There was a time when mothers would help with children’s education at schools. There was time when we were not so politically correct and mums and dads would take children on school excursions.

But all that has changed.

Now mothers and fathers cannot enter the school unless they have signed in and then often they need to be chaperoned around the school. And now with social workers in schools parents are considered the enemy. The one who is abusing their children and need to be caught out. The family unit is now the cause for all the woes of children’s behaviours.

Could it be the father? Then we need women’s refuge intervention. Could it be the mother? Then we need CYFS intervention. Either way parents are pretty much left in the cold.

And all the while the schools get worse. They ARE unsafe for children. They HAVE been for years but the majority of schools would not accept it. No matter how much the parents told them.

But now things are so out of control no-one can lie any more. They are violent and full of drugs. The teachers are unsafe to teach and cameras are in place to capture bad behaviour.

Fact is; the cameras are in plain sight and the kids know where they are safe from the cameras. Yeap, not much has changed from when I went to school. If you don’t want to get caught you just do it out of sight.

Now we have police entering the schools in South Auckland and the parents standing along the boarders of the school grounds in the centre North Island.

Parents have been forced to take their children’s education into their own hands at a North Island school plagued by drug use, violence and the abuse of teachers and students.

And despite the Ministry of Education sending in a commissioner - its highest level of intervention - to sort out problems at Rangitahi College in Murupara nearly two years ago, a damning Education Review Office report says there has been little progress.

Yesterday, parents at the school 45 minutes southeast of Rotorua, were patrolling the college gates ensuring pupils were wearing the correct uniform.

Other parents were doing their bit to combat the school’s high absenteeism rate by picking up children in vans and getting them to school on time.

“We can’t be doing all the teachers’ jobs but we are trying to get more involvement from parents - that’s what our school needs,” said Melody Delamere, who has two sons at the college and heads a group called Parent Force. “What happens inside the school gates is their responsibility but we try and do what we can on the outside.”

A recent ERO supplementary review report of Rangitahi College revealed staff were forced into a situation where they were managing student behaviour rather than promoting learning and achievement.

The report said the decile one school, with a roll of 47 boys and 46 girls, was “not always a safe environment for staff and students”.

“There is evidence of verbal abuse of staff, disobedience by students, instances of theft, vandalism, damage to school property, bullying, fighting and use of illegal drugs by students.”

Levels of student achievement at the school were low - just a handful of students managed NCEA Level 1 in 2006 and none passed levels 2 and 3.

Commissioner John Carlyon, whose role is to change the policies, procedures, culture and relationships covering virtually all areas within the school, said the report was devastating. “It was accurate and with no surprises but it’s still hard when you see it written like that.”

Mr Carlyon, who replaced the school’s Board of Trustees in 2005, said it was crucial the community had more involvement.

“I have no doubt at all that until the school is able to work with the community in a partnership the school is going to continue to face difficulties, so I’m thrilled these groups are on board.”

He expected to see positive changes at the school this year. “It’s not optional, things have to change.

“I’ve been disappointed that the expectations we agreed to in 2007 were not achieved. I know it’s been hard for the school and management but I expected things to have been better.”

Ministry of Education schools performance manager Marilyn Scott said lifting the school’s performance was not something that would happen immediately. “Nor can it be one person’s job to fix an entire school,” she said in reference to Mr Carlyon.

NZHerald

A Family Court judge is alarmed at drug P’s impact on families. Reference Sunday Star Times 24th February 2008.

Couples are increasingly citing use of the drug methamphetamine or “P” as a reason for seeking protection orders, divorce and sole custody of children.

Family Court judges have told the Sunday Star-Times that allegations of P use in such cases were prevalent and rising.

Two judges said that a quarter of current applications for protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act involved the perpetrator of violence using P.

Problem areas included New Plymouth, Wanganui, West Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North and Wellington.

Principal Family Court judge Peter Boshier said the trend was a “huge concern”. “[This] is particularly ominous because it’s such a hard drug to conquer in terms of rehabilitation… Where meth is involved it produces such volatility that [judges] don’t want to put children at risk, whereas some other forms of drugs and alcohol don’t necessarily have the same alarming consequences.”

Out of 66,500 cases dealt with by the 45 Family Court judges last year, 4351 involved protection orders and 21,391 were applications for care of children.

