Health needs still go unheeded

The health of young people who have survived traumatic childhoods
is suffering because professionals are failing to listen to their
needs, according to a report published this week.

Young people want health and social care professionals to listen
without making judgements, offer continuity, reliability and
confidentiality, and train them in life and social skills, the
research by the Children’s Society and De Montfort University in
Leicester finds.

Eighty per cent of the young people interviewed had experienced
physical and sexual abuse either in local authority care or within
their families. Most said they were still suffering severe physical
and mental health problems, such as chronic stress and suicidal
feelings.

Three-quarters drink alcohol, take drugs and smoke as a way of
relieving stress, and many young women choose to become pregnant,
seeing motherhood as a way of boosting their self-esteem.

– Talking Sense from www.childrenssociety.org.uk