Amrita 6: Asana through the ages - Magazine - Page 72
THERE IS A new wave of interest in childhood trauma, and
Adverse Childhood Experience (ACES), which has sparked a
green paper on children’s mental health by the UK government; meanwhile Scotland has already been working in this
area for some time, with policies and implementation strategies as far back as 2010. This paper examines some of the
deep cultural reasons why England, and the UK government
as a whole may be lagging behind, and why it is that policy
and guidelines omit recommending or even referring to
mind-body based interventions such as yoga at all. Mindbody in this context is defined as practices that harness and
effect both the mental and physical body, creating physiological and psychological improvements.
Web-searches for recent child and adolescent mental
health stories will yield an array of topics include anxiety,
bullying, self-harm, use of anti-depressants and eating disorders. This current media focus has created a positive driver for policy makers to begin to look at addressing the underlying issues and causes. The most influential discovery of
recent years in relation to mental health from childhood
onwards, has been the results of the ACEs study, showing
the link between long term health and life expectancy and
experiences of adversity in childhood such as abuse, neglect
and household dysfunction. It would have been fantastic to
examine the UK government policy on ACEs here, but unfortunately it has not yet been written. When looking for relevant policy published in England, there is now a green paper on ‘Transforming children’s and young people’s mental
health provision’ (Dept. of Education and Dept of Health
2018). Although this paper does not contain much detail
about implementation, it has sparked the largest mental
health intervention in schools to date. On closer examina-
“Mind-body or yoga-based
interventions are not being
considered, physical activity is not
even mentioned”.
tion however, the research content is disappointing. One
school intervention “Inspire”, includes 5 minutes of relaxation and 5 minutes mindfulness daily, but there is no mention of any physical movement in the delivery of this at all.
Mind-body or yoga-based interventions are not being considered, physical activity is not even mentioned.
Looking at the government’s answer to a petition for
yoga and mindfulness to be included in schools, might give
some insight into attitudes explaining why these areas are
not being considered: ‘Schools are free to organise and deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum that suits the
needs of all of their pupils; pupils can participate in yoga
through the PE curriculum. The curriculum does not set out
a list of sports and activities that schools must or can offer.
They are free to decide.’ (Dept. of Education 2019)
70 AMRITA Issue 6 / Spring 2021
