Page 133 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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The second realisation is that we live in a time when typical youth issues are presenting in children earlier in life and resulting in coping mechanisms and responses reflective of adolescent behaviour. The onset of puberty is beginning earlier and young people are also engaging in risky behaviours earlier. A striking illustration of this can be seen in the fact that Canberra’s Menslink extended counselling to boys aged 10 and 11 in the middle of 2017 after previously offering services only to those 12 and older. Within one year, boys under 12 made up 15 per cent of their counselling clients.
These and other contributing factors mean that, and again I quote from the Australian child wellbeing project study:
A significant proportion of young people in their middle years have low wellbeing, and are missing out on opportunities at this crucial time.
Importantly, low wellbeing in the middle years tends to follow young people into adulthood. In fact, research indicates that how a child develops during this time affects future cognitive, social, emotional, language and physical development, which in turn influences later success in life. As just one illustration of how formative this stage is, at least 50 per cent of adult mental health problems emerge by the age of 14.
In light of all that I have related, it is no wonder that numerous stakeholders and front-line workers with whom I have met over the past two years have all stated that more needs to be done in the ACT to support children and young people in the middle years.
This important task is an investment with significant returns. Addressing needs in middle childhood is often rather simple. It is the perfect space for early intervention as it means that problems can be addressed before they become too complicated, before the disadvantage grows too entrenched or the trauma has permanently altered the course of a life.
I know that the ACT government is not unaware of these issues. Stakeholders and front-line workers no doubt share their concerns and hopes with those opposite as well. In addition, I understand that the government was involved in the groundbreaking middle years forum that was hosted by Families ACT here in Canberra just over two years ago. Knowing about an issue, however, is not the same thing as adequately addressing it. Nine years ago, a previous ACT Labor-Greens government sponsored a care and accommodation forum, the report of which was subtitled, “12 to 15-year-olds at risk of homelessness.”
The stated purpose of this forum was to make recommendations that could be in the form of a structural transformation or could be ensuring that young people have a safe place to sleep at night. The report concluded with 11 excellent recommendations for solving the territory’s problem with homelessness amongst young people under 16 years of age.
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