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The First 1000 Days: catalysing equity outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
Author(s) -
Arabena Kerry
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja14.00343
Subject(s) - equity (law) , pacific islanders , psychology , geography , demography , medicine , political science , sociology , law , population
In January 2014, Prime Minister Abbott set a target of bridging the gap in school attendance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous pupils within 5 years by employing truancy offi cers in communities.1 But what about children who cannot attend school full-time for behavioural or developmental reasons? We need to change the early childhood agenda from one of school preparation to one that addresses developmental delays early, so children are better prepared for school.2,3 We need a push for more action, greater coordination and stronger investments to ensure early equity targets are met. We need all governments to continue commitments to saving the next generation from the challenges of inequity — it’s time to revisit a few fundamentals of human development at a time in a child’s life when changes in service integration and family engagement can deliver on the promise of childhood equity. The fi rst change is to overcome the fragmentation of local health, education, welfare, justice and other social services.4 Second, we need to ensure services are knitted together at a regional level under Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership.5 Finally, we need a high-quality evidence base to underpin programs that are grounded both in the neuroscience of early brain development and in the complex effects of social and community environments on children’s development.6 Coordinated interventions that properly engage parents and vulnerable children with interrelated issues — such as maternal mental health, parental incarceration, racism and familial stress — and also engage with the child protection and welfare systems have the best chance of being effective. We need frameworks promoting multi-agency strategies that engage families to focus on the early period of child development, from conception to age 2 years. A possible template for this is a program now being used to organise effort in lowand middle-income countries — the “First 1000 Days”.7