Realizing Hope: Campaign to Stop Quiet Desperation

Men are also victims of violence in families

New research just released by Murray Straus, founder and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire shows that many men are affected by violence perpetrated by women in the home. For years, people have thought that women are typically victims and men are perpetrators. But now new research shows that violence within the family affects men as well.

You can read more about Straus' findings in this press release.  You can read more about the International Dating Violence Study which gave rise to these findings, and other research papers by Straus on his home page .

Literacy and breaking out of powerlessness

Two nights ago, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting of an alliance of various faith based groups from the region of the San Francisco Bay Area known as the Pennisula (which lies south of San Francisoco and north of San Jose). The group was convening to call for action for affordable health insurance for the working poor. I was invited to attend by a seventy-seven year old friend, George, a retired engineer who is very active with this and other forms of community service. His intention, when he invited me, was that I would see an example of how communities organize locally and how they take action and call on politicians and policy makers for change.

What I was not expecting was that I would get a ride to the event in the same car with a young woman who was among those who testified for the need for health insurance for the working poor. For reasons of privacy I will call her "Maria", which is not her real name.

International Women's Literacy Day

Today is Mother's Day - a day that honors and celebrates our mothers and their contribution to our lives. And by extension, this day can apply to all women who serve in whatever capacity, in a care-giving and mothering role. For a long time, I've been asking myself what day could be designated as "International Women's Literacy Day". There is an International Literacy Day and there is an International Women's Day  - but there is no International Women's Literacy Day.

I envision this day, to be observed once a year,  a day when all women who are literate, and all men who benefit from the fact that a woman in their life is literate, make a small contribution towards a collective fund to advance women's literacy.

Get 15+ out in 15+ languages!

Yesterday I wrote about 15+ a simple but effective way that adults can engage children and youth in conversation and learn about what is going on their lives and offer advice and support.

The heart of 15+ is the fact that all it takes is for an adult to spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day in conversation with a young person or child. To make conversation easier, a set of questions have been created in a game format that can be printed as cards. Each day a parent or child takes a card and uses what is written on there to help initiate a conversation. Questions include such things are: "What is your favorite thing about school/work?" and "If you could change your room, how would you change it?".

All of this information is available for free. But the problem is that not enough people know that this program exists and how effective and simple it is and how it can promotes a child's psychological development and well-being.

Imagine the good that can come about if lots of parents and other adults who are interested in children made it a point to talk with and listen to children and youth on a daily basis.

Promoting the Mental Health of Youth 15+

15+ is the short name for "15+ Make Time to Listen...Take Time to Talk",  an initiative that was launched by the US Department of Health and Human Services.  The idea behind 15+ is that children and youth benefit when they can speak with someone special in their life for a minimum of fifteen minutes per day.

Talking with an adult for a minimum of 15 minutes a day allows children or youth to inform their parent or other important adult about what is going on in their lives and provides a means for the adults to offer advice and support to the young person. The first focus of 15+ is on preventing bullying in schools. But 15+  can be of use for promoting healthy development in general and reducing the risk of youth and school-based violence.

To help start conversations between adults and children or youth, the program has created a set of questions that can be printed out in card format. You can access these questions here for free   and print your own cards.

Though deceptively simple, these cards are an aid in engaging young people in conversation and can be a help when parents or other adults are busy and need help getting started.

Bullying - what is it?

In a previous posting, I discussed youth at risk for suicide and self-harm. Bullying increases the likelihood that a child or youth will experience psychological distress and will attempt self-harm. Bullying is defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration as:

Bullying involves repeated acts of physical, emotional, or   social behavior that are intentional, controlling, and hurtful. Bullying is   a learned behavior, evident as early as two years of age. Bullying can be either   direct or indirect. Direct bullying usually is seen and felt readily. Indirect   bullying (deliberate exclusion, name calling, etc.) is much more difficult to   identify, often is more difficult to remedy, and should be clearly seen as different   from direct bullying.

