SPRING 2011 - Baptist Health South Florida

KidStuff
Intervene to stop bullying
Tyler Clementi, 18. Seth Walsh, 13. Phoebe Prince, 15. Hope Witsell,
13. Billy Lucas, 15. One was a talented violinist, another
loved to show horses. We will never know, however, who these
teens would have become because each one committed suicide
after relentless bullying.
The issue of bullying has received significant attention lately
due to the rash of suicides by victims, but The Melissa Institute for
Violence Prevention and Treatment has been helping kids and
adults put an end to bullying for more than a decade.
The Institute held two educational programs on bullying last
fall — Banishing Bullying, a Baptist Children’s Hospital parenting
class, and another program attended by more than 230 public
school psychologists, social workers and counselors.
“It’s important to understand that all bullying, whether it’s
“It’s important to understand
that all bullying ... requires adult
intervention and assistance.”
— Trish Ramsey, The Melissa Institute
for Violence Prevention
direct like hitting, kicking or taunting; or indirect, like spreading
rumors, causing a person to be socially isolated or cyber-bullying,
requires adult intervention and assistance,” said Trish Ramsay,
education director of The Melissa Institute.
“Bullying is a relationship problem that requires relationship
solutions in all of the places where children live, learn, play and
work,” said Debra Pepler, Ph.D., a member of the Institute’s Scientific
Board and a distinguished research professor of psychology at
York University in Toronto. Research has shown, she added, that
when someone intervenes, bullying stops within 10 seconds in
half of all cases.
Support is necessary for the bully, the victim and the bystander.
The bully needs to understand the impact of his or her behavior
and find ways to achieve power and status through positive leadership.
The victim needs protection and support
in developing confidence and positive
friendships. The bystanders need to recognize
that inaction contributes to the problem
and that there are ways they can stop
bullying and support their peers.
“Telling is not the same thing as tattling,”
Ms. Ramsay said. “Telling will get someone
out of trouble. Tattling is designed to get
someone into trouble.”
One mother at the parenting program
said she was worried that her son would be
bullied after they move this summer and he
begins middle school in a new town. His
height, far above that of his peers, she said,
might make him a target.
Ms. Ramsay advised the mother that role
HEART DISEASE STARTS IN CHILDHOOD
Parents concerned about their children’s health can add
another worry to their list: heart disease. Research shows it
starts in childhood.
But the child who develops heart-healthy habits as a youngster
or adolescent may reap benefits in adulthood, according to
two new studies published in the American Heart Association
journal Circulation.
“This is exciting because we could be preventing cardiovascular
disease later on by intervening early,’’ said Madeleen
Mas, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at Baptist Children’s Hospital.
Cardiovascular disease remains the top cause of death in
men and women in this country. Because obesity is linked to
heart disease, physicians worry that the epidemic of overweight
children portends a future explosion of cardiac problems,
Dr. Mas said.
One study suggests that the presence
of such risk factors as abnormal
cholesterol and high blood pressure
by around age 9 strongly
predicts that the neck artery walls
will thicken by early adulthood. That
thickening is a precursor to strokes and
heart attacks.
As a result, it’s important for parents to
schedule a heart-risk evaluation for their child if a
pediatrician already hasn’t suggested it, Dr. Mas said.
These evaluations typically include questions about diet
and exercise as well as checking the child’s cholesterol,
blood pressure and body mass index, which measures weight
in relation to height.
If a problem exists, initial treatment focuses on lifestyle
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