Parental interventions needed from birth to prevent abuse
A lack of resources is the main reason why there are not more programmes targeted at equipping parents to better socialise their children, says state minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Robert Morgan.
“What we’ve realised, in collaborating with the multinationals and the local experts, is that while we have been very strong on immunisation, and providing help for mothers to reduce our infant mortality rate, Jamaica has not been very strong on the socialisation of our new mothers and our families,” Morgan told a panel of journalists at a Jamaica Observer Press Club meeting at the beginning of Child Month.
“[We need to] pivot from just the physical interventions in your life — where you get a card to say come and immunise your child, and feed the baby breast milk,” he continued. “All the studies are saying if you don’t intervene at the community level and the parenting level, you will not reduce the incidents of violence within the society.”
Morgan noted that while his ministry continues to lead the charge in the education and development of children in schools and State facilities, it will require a unified approach by several arms of the Government to reduce instances of child abuse, and ensure that parents are teaching them positive values for adulthood.
“When I speak about intervening in families and teaching parents, it’s not just a singular ministry doing it,” he explained. “What we’re trying to do is bring all of the ministries together, because we recognise that we have to help the parents, not just with immunisation and telling you how to feed your babies properly, but also to teach you better ways of socialising your children.”
Morgan highlighted successful public education campaigns such as ‘two is better than two many’ which have had excellent results in the past, and highlighted that his ministry is crafting a new campaign geared at equipping Jamaicans with good parenting skills, and the elimination of corporal punishment (flogging) as a means of discipline.
