Early Intervention arguably the best
AUTHOR: Judy Turner
The recent deluge of violent crimes where teenagers have been the perpetrators, has been a sobering reminder that we face some really serious issues in NZ right now.
While there has been some tracking downwards of youth crime statistics, violent crimes by our youth are escalating.
Over the last few years in response to public pressure there has been a toughening of sentencing provisions and yet it does not seem to have had the impact advocates for such measures hoped for. Longer imprisonment does not appear to be a deterrent!
In part, that may be due to our clogged Court system that sees those guilty of a breach of the law often having lengthy waits for a hearing. This means that so much time elapses that the sense of consequence and connection to the offence are lost to the perpetrator.
Some years ago Celia Lashlie was considered controversial for suggesting that classroom teachers could pick a child as early as 5 years who is a high risk for future offending, particularly violent offending.
As an ex-classroom teacher I totally agree with her and so I think there is a lot of merit in a suggestion the government seems to be entertaining. The proposal is that young children with obvious and consistent oppositional behaviour problems should be identified and that parenting help and support be offered to both parents and teachers responsible for the child's well-being and development.
The civil liberterians have predictably wrung their hands in moral horror, jumping to the worst possible conclusions about how this will be handled. "Nanny-State telling parents how to raise their kids!" have been the emotive headlines.
My experience in dealing with parents who have a strong-willed and disruptive child is that they are desperate for some help as to how they can raise the kid they love to be appropriate, self-regulating and basically nice person.
There have been some interesting pilots running here in NZ and I plan to find out about them because I think there is some real potential for good.
Results from some early pilots on this project seem to be pretty favourable and so if I have any concern it is that we will take too long to roll out an early intervention to those who need it NOW!
The figures I have heard is that it will cost about $4000 for each child identified as needing additional support. That is not high when you compare it to the cost of keeping them in prison a few years later.
I guess we keep coming back to the fact that early interventions for kids and their parents makes sense and cents .... (yep too much holiday and I'm getting pun-ny).