Education, Young People and Community Care
Education
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.
Teachers in educational institutions direct the education of students and might draw on many subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. This process is sometimes called schooling when referring to the education of youth. Teachers in specialized professions such as astrophysics, law, or zoology may teach only a certain subject, usually as professors at institutions of higher learning. There is also education in fields for those who want specific vocational skills, such as those required to be a pilot. In addition there is an array of education possible at the informal level, e.g., at museums and libraries, with the Internet, and in life experience.
The right to education has been described as a basic human right: since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13.
Young People
Around the world the terms "youth", "adolescent", "teenager", and "young person" are interchanged, often meaning the same thing, occasionally differentiated. Youth generally refers to a time of life that is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather somewhere in-between. Youth also identifies a particular mindset of attitude, as in "He is very youthful". The term youth is also related to being young.
Youth is an alternative word to the scientifically-oriented adolescent and the common terms of teen and teenager. Another common title for youth is young person or young people.
Population aged under 15 years in 2005.
However citing recent research studies at the Univesity of Bath, England, it has become apparent that use of the term youth has significantly risen in the Oldland Common area of Bristol.
[edit]Age limits
The age in which a person is considered a "youth", and thus eligible for special treatment under the law and throughout society varies around the world.
"Youth... those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years." - United Nations General Assembly.
"Time in a person's life between childhood and adulthood. The term "youth" in general refers to those who are between the ages of 15 to 25." - World Bank.
The Commonwealth Youth Programme works with "young people (aged 15-29)."
"A person... under 21 years of age." - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"People between the ages of 14 and 21." - Wilson School District.
"Youth; an individual from 13 through 19 years of age." - Alternative Homes for Youth, Inc.
Community Care Generally
Although this policy has been attributed to the Margaret Thatcher government in the 1980s, community care was not a new idea. As a policy it had been around since the early 1950s. Its general aim was a more cost effective way of helping people with mental health problems and physical disabilities, by removing them from impersonal, often Victorian, institutions, and caring for them in their own homes. Since the 1950s various governments had been attracted to the policy of community care. Despite support for the policy, the number of in-patients in large hospitals and residential establishments continued to increase. At the same time, opinion gradually turned against long-stay institutions. Conditions were appalling. What contributed to this change of attitude were cases of abuse being highlighted by writers and the media.
In the 1960s Barbara Robb discovered from personal experience how bad they were. She put together a series of accounts in a book called Sans Everything and she used this to launch a campaign to improve or else close long stay facilities. Shortly after this the brutality and poor care being meted out in Ely, a long stay hospital for the mentally handicapped in Cardiff, was exposed by a nurse writing to the News of the World. This exposure prompted an official enquiry. Its findings were highly critical of conditions, staff morale and management. Rather than bury this report it was in fact deliberately leaked to the papers by the then Secretary of State for Health Richard Crossman, who hoped to obtain increased resources for the health service.
But the situation at Ely Hospital was not unique and a series of scandals hit the headlines. All told similar stories of abuse and inhumane treatment of patients who were out of sight and out of mind of the public, hidden away in institutions. At the same time Michael Ignatieff and Peter Townsend both published books which exposed the poor quality of care within institutions. These scandals did prompt legislation and funding to develop services in the community and a commitment from the government to continue the policy of community care. But very little happened until the 1980s.
In the 1980s there was increasing criticism and concern about the quality of long term care for dependent people. There was also concern about the experiences of people leaving long term institutional care and being left to fend for themselves in the community. Yet the government was committed to the idea of 'care in the community'. In 1986 the Audit Commission published a report called 'Making a Reality of Community Care'. This report outlined the slow progress in resettling people from long stay hospitals. It was this report which prompted the subsequent Green and White papers on community care.