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What lies beneath

by Dr Gaye Sheather

It is critically important that our children and young people receive the best start in life.

That is why, as a community, we strive to provide programs and activities that assist children and young people to develop their physical, social and emotional skills, communication and literacy skills. We also strive to ensure they have opportunities to build their self-esteem and are equipped with strategies to assist them to engage fully in their communities.

To ensure we are supporting children and young people in the best ways possible, we need to learn to be aware of barriers that may be preventing them from reaching their full potential, barriers that may not be easily seen.

Learning to do this takes time, patience and practice but it is important we take the time to do it.

When we see a child or young person misbehaving, for example, it is important we take the time to see what lies beneath those behaviours and consider what might have caused them. What we see on the surface may be just the symptoms and not really the cause of their behaviour.

Children may have temper tantrums or be intensely shy or develop language later than other children; young people may demonstrate oppositional behaviours and drop out of school; parents may drink alcohol excessively or take drugs. It may be however, that children, young people and families are living in poverty and so may not have the resources or skills to seek help or to be able to secure what they need to live healthy lives. There may be mental health issues for those children or for their parents, and it may be that children are living in homes that aren’t safe. It may be that parents didn’t have a safe secure upbringing themselves and therefore don’t have the skills and capacity to create safe environments for their children.

It is the role of every person in a community to work together to gain an understanding of how underlying issues such as poverty; intergenerational trauma; childhood abuse and neglect and low levels of education can be the cause of a multitude of issues that exist in all communities, impacting negatively on the lives of children, young people and adults.

When you hear the term ‘systems issues’ or ‘systems thinking’ or the need for ‘systems change’, this is what it means.

For further reading we recommend: The Water of Systems Change

Dr Gaye Sheather

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