Children Need Help To Heal After Lockdown Trauma

A leading suicide prevention charity says children and young people need help to heal after the trauma of lockdown. Warrington based Papyrus Prevention of Young Suicide says it hopes a Government funding boost for mental health support will help many who are not getting the expert care they desperately need. NHS England has announced an extra ₤40million to address the impact of Covid19 and lockdown on children and young people's mental health. Papyrus says only high quality care and professional support will save those who are struggling with life.

Ged Flynn, the charity's chief executive, said:- "Papyrus welcomes this funding for mental health support for children and young people across England and we hope it makes a real difference to them. It must be accompanied by a system wide recognition that the needs of children and young people cannot only be met by providing new funding. Many children and young people will need time, quality care, space and support to heal and learn after times of trauma, periods of significant change and a lack of routine and normality such as we have all experienced in the last eighteen months."

Papyrus warns of a post lockdown legacy of anxiety and distress could affect a generation of young people for months and years to come. Over the last year the charity saw a 25% increase in the number of calls, texts and emails to its confidential Hope Line UK service. PAPYRUS fears many vulnerable young people were denied the vital care and support they are used to during lockdown

Ged Flynn, added:- "We are always concerned by stories of young people who have died by suicide and the extent to which these often seem to include real issues of reduced access to quality health care that young people deserve. It is important to remember that while there is no reliable, statistical evidence of a link between lockdown and a significant increase in suicide, we do know more young people have been feeling lonely, distressed and struggling to cope with life. Papyrus stands ready to work with all services to ensure that any thoughts of suicide among our young people are not met with anything less than excellent care and effective support from the State and its partners when that response may be needed most. It is important that we all work together to keep our communities suicide safe and that young people know they are not alone and that help is available."

Papyrus has praised the courage and resilience of children and young people who continue to find the strength to contact its Hope Line UK service. For practical, confidential suicide prevention help and advice please contact:- Papyrus Hope Line UK on:- 08000684141, text:- 07860039967 or email:- Pat@Papyrus-UK.Org.
 

Beyond the Woods Festival 2021 will no longer be taking place

"DEAR Friends, It is with very heavy hearts that we have to inform you that, following the postponement of the 21 June easing of lockdown restrictions, Beyond The Woods Festival will no longer be taking place this year. To say that we are gutted is a huge understatement. Over the last 7 years our organising committee have poured their hearts and souls into Beyond The Woods. People have given up hundreds of hours of their time to get the event to where it is, and for them not to be able to enjoy seeing their hard work come to fruition is an enormous disappointment. After the disappointment of having to postpone the festival in previous years, our team were desperate to put on a show for you in August. However, after recent events it has become apparent that this will no longer be possible. The uncertainty around lockdown being lifted, the lack of availability of insurance cover for Covid related festival cancellations, and a lack of clear guidance on which measures might be required of mass gatherings such as ours means we've been left with no option other than to call off this year's event. The situation with Covid has been anything but predictable. Without any certainty, either in the form of insurance, or a cast iron guarantee that the festival would be able to take place restriction free, we're not going to be able to proceed as we'd so dearly wanted to. Over the coming weeks, we'd have to pay tens of thousands of pounds in upfront costs to ensure that Beyond The Woods would be able to take place, covering everything from marketing to marquee hire, but with no guarantee that the festival would be able to go ahead in August; without any additional restrictions. Beyond The Woods began life as a birthday party in our back garden in Lincoln. While the bands have got bigger in recent years, and the organisation more detailed, it's still the same small group of friends and volunteers putting on the event. We're not multi millionaires, and there's no big corporation backing the festival. We do this purely for the love of it. We understand that many people will be as disappointed as we are, but we sincerely hope you can understand why we do not feel it's possible to go ahead with this year's event. The situation has now changed, and the risk for us as an organisation has just become too great. We are working hard to secure a new date for 2022 and all tickets purchased for this or previous years will remain valid. You are of course welcome to a refund, and if your tickets were purchased from an official Beyond The Woods supplier, we will be in touch in the next couple of weeks to advise you of the refund process. We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for your support during this extraordinarily difficult period and we hope to see you all in 2022." The Beyond The Woods Team.
 

Soaring numbers of animals risk entanglement in Euros inspired footie nets this year, warns RSPCA

THE RSPCA is warning of the dangers of netting to wildlife and is bracing itself to deal with hundreds of entanglement incidents this summer as fans get inspired by Euro 2020. As footie mad sports fans put up football nets in the back gardens and sports fields of England and Wales, the RSPCA has already received more reports about dangerously entangled foxes and other wild animals than this time last year. With the RSPCA taking 1,139 calls about animals entangled in sports, garden and deterrence netting already this year, numbers have already overtaken 2020's 1,127 calls for the same period. In just 3 weeks in June this year, the animal charity had already received at least 30 netting entanglement reports, 20 of which related to foxes or fox cubs and the remainder being other species such as:- hedgehogs, deer, rabbits and birds, such as gulls and crows.