Several family lawyers said they had noticed an increase in the number of P-related family break-ups over the past five years, including affluent families who seemed to “have it all”. In most cases, both parents had tried P socially but one had become addicted.

In one case, an Auckland couple in their early 30s started using P recreationally at a cost of $500-$800 a week. He gave up but she got addicted, which caused arguments and led to their break-up. She took their four-year-old child and lived transiently with friends, and started a relationship with a P dealer, which became violent. The woman’s neighbours and family became concerned at her dishevelled appearance and and reported her to Child, Youth and Family.

In another case, an Auckland woman in her late 20s, who was separated and shared custody of her two-year-old, developed a P habit. Her ex-husband found out and sought sole custody. At the same time, staff at the child’s crèche notified CYF over the woman’s appearance. She failed a drug test and lost custody of her child.

Boshier said judges usually granted protection where P use was alleged or proven in many cases grandparents stepped in to care for children.

“I do not want to suggest there’s anything wrong with grandparents bringing up children, but as a society we have a norm of the parents…”

Many judges direct parents accused of having a P habit to take a hair follicle test, which detects the drug months after it is taken. ESR carries out an average of three hair tests a week for Child Youth and Family, most for custody cases.

Boshier said alcohol was still regarded as the number one drug in protection orders, and cannabis was also often present.

Every day children are torn as their parents split up. New initiatives to involve them in relationship counselling could begin to ease that pain.

Jill Goldson, an Auckland Family Court counsellor who was involving children in separation counselling for a research project funded by the NZ Families Commission, has spoken out about the problems children are facing through separation. Goldson’s research involved 26 children and 34 adults. It gave families opportunities to not just listen to each other but ‘hear’ each other and work toward their own solutions.

“Parents in conflict are in crisis; it’s difficult in that state to attend fully to the children they both love,” Goldson says. “And their children fear creating more distress, so they hold on to their worries and the trouble compounds. If children’s views are sought, they need to see them used, otherwise they can end up feeling betrayed. Mostly children want to be heard within their families.”

Lucy’s dilemma threatened her life.

She was 13 when she had to choose between living with dad in Auckland or with mum in Rotorua. For 12 years Lucy* had lived happily enough between their two homes.

But her life began to spiral out of control when her mother made plans to move cities to live with her new partner. Lucy also hated the arguments between her parents. “I thought I would be happier if I lost weight.” Eating was one thing she could control and pretty soon anorexia had mastery over her. “I would not eat all day and try not to eat dinner. Then I didn’t eat at all one day, and didn’t the next either, until I was really sick and had no energy. I couldn’t do anything.”

Desperate for help, Lucy’s parents approached Jill Goldson.

Goldson says that offering two counselling intervention sessions eased communication and reduced conflict in every case.

The government provides six hours of tax-funded counselling for couples considering separating, but there is no legal provision for children to be involved. This is an anomaly, given the requirement under the Care of Children Act to listen to children’s views.

The 6 hours of counselling has been a positive step to helping parents resolve immediate problems but as many of us know it can takes years to get it right. And by then most of our children are damaged in some way not just through Parental Alienation Syndrome but through having to keep the peace with both parents.

The truth is that many single parents who have been involved in the 6 hour free counselling are still failing to come to a decent compromise where both parents are happy and the share and care of the children works out for the best. There are still child support issues, there is still the bickering in how one parent does something that the other parent doesn’t like. The end result is that the children don’t know which way to turn because they love both their parents and they want to please both the parents. They are in many cases where disputes still occur whether small bickering over being late to pick a child up to financial problems both parents can face having to provide 2 families separately instead of one family together.

The research findings are being included in a submission to the Family Matters Bill. Chief Family Court judge Peter Boshier is advocating “therapeutic counselling to help children through the difficult time of separation”.

Following Goldson’s research and international evidence which says children adjust better to parents separating if they are involved in decisions about their future, Boshier says: “A child’s own views should be central to ensuring the result is workable and acceptable to the children themselves.”

Goldson says people used to think children didn’t need counselling because they benefited from the “trickle down” effect of parents attending counselling. In many cases this does not happen.

James, 48, father of two young boys, agrees. “The Family Court says they are there for the children - they are not. There was nothing there for the children.”

