The FAMCare Blog

Bullying is a pervasive problem in schools across the United States. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about one-third of students aged 12-18 reported being bullied during the school year. The most common type of bullying is verbal abuse, including name-calling, teasing, and making fun of someone. Other types of bullying include physical abuse, cyberbullying, and social exclusion.

For young people, suicide is the third most common cause  of death. Suicide can be avoided, though. Young people who are thinking about suicide usually show indicators of despair. Knowing about these symptoms can help friends, family, and educators act promptly and get the aid they require. Numerous social care providers are making an effort to deal with teen mental health difficulties and raise awareness that could be the difference between life and death. Let's shine some light on the subject and determine how we can work together to prevent teen suicide.

Homelessness is not one of the first things that comes to mind when people think of America. However, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that over 500,000 people are currently homeless in the United States. One of the most significant factors contributing to homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Individuals, families, and especially children attempting to obtain an education may suffer as a result of this.

According to the latest student loan debt statistics, there are 45 million student loan borrowers who collectively owe $1.7 trillion of student loans.

"As is so often the case, what began as a creative solution to a social inequity became corrupted by greed and mismanagement," a professor of the history of social work told us. "Sallie Mae was the main facilitator when Congress created the student-loan program back in the 1970s during the Johnson administration. It was a profit-driven enterprise that essentially funneled money from taxpayers to colleges and universities. Congress envisioned it as a partnership between the government and banks to broaden the American dream of a college education for children of modest means."

Educators, who are some of the likeliest professionals to report child abuse, are encountering youth who have faced abuse in isolation throughout the pandemic. During 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12-17 years increased 31% compared to 2019. Suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12-17 (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 6/18/21). These stats indicate an increase in child abuse as children were confined to the home during the pandemic.

As social workers in the field of education work to help students return to the classroom during this persistent and deadly pandemic, they are finding students more traumatized and fearful than they realized. The on-again/off-again guidance coming from the adults in the room as to whether masks are required, or vaccinations are indispensable, or social distancing could do it, or if you want to protect yourself and your family just stay home, has raised the anxiety level in students and greatly diminished their trust in their elders.

On a recent call with a professor in the social work department at a large Eastern university, we asked him what he saw as the human race's most vexing social problem. His answer was fascinating and quite unexpected. Below find excerpts from that conversation.

Perhaps with the exception of the travel and leisure industry, the pandemic has disrupted education more than any other area of American public life. From university boards to pre-school administrators, everyone is confused and not sure how to proceed. Parents are desperate to understand how they should continue to best educate their children.

Whether we're threatened by the second or the third spike of this persistent and deadly COVID-19 pandemic, parents are again faced with school closings and re-openings that have them confused and in doubt. Is their child better off at home being schooled on-line or attending their local brick and mortar school with their classmates and teachers?

Only social workers who deal with childhood hunger every day realize how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been for millions of everyday school children who attend school with your children and mine. For many of your children’s classmates, not attending in-person school has meant missing 5 essential meals a week and, in many cases, the bulk of their nutrition.