Children, The Family and Health: What it Takes to Give Children Long Life
The Singapore Workshop: Australia - Children the Family and Health a discussion of the topic as it relates to the health of children ten years of age and under in Australia
As a mother living in Australia I am aware of the many issues facing the family and the concerns that children’s health brings to the family and to the cominunity. Parenting an eight year old daughter who has Eczema, AND with learning difficulties and a ten year old son who has ADHD I am faced daily with meeting the health challenges that their conditions bring with them.
As well as being a mother my past experience as a Midwife Mother Nurse in both Australia and in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, running Maternal and Children’s Health Clinics, has given me a good foundation for building on and relating to children under ten years of age.
My experience as a Salvation Army Officer with my husband has been as Pastors in rural and urban communities in New South Wales amongst the disadvantaged. For the last five years we have been ministering at St. Marys in Western Sydney. That takes in such areas as Mt. Druitt. Through the Salvation Army I have been involved in running interest and educational programs for children under ten years of age.
I have an on going commitment to my family’s health and vitality and this is being worked out as I seek to balance full time ministry and motherhood and the demands they each present. My husband and I strive to provide a loving, stable and balanced family life with good boundaries so that our children will grow up to be physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy adults.
I have observed over the last ten to twenty years that families in Australia have undergone tremendous upheavals. It cannot be assumed today that children live in a stable family unit with Mum, Dad, brothers and sisters. Or that they have a strong affiliation with their extended family. More and more there are ‘one parent’ families or ‘two income’ families where both parents work long hours. By necessity parents are leaving young children at ‘Long Day Care’ Centres and at ‘Before and After School Care’ facilities. Children are sometimes struggling to survive in an ever increasing, stressful and high expectation environment where there seems little or no time for them.
There are many concerns about a child’s health that mothers have expressed from the risks of having their child immunised against preventable diseases to how to cope with a child who is a chronic asthmatic. Questions like: “How do I help my child who is experiencing learning difficulties at school?” and “My marriage is falling apart how can I help my child cope with the mess of divorce?” Increasingly we are called upon to support and minister to families struggling to cope with issues such as: Drug and Alcohol Dependency and co-dependency; Child Abuse, and Domestic violence. Then there are the multicultural issues and indigenous Australian health concerns that affect children under ten as well.
This statement is too short to go into any great detail but I would like to stress that “Health” is more than just being free from the common childhood illnesses of Coughs/Colds and Ear Infections. It is inclusive of the whole person: emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. Children are like sponges, they absorb and internalize their experiences of what they see, hear, touch and feel. These messages that come from: Home - living in their particular family; School - teachers and peers; Television and Computers, can have a lasting impact on their lives not only when they are little but when they are adults as well.
In Australia there are more and more help agencies becoming involved in providing venues where both families and children can make informed positive choices that will help them to improve their lives and enable each member to grow and develop toward their potential. The family has a vital part to play in the health of children, especially under ten years of age. Children need to be in a safe and nurturing environment where love and clear boundaries help them to grow towards optimum health.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002