He says the focus was always on “patching up” his relationship with wife Millie, never on how they could both be part of the children’s lives, although separated.

“I have been to seven counsellors, I don’t know how many psychologists and even a psychiatrist. I’m not a rapist; I’m not a paedophile. I love my children and I have fought for five years to be with them. There was no reason for me to be alienated, apart from the bitterness between me and my wife.”

Distressed by the impact their conflict was having on the boys, James moved to Tauranga and had minimal contact with his children.

Today, between jobs, he is able to share in his sons’ care. He says Goldson was “strong-minded, always asking, `What about the children? How are Dylan and Ryan coping?”‘

In fact, Dylan, eight, (James’s son) was suffering serious anxiety. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate, and had difficulty stringing words together. When Goldson asked him what was one of his main worries he immediately said he didn’t know what colour to paint his bedroom. Blue was his mum’s colour, green his dad’s, how could he keep them both happy? For him the task was impossible.

“This `double bind’… is typical for children with parents in conflict. They are damned if they do, damned if they don’t,” says Goldson. “They want to love two people who seem to hate each other and it leaves children feeling disturbed.”

Dylan’s mother Millie says knowing how her children were feeling shifted her focus from the “hurt and fractiousness” of the past to “what is happening now and in the future.

“You can see where the children are struggling. It gives you a reason not to argue with each other because you can see the pain drops down into your kids’ lives.”

For the children, the success of this intervention is being heard by both parents, and hearing their mum and dad are committed to their well-being. This process also reduces parental conflict.

Millie and James’s point-scoring relationship had them at loggerheads all the time, but Millie says Dylan’s relief was palpable when, for the first time, his parents agreed: We said “Mummy and daddy both like blue and green.”‘

“Mummy and daddy have agreed that this is how we do things,” Dylan tells his little brother.

“Parents almost always try to protect children from adult problems,” says Goldson. “But at the same time, they are going through one of the biggest crises in their lives. It is very hard to know how to talk to children when you are in grief and confusion yourself. It can be difficult to realise children want to be involved in discussions with their parents, but including them can help so much.”

Eight-year-old Aria travelled the world with her dancing parents and the company was her extended family. When her parents separated, her world collapsed.

“I feel like I’m in a dark room in my head and I’m all alone,” she told her mother, Jasmine.

But Jasmine says she felt out of her depth and had no idea how to respond. Aria’s dad Dave also felt helpless: “I didn’t know how much she was holding in.”

Jasmine wanted Aria to talk to a counsellor but Dave did not.

“Kids need simple loving,” he said. “I don’t like people mucking around with them.”

But Goldson reassured them: “It’s not separation that traumatises children they can deal with their parents going in different directions but they cannot cope with animosity.”

For Aria, being able to tell someone how she was feeling made a big difference. She liked Goldson being “beside” her and not a member of the family.

“It wasn’t a secret. I was allowed to say what was happening for me and how awful it felt.”

It worked for teenage Lucy too.

“It was nerve-wracking spilling out my life story to someone I didn’t know. It was hard”, she saiys. She was scared about her parents hearing her whole truth. “I knew there were things they weren’t going to agree on and wondered how they were going to react”.

The eating disorder was a wake-up call for everybody, says her mother Liz. If we hadn’t listened to Lucy that last time, I don’t know where she would be today. For the first time Geoff and I were speaking with a united voice.

But the last word comes from Dylan. Excited to see Goldson when the Sunday Star-Times met him, he answered all the questions patiently before saying: “But Jill, now I have a new problem. Smoking. Cigarettes. Mummy and daddy are smoking and I don’t like it. Can you tell them that?”

I am a behind-the-scenes worker in the area of supporting Mums and Dads and the kids that face intervention from CYFS.
I feel I must explain where I sit, before I tell you what I know.
I was a member of the cyfswatch team, and although most there are anti-cyfs to the point they would like to see them shut down, there are many of us who see the absolute need for cyfs also, and the need for them to remain in control of the fostering situation.

We are talking about our mokopuna, be they yellow or green!! The Foster Assn in Ak has had a rift appear in it and one lot heading off to do things their way. There must be consistency with fostering! However, what has happened last month is a new company was registered called KEY ASSETS NZ LIMITED. I have hunted them down on the companies register ..
http://www.companies.govt.nz/cms/banner_template/CNAME

The bottom lot of names from the UK are, I understand squillionairres who are financing the situation. Their intent is to build many secure homes in the country to house in-care children!!! The Nats will love this!! Takes any responsibility from the govt at all!! There are meetings happening as I write, they are looking for high profile staff at the moment.

