A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Dentists predict 1,000 job losses
THE IRISH Dental Association has predicted the loss of 1,000 jobs in the sector this year. Almost nine out of 10 dentists saw turnover fall in 2011, while nearly half recorded falls of over 20 per cent. Half of the dentists said they expected their turnover to drop further in 2012 and one in four said they believed their practice would be reducing staff numbers in the coming year. The lay-offs will affect dentists, hygienists, technicians and administrative staff working in dental practices, the IDA said.
Shyness may become mental disorder in manual
MILLIONS OF healthy people – including shy or defiant children, grieving relatives and people with fetishes – may be wrongly labelled mentally ill by a new international diagnostic manual, specialists have said. In a damning analysis of an upcoming revision of the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychologists, psychiatrists and other experts said new categories of mental illness identified in the book were at best “silly” and at worst “worrying and dangerous”. “Many people who are shy, bereaved, eccentric or have unconventional romantic lives will suddenly find themselves labelled as mentally ill,” said Peter Kinderman, head of Liverpool University’s Institute of Psychology at a briefing in London about widespread concerns over the manual.
The DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and has symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. It is used internationally and seen as the diagnostic “bible” for mental health medicine.
More than 11,000 health professionals have signed a petition calling for the development of the fifth edition to be halted and re-thought. Some diagnoses – for conditions like “oppositional defiant disorder” and “apathy syndrome” – risk devaluing the seriousness of mental illness and medicalising behaviours most people would consider normal or just mildly eccentric, the experts said.
On the other hand, the new DSM could give medical diagnoses for serial rapists and sex abusers, under labels like “paraphilic coercive disorder”, and may allow offenders to escape prison by providing what could be seen as an excuse for their behaviour, they added.
Galway puts emergency childcare plan in place
IF YOUR child’s creche had to be evacuated due to a flood or a gas leak, do you or, more importantly, the staff, know where the children would be brought?
The first national training day to help childcare providers be prepared for an emergency will be held in Galway on Saturday. Up to 200 participants are expected, including local childcare staff as well as representatives of county childcare committees and other organisations around the State.
A “Critical Incident Plan” toolkit will be launched, with guidelines on creating contingency plans for scenarios such as an evacuation, a missing child or being snowed in overnight. It is aimed at all childcare providers, from large, day-care centres to childminders in their own homes. They are encouraged to think through issues such as where to go with the children, who needs to be contacted and how to deal with the media. “This is the first time we have focused on something that would stop the working of a service – an emergency situation,” said Rosario Ní Shúilleabháin, information officer for Galway County Childcare Committee, which has worked on this in collaboration with other organisations.
As well as a booklet, there is a poster designed to include vital contact numbers and an action plan, which can be put up on the wall for all to see.
“The safety of the child is central to all this,” said Ms Ní Shúilleabháin, but parents need to be reassured that a service is prepared, even if, hopefully, it will never be required to put its plan into action.
galwaychildcare.comor tel 091 752039
SHEILA WAYMAN