 1952 and 1993, Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, found that anxiety has become a constant characteristic of contemporary American children, adolescents and youths (9). The government, community and scientists all acknowledge that this significant increase in the number of children with developmental problems leads to the mental illness of society as a whole. Indications of this problem include suicide, the crime rate, and the instances of drug and alcohol addiction in the population. For example, ten children / teenagers die each day from gunfire in the U.S.; that is one child every two and one half-hours. In addition, between 50% and 75% of incarcerated youths have a diagnosable mental health disorder (7). Study of the mental health of Russian and American children reveals the presence of a “social funnel,” defined as an increase in the number of problem children, when the quality of human resources in society simultaneously decreases. This “social funnel” produces psychologically unhealthy generations over time. The arising situation must be examined as a threat to national security and general human security. As the tragic events of September 11, 2001 show, an inadequate personality can directly threaten national safety. However, what is more dangerous is the tendency of our nations toward self-destruction, to which the catastrophic growth in the number of children with mental health problems testifies. This increase aggravates the difficulty to maintain and develop the healthy mental condition of the upcoming generations. Solving this problem should be a high-priority goal of the intergovernmental and domestic policies of world associations and countries. According to a resolution of the World Health Organization, UNESCO and United Nations, the first World Health Day of this century was dedicated to the protection of mental health, calling on all people of the earth to acknowledge the importance of this problem. The WHO began an initiative called “Nations for Mental Health,” whose goal is the improvement of mental health among under-served populations in low-income countries. Various international and national associations, funds and institutes research the question of the psychosocial health of the population. The American government expends considerably more on public health annually than do other developed countries. The author is aware of more than twenty American organizations and programs whose activity, in one way or another, involves solving children’s health issues. The U.S. uses targeted social programs in the effort to solve this problem. For example, Head Start, a federally sponsored social program, states its goal as that of improving the development of children through a combination of services: health screening, mental health services, early childhood education, and social services for children and families. Head Start currently provides services annually to over 800,000 children age three to five from primarily low-income families (11). The main method used by this program involves early intervention, which prepares children for future success by improving their health and overall social competence. As the author observed as a volunteer worker in Connecticut in 2001-02, at least 50% of enrollees in Head Start are children with developmental problems that are successfully resolved by the beginning of school training. In response to growing concern over the increasing number of children with such problems, Russia enacted the Presidential Program “Children of Russia” in 1993. The goal of this complex program is to maintain the survival, protection and development of children. The program coordinates the activities of medical, educational and improving establishments for children with various developmental problems. It helps considerably to constrain the abrupt growth in the number of such children. The socially significant direction of the block of programs within “Children of Russia,” namely "Handicapped Children," "Orphan Children," "Children of Chernobyl," and others, is the protection of the interests of children whose health is subject to the influence of extreme conditions and factors. The health program “Children of Russia” is financed 100% by the Russian government, and this financing was increased by 50% in 2001. However, the above-mentioned data demonstrate that financing alone does not solve the problem, which equally affects both Russia in its social and economic crisis, and the U.S. as the richest nation in the world. Apparently, the solution to the problem of the maintenance of mental health of this generation does not depend solely on money. The fundamental cause of the prevailing situation is obviously the acceleration in the pace of contemporary life coupled with an increase in social intensity and daily stresses, which lead to disruptions in mental adaptation. The human mind has not changed at all in the last millennium, however, it has been affected by modern conditions of life to which the brain has not adapted. Dr. Edward Zigler, a well-known specialist in child development and social policy in the U.S., states that American society is “not oriented to child” (11). It is precisely the degree to which the state is oriented to children and families as a whole that determines the success in solving the problem of the maintenance of the nation’s psychological health. Studies clearly show that the basic causes of mental disorders of young children include an unhappy family and the absence of spiritual unity between parents and their children. Jean M. Twenge explained that economic factors, for example a parent’s unemployment, do not seem to play any role in creating anxiety for children. Children are more influenced by the threat of violence or their parents’ divorce than they are by financial situations (9). Similar results prove that harmonious family relations are the basis of children’s mental health. Although it is difficult to change an entire society, it is possible to change society’s influence on families and children. The parents’ manifestation of love for their children and respect for their developing personalities, both of which are needed for children’s psychological health, do not depend on whether children’s parents are rich or impoverished, or in which country they reside. The development in each personality of the sense of responsibility for one’s family, children and relatives, is the most important task for maintaining the mental health of a nation. Thus, together with the implementation of various social programs providing aid and support to families, it is necessary to emphasize the educational process as the influential sphere to secure the mental health of the upcoming generation. As theoretical studies and practical experience show, the methodology used in the U.S. and Russia for solving problems associated with children’s mental health is to correct appearing illnesses through analysis and the design of optimum conditions for rehabilitation. In time it also became obvious that study of the problematic state of these children proved to be insufficient for creating the conditions that ensure children’s emotional well-being and mental health. Today, the emphasis has shifted from correction to prevention in order to maintain children’s mental health. Researchers must adjust the focus of their studies away from those that determine the causes of mental illness toward those that illicit factors that maintain a state of mental health wellness, which increases a child’s emotional protection and makes it possible to forecast and prevent possible problems. Therefore, an analysis of the problem of children’s mental health in Russia and the U.S. indicates that contemporary society does not ensure its maintenance and development. This is expressed in the distorted mental development and immature personalities found in children that lead to difficulties in their adaptation to the contemporary world. Both Russia and the U.S. are preoccupied with the state of their citizens’ mental health. Government officials, scientists, child specialists and others must cooperate to find a solution to the problem of the maintenance of mental health, on which depends not only the future of each separate country, but the survival of civilization as a whole. Acknowledgements: This work was completed with support from the Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) administered by the American Councils for International Education and funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. References:
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