This is something I feel very strongly about. We cannot get CYFS to even open the book and take a look at some of the situations we hear of. If this moves into the private area, god knows what will happen next to the kids.

More is coming to hand daily, this is more a matter of a heads up, our kids suffer enough.

Toilet training is a milestone every child goes through. And every parent. lol
There are many sites on the net that will give you advice but i found this one to be the best I have seen so far. There is also lots of other good stuff for babies and young tots. This is just one part of interest for toilet training.

Signs Of Readiness
How to tell when your child is ready

It is impossible to set an exact age to start toilet training. Some children are ready at 18 months, some not until 2+ years or later. Whether early or late, you’ll notice that a number of trends begin to come together. Your child will be over the excitement of learning to walk and will be able to sit still for a while. “No” isn’t the answer to every question. They’re actually willing to co-operate now and then. That’s when to start looking for the signs of readiness.

Signs of Readiness
If three or more of the signs listed below are clearly present, it’s probably time to start toilet training.

• Your child can stay dry for two hours at a time during the day or is dry after a nap.
• Your child’s poos are regular and predictable.
• Your child can indicate by words, facial expressions or posture that he or she is about to wee or poo.
• Your child can follow simple verbal directions.
• Your child is uncomfortable with soiled nappies and wants them changed.
• Your child can be taught to pull pants on and off.
• Your child asks to use the toilet or the potty.
• Your child asks to wear Big Kid toilet training pants or underwear.

Huggies New Zealand

Where was the Interent when my children were little?

Toddler tantrums – and how to manage them

I used to think most tantrums could be fixed by walking away. That was called planned ignoring. The alternative was to say “stop that yelling,” and, if the child persisted, to punish him/her by putting him/her in Time Out until he/she had calmed down.
Once I had grasped the idea of using emotional distance (see the ‘Time Out’ article) rather than praise or punishment, I was still left in a quandary about tantrums. Was the child in need of my support or was he simply being unreasonable?
Nowadays I understand that not all tantrums are created equal. We can be more effective in helping our children deal with their feelings which threaten to overwhelm them, if we can recognize what type of tantrum they are having.
And the nominations are…..
There are tantrums of despair, where the child is distressed because he is frustrated or hurt or offended. And there are tantrums of control, where the child is furious or angry because he cannot have his/her own way.
Strangely enough, tantrums of despair and tantrums of control look much the same. Just think of watching an unknown child having a tantrum, complete with wailing and screaming, in a supermarket. Some of us think, ‘Oh, that unfortunate child. He’s/she’s probably been out for too long and is exhausted.’ Others think, ‘Why doesn’t the mother do something with that noisy little brat? He’s just having her on.’
We’ve all experienced the dreadful feeling when our child is having an out-of-control tantrum in a public place. At that moment, we tend to beat ourselves up, believing that ‘good’ parents can foil tantrums from the outset. These days, if I see a Mum struggling with a tantrumming child, I tend to think, “Oh you poor thing – who’s going to help you?’ And it is the parent I am fretting about!
Mmmm…..is this despair?
There are times when our children can be really upset or distraught. Their friend hurt their feelings; they whacked their elbow on the table; they were promised a visit to the playground and now it’s raining hard; part of a toy is broken and Mum just turned down a request for that second helping of chips. Our child may be angry, tearful or both.
Our child needs us to understand how upset they are and to have us put their feelings into words. Ideally, our tone of voice needs to match the intensity of their feelings.
- “You really, really wanted more chips, but lunch is very soon.”
- “Your feelings must be hurt by what your friend said.”
- “You’re so disappointed that toy won’t work properly.”
Tantrums of despair require our emotional support. Simply keep your arms around your child, make comforting sounds and wait until your child has regained his equilibrium and can try again or leave it alone.
Or is this…..control?
Strong-willed children are more likely to scream rather than cry and will use an anger tantrum to try and force us to change our mind. If running away or yelling isn’t helping them, they can often resort to pushing or hitting, shouting unacceptable words or even spitting to try and get their own way.Essentially, there is little point in trying to reason (or argue) with them. Our children are so enraged they won’t listen to anything we have to say. Attempting to make logical and reasoned explanations is pretty much a waste of energy when our child is “all feelings and no thinking.”
Trying to distract them is almost impossible with an angry, determined child and threats of punishment rarely stop the rage. A child who isn’t in a calm thinking state won’t be able to understand the potential consequences of where his behaviour is taking him.
Tantrums of control require us to distance emotionally from our child (Time Out) until he has worked out that he is not going to get his own way on this one.
How can we tell which way to go?
Support or distance? I suggest you check your feelings. Are your feelings ‘Poor little thing’? In this case the poor little thing (of whatever age) probably needs your emotional support. Or if your initial response is anger and you’re feeling ‘You little …’ then chances are your child is having a tantrum of control.
Just to be really sure
Try empathy first. Ask, “Do you need a cuddle?” Your child will come to you for comfort if it’s a tantrum of despair.
If he shouts, “I don’t like you! Leave me alone!” it’s most likely a tantrum of control and you need to create some distance. Walk away or place him in his room.
After some time by themselves, many children will move from being angry to being upset. They’re now ready for a comforting cuddle.
Different path, same outcome
In either case, what we are after ultimately is that our child solves his/her problem and comes up with their own pro-social solution. It may be to stop yelling and get on with the rest of their day; it may be to let the little sister have the block; it may be to leave the puzzle alone and find a more co-operative toy to play with; or it may be to do what Mum has asked.
With emotional support our child feels comforted and understood and can calm down and think of a way to go about solving the problem. Or, from a position of emotional distance, our child can decide that his current behaviour is getting him nowhere and he needs to behave differently. Either way, we have kept the problem with the child; we have not moved to rescue or persecute. Our child has solved the problem and is demonstrating age-appropriate competence.
But wait, there’s more
An over-tired or over-stimulated child can lead to a third type of tantrum – one I refer to as ‘too much day.’ These tantrums often occur after our child has had a perfectly wonderful party or outing and had a very enjoyable time. Everyone has told us, the proud parents, how well behaved and lovely our child was.
Yet within a very short space of time, the little angel has turned into a nasty piece of work, complete with flailing arms and legs, not to mention a temper, as soon as we leave the situation.