RSPCA Scientific Officer Evie Button said:- "Football and other types of netting may be fun for humans but can be very dangerous for wild animals if they are left out overnight. The RSPCA receives hundreds of calls every year to rescue animals; often wildlife; who have become tangled in netting on sporting equipment or garden nets. Already this year, the number of call outs to rescue animals caught up in nets are up on 2020 and in the past couple of months, we have had a spate of young foxes in particular becoming entangled. We suspect that people's enthusiasm for Euro 2020 may have inspired increased numbers of amateur football nets to be put up in gardens and sports fields around the country and young, curious foxes are unaware of the dangers. Getting tangled up in netting is very stressful for an animal, particularly 1 that's wild. And if the animal gets seriously entangled, netting; whether it's used for sports, fencing or the garden; can cause severe injuries or even death. As wild animals frequently get trapped during the night, they may have been struggling for many hours by the time they are found in the morning and often need veterinary attention and sedation to cut them free. It's great that the likes of Jack Grealish and Gareth Bale are inspiring many of us to put on our shooting boots this summer; and enjoy the great outdoors and nature while having a kick around. But we would urge those using sports netting to remove and store all nets after their game and put any discarded or old netting safely in a bin. Any garden fence netting should be replaced with solid metal mesh and use wood panels as fencing instead of netting."

Of the 503 incidents reported to the RSPCA about wild mammals tangled in netting in 2020, 223 were related to foxes, 155 were Hedgehogs and 104 deer.

Recent case studies the RSPCA has been called out to rescue include:-

• A juvenile fox rescued by the RSPCA after getting caught by his neck and leg in football netting in a garden in Harrow.

• A "fox in the box" scored an own goal; after getting caught in football goal netting in a back garden in Swansea.

• A not so cunning fox had to be rescued by the RSPCA after she was found trapped in some football netting which almost strangled her in Loughborough.

To report concerns about an animal, call the RSPCA's emergency line on:- 03001234999 or visit the website:- RSPCA.Org.UK. Please do not try to free the animal from the netting yourself, as animals can have serious injuries if they become tightly entangled, so it's best that they are examined to check if they need veterinary treatment before being released.

To help the RSPCA continue rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing animals in desperate need of care please visit:- RSPCA.Org.UK or call the RSPCS's Donation Line on:- 03001238181.
 

Southport Labour Chair Steps Down after becoming Sefton Cabinet Member

SOUTHPORT'S Labour's Chair, Councillor Mhairi Doyle, is stepping down after overseeing one of the most successful periods in the party's history locally. After 5 years in the role, she is leaving to concentrate on her newly appointed position as Sefton Council's Cabinet Member for Children's Social Care. In recent years Labour has gone from strength to strength in Southport, repeatedly bucking the national trend. All elected since 2018, it now boasts 7 Councillors in the Town; only 1 less than either the Conservatives or Lib Dems have for the whole of Sefton. The party has also recorded 2 successive record general election votes, pushing the Lib Dems firmly into third place in both since 2017; the last producing nearly 3 times the vote for Labour and the worst general election result in Southport for a liberal candidate of any type since 1902. Cllr Doyle says she's 'very proud' of the record during her period as Chair, explaining:- "We've shown people that Labour can and does win here. It's been a huge team effort and I'd like to thank everyone from our members, to our activists and to all those who voted for us, for the support they have given. I'd be remiss though not to mention the fantastic support I've had from some during my time; such as my CLP Secretary Steve Jowett, who has been a truly wonderful stalwart of Southport Labour for over 30 years, and also my Vice Chair for much of this period, Dave Neary, who has been a wise, calm and reasoned voice in the occasional clamour of politics. We've come a long way since 2016 and we have been transformed as a campaigning force and I'd like to pay particular credit to 2 people for this. Firstly, our fantastic Parliamentary Candidate in recent years, Liz Savage, who helped start and guide this process and who has done us really proud. Secondly, my now ward colleague, Cllr Greg Myers, who joined us in early 2017 and has been absolutely instrumental in our success through his sheer hard work, skills and advice as our Media Officer, Organiser and our Campaign Coordinator. Having seen how our Labour run Council stepped up to help residents during the Pandemic, I hope that our success will long continue here so that we can help put Southport back on its feet Post Pandemic and look after our Town and community. Now though feels the right time for me to step down as Chair as I have just been appointed to Sefton's Cabinet with the Children's Social Care portfolio. It's a huge brief and a huge privilege to be trusted with this and so I want to give it my all, along with my ward duties in Norwood of course."