I've excerpted the above from an excellent and informative document  on bullying that I recommend to anyone who is interested in the well-being of children and youth- parents, teachers, grandparents and community leaders.

Unfortunately, too much bullying goes on in schools and not enough people know that there are well documented and researched ways to address bullying and stop it.

The first step towards taking action to stop bullying is to learn about it. In an upcoming posting, I will discuss  "15+" a very exciting initiative that has many benefits including reducing risk for bullying behavior among youth. 

Youth and Suicide - Risk Factors and Prevention

A new study of risk factors for deliberate self harm and suicide attempts among youth  has just been published in the British Medical Journal.This article highlights the fact that youth who are associated with "Goth" sub-culture (which the study authors describe as "a subgenre of punk with a dark and sinister aesthetic, with aficionados conspicuous by their range of distinctive clothing and makeup and tastes in music"), are at increased risk of suicide and self-harm. For a brief time after publication, anyone can freely access the entire article, then it is accessible only to journal subscribers for some months.

However, you can freely access articles that were published earlier. Here is a terrific overview of the topic of suicide and young people (Suicide and deliberate self-harm in young people) published in April 2005, also in the British Medical Journal.

Although both of these are technical articles, it is not difficult to understand them, especially the second one, which contains information about risk factors and preventive strategies, which I will be discussing in greater detail in future posts. I recommend the second article for anyone who is interested in the wellbeing of youth. There is a lot of food for thought there in terms of what can and needs to be done if we are to Stop Quiet Desperation among youth.

Virtual Libraries for All

One of the aims of the Campaign to Stop Quiet Desperation is to increase free access to information in the Ivory Tower which has the potential to solve health and social problems. A recent news release about the creation of a virtual library for scientists in Iraq got me thinking about why we cannot do such a thing for health information.

Take a look at the link and share your thoughts below about how we might be able to create such a library with information on public health and disease prevention and health promotion that is freely accessible to professionals everywhere.

Whom can we involve in creating such an entity? Schools of Public Health? Schools of Medicine? Giving away things for free is not everyone's idea of how things should be. But if giving free information means we save lives and improve the quality of health for thousands if not millions of people, maybe we ought to consider this further. 

If you have ever had the experience of living in a place where access to information was restricted, you can well appreciate what it means to have such free access. I am happy for the scientists of Iraq that they will be able to access this information.

Now-- let us make it happen for all those health care workers and public health workers around the world who are working as unsung heroes serving countless persons.

Support the Campaign to Stop Quiet Desperation

Your contribution, however big or small, is greatly appreciated and helps us cover the costs associated with maintaining an Internet presence and communicating with the public through this channel.

We invite you to join us in whatever way best fits your resources and situation. Please share with us your contacts, support, professional skills, access to media and most important, your desire to improve the lives of millions of women and their families.

If you wish to contact me, you can do so at sdshanti@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support and participation in this campaign.

The Soul of Woman-to-Woman

Main elements of the talk I gave at the Public Health Campaign Launch on February 8th , 2006, at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA.

Today is the second birthday of Woman-to-Woman International (WTWI) and the day we launch our Campaign to Stop Quiet Desperation.

Our organization focuses on the advancement of women’s literacy and the dissemination of health information world-wide.

The heart of WTWI is Public Health.

We direct our efforts towards Stopping Quiet Desperation. Quiet Desperation can be thought of as a syndrome with five aspects: poverty, illiteracy, violence, depression and inequality.

The 19th Century American Philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. And one finds that even more women lead quietly desperate lives.

Our approach to Stopping Quiet Desperation is characterized by an integration of three elements: Science, Strategy and Soul.

• By Science, we refer to the rapid and large -scale application of what is already known in public health and the social sciences.
• By Strategy, we refer to the wise allocation of resources to achieve the greatest possible benefit to society and individuals.
• By Soul, we refer to the “common denominators” or values that people share around the world. All of us wish for a peaceful, secure and stable life, for ourselves and for our children.

Today, I want to share with you some of the decisive moments that have played a role in leading up to this point.