So what went wrong? We have gone to considerable lengths to ensure they had a good time and this example of bad behaviour is what we receive? Essentially, having a great time can also be very exhausting for our children (it took me a long time to understand this), so when their tiredness catches up with them, they tend to “lose the plot.” Of course there is no magic answer; usually we simply have to get through the circumstances as best we can. A calm and quiet bath and stories before bed, plus a good night’s sleep can do wonders for restoring our children to their usually delightful selves. Their tendency is to behave as if nothing has happened. We, however, may still be recovering!

Bullying is not okay.
Bullying is a common problem with potentially serious ramifications such as health problems, depression, even suicide. Many schools have anti-bullying programmes and policies but the problem is still widespread.
Your children need to know that it is not okay for other children to hit, exclude or torment them. If a child mentions this kind of treatment, take their complaint seriously.
Telling victims to fight back or stand up for themselves, or “just ignore them and they’ll stop” is not good enough. If the bullying is ongoing, it requires intervention.
What are the signs?
If your child exhibits several of these behaviours, you need to take some action:
· scared to go to school
· feeling ill in the morning
· skipping school
· drop in academic performance
· taking a different route to school or asking you to take them
· going to school early or late
· “losing” belongings
· coming home with damaged property or losing property
· unexplained cuts, bruises or other injuries
· tearful when asked about school or playtime
· starting to bully others
· having nightmares, starting to stammer, become withdrawn or anxious

What can you do to help?
Be careful not to place any blame on your child. Ask her how he/she has tried to solve the problem and praise any efforts he/she has made. Encourage her to continue to talk to you – and other designated adults – about the problem. Let her know you will help to make her safe. Ascertain that she has tried to ignore the bully, asked him or her to stop, and walked away whenever the bullying starts. If the bullying is occurring at school, seek more information from your child’s teacher, principal or counselor and discuss ways to make your child safe. This may involve intervention, increased supervision or helping your child make more friends if he or she is isolated. Arrange a follow-up appointment to monitor progress. Encourage good friendships with other children – bullies are more likely to pick on loners. Changing schools can solve the problem, but sometimes can also transfer the same problem to a new, unfamiliar environment.

