Mental health articles

street children causes and summary Children live on the streets of cities mainly because of the poverty in their own homes. Violence and abuse also lead children to run away from home. However, street life can be cruel. Street children have to work, often in dangerous conditions, as labourers, servants and sex workers.
They may become members of criminal gangs and end up in prison.
Street children suffer from a variety of physical health problems, such as skin infections and diarrhoea, caused by poor hygiene and malnutrition. These often go untreated because there is no one to take the children to a health centre. Children living on the streets miss out on the two most important parts of childhood: growing up in a safe and loving family environment, and being able to go to school and get an education.
Street children are more vulnerable to mental health problems because of the stresses they faced that led them to leave their own home, and because of the stresses they face living on the streets.
Street children often come from homes where they may not have had adequate food or attention to their emotional development.

They may have faced neglect and abuse. Unhappy experiences in childhood may have an effect on mental health later in life. Some children may become loners and isolated, engaging in antisocial activities. Others become unhappy, miserable and suicidal.
The most important way to help street children is to give them what all children need for healthy emotional development: love and attention. This is best done by providing an educational opportunity. Informal schools can provide children with an hour or two a day of rediscovering their lost childhood. Street children
who are abusing drugs need special help. There are some special issues when working with street children that you must be aware of. Some children may resent attention and reject offers of help.
They may be suspicious of adults who take advantage of them.
Provide whatever help the child needs and concentrate on building a trusting relationship. The opposite problem may also occur: some street children become so attached to you that they relate to you as if you were a parent. You should not encourage an unhealthy dependency.
Any relationship with a child that begins to acquire a sexual character must be avoided. The best way of dealing with this is to be sensitive to any feelings of sexual attraction to the child, or to any evidence of sexual approaches in the child’s behaviour. You should explain to the child that there is a need to reduce the close relationship because of the risk of sexual involvement. You could entrust the care of the child to another colleague but must try to do so in a way that does not make the child feel betrayed. Remember that the child may already have been abused and neglected in the past.

Tags: children, street children