Mobile phone and email bullying
Today’s technology can give bullies a degree of anonymity, but parents and victims can take practical steps to prevent or halt this kind of bullying. If the text or email bullying is threatening or frightening, it is illegal – complain to the police and/or the telephone/Internet provider company. Some calls and messages can be traced. Keep a record of all messages received, including time and date, to pass on to authorities.
Do not reply to abusive or bullying messages. Consider getting a new phone number or email address. Do not give out phone and email addresses too freely.
Telecom has even set up a toll free help line – which you can call for help:
0800 NO BULLY (0800 66 28 55)

What if your child is the bully?
Encourage your child to tell you exactly what he or she did. Do not accept excuses or blaming others and remind your child it was their choice to bully. Discuss the way your child’s behaviour may have affected the victim. Talk about other ways your child could have handled the situation. Try to ascertain the reasons behind your child’s behaviour – to gain attention or power, for entertainment, to be left alone – and talk about other ways to achieve that aim. Consider consequences – warning, punishment, apology. Encourage your child to join with other children to speak up when they see bullying.
Helpful Websites on Bullying
www.nobully.org.nz
This is a great New Zealand website devoted to stopping bullying. It has information and resources, as well as practical strategies and contact details for where you can find help.
source: kiwifamilies.co.nz

Many single parents are not aware of all that is available to them for support in New Zealand. Birthright was established in 1955. It’s a national organisation, with sixteen (16) member societies throughout New Zealand, which work to support, strengthen and advocate for one-parent families.

What do they do?
Each Member society provides a range of services appropriate to their locality. These may include:

Counselling and social work
Recycled clothing and household goods
Workshops for parents on relevant subjects e.g. parenting skills, confidence building, goal setting, life skills and home management programmes
Budgeting assistance
Referrals to recognized agencies for specific problems e.g. grief, child abuse, behaviour problems
Ongoing support groups for parents
Self-esteem programmes for children
Some financial support when available with school requirements and holiday camps
Tertiary Scholarships for children and retraining grants for single parents

Auckland Single Parents Trust offers similar to birthright although we do not have the funding available to us yet and we are not qualified counsellors. We are a network of single parents although we can direct you to other organisations who offer counselling, anger management programmes for both men and women and budgeting assistance. Also, it is not unusual to share recycled clothing or household items amongst friends.

Birthright has not been going in Auckland for some time although it seems it may be starting up again. Many single parents have used their services over the years and I think having a place to go for financial assistance and for clothing and household items is of value especially when you are setting yourself up all over again. The other services they provide can also be very helpful. An advocate for the single parent in situations with CYFS, IRD, WINZ and many other areas of your life is a bonus to have on your side.

I have listed the Birthright contacts under Links for those outside the Auckland area and look forward to Birthright starting up again in the Auckland area.

According to Massey University’s pro vice-chancellor in education, James Chapman; New Zealand now has one of the largest gaps in the world between male and female achievers, with men coming out the losers.

Perhaps the drive to find equal opportunities for women had gone too far and there was a need to pull back a bit to restore that balance, he suggested.

stuff.co.nz

Human Rights Commission
Media Release
16 May 2007Commissioners seek ban on ECT for children

The Human Rights Commission and the Health and Disability Commissioner say the use of ECT (electro convulsive treatment) should be banned for children and never used without informed consent in other cases unless it is the only option.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan and the Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson were speaking before the Health Select Committee hearing evidence on a petition asking Parliament to create tighter restrictions on the use of ECT.

“We are seeing an increasing number of people who feel they have suffered serious and sometimes permanent damage from the treatment”, said Ms Noonan.

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said under current legislation a competent person could be ordered to undergo the treatment by a psychiatrist even if they did not want it. “No competent individual or anyone who has given a clear advance refusal should be forced to have ECT against their will”, said Mr Paterson.

In all other cases, non consensual ECT should be a treatment of last resort where an independent psychiatrist certifies that it is necessary in the patient’s best interests.

The therapy is used to treat cases of severe depression and has been the subject of a review by the Ministry of Health. The petition to the Select Committee has been organised to reinforce the need for urgent action to restrict the use of ECT.