Challenges to children's wellbeing in CQ - Health Implications - Every Child ...

Challenges to children’s
   wellbeing in CQ

     Health Implications

Issues for children’s
    wellbeing in CQ
• High rates of lower than normal
  birthweight
• Teen pregnancy (double national average)
• Overweight and obesity
• Teenage full-time unemployment
• Jobless families
• Lower primary and secondary educational
  attainment
• Indigenous unemployment (4x national
  level)
• Domestic and family violence
• Child abuse and neglect

Low birthweight

• Birthweight of

Teen pregnancy
• At the time of the birth:
   –   Low birthweight
   –   Premature labour
   –   Anaemia
   –   Pre-eclampsia
• Later on:
   –   Lower educational attainment
   –   Poverty
   –   Other poorer life outcomes
   –   (even when other factors are accounted for)

Overweight and obesity
• Implications for children:
   – Persistence of obesity into
     adulthood
   Immediate consequences
   – Psychological dysfunction
   – Social isolation
   – Body dissatisfaction, possibly
     leading to eating disorders
   – asthma

Overweight and obesity
    Cost of obesity and overweight to
    Australia (2005)
    • Direct: $21 billion per year
    • Indirect: $35.6 billion per year
      (value of lost productivity due to
      premature death and
      absenteeism)
    • Total: $56.6 billion per year

Youth unemployment

Our society equates usefulness with
productivity, and productivity with paid work.

Youth unemployment

• Likely to have (in later life):
  – Lower pay
  – Higher unemployment
  – Reduced life chances
  – Greater mental health problems (40s and 50s)

Jobless families

• Greater proportion of young people not
  studying at all
• Young people twice as likely to feel
  dissatisfied / very dissatisfied with their
  studies
• Twice as likely to indicate they were not
  planning to complete Year 12

Lower levels of primary and
 secondary educational attainment

• Education has a greater impact on health
  than childhood socioeconomic status
• Educational attainment is generally
  determined by social class origin
• Education inequality then flows to
  employment inequality

Poverty is strongly linked with
  low attainment at school

For better academic
  outcomes kids need:

• Good health and
  wellbeing
• Better social and
  emotional
  competencies
• Greater physical
  activity levels

Children who are affected by
 domestic violence experience
significant negative impacts to
their wellbeing and functioning

Domestic and family violence
• Internalised behaviours
  – Anxiety, depression, trauma symptoms,
    problems with temperament
• Externalised behaviours
  – Aggression, antisocial behaviour, social
    incompetence.
• Social problems
• Academic problems

Child abuse and neglect
•   Serious effects on the developing brain
•   Trust issues
•   Persistent anxiety/anger
•   Formation of healthy relationships
•   Speech and language development
•   Educational achievement
•   Mental health issues

Child abuse and neglect
•   Suicide
•   Aggressive and violent behaviours
•   Physical health problems
•   Teenage pregnancy, STIs, sexual assault
•   Homelessness/housing instability
•   Unemployment
•   Death

We need to act now

• These are huge issues for the whole
  community
• If we can make just a tiny shift on a few
  there’s huge potential for improvement

A big hill to climb
    Our Everest Trek aims
   to address a few of the
     issues outlined today

A big hill to climb

A big hill to climb
• We’re supporting four young Central Queenslanders
  from disadvantaged backgrounds to change their lives
  for the better by climbing to Mt Everest Base Camp.
• They’ve faced some of the issues raised here today and
  this is our way of sending a message to the community

A big hill to climb
• This huge challenge is about more than a
  physical change to the lives of these four
  young people
• It’s about us standing up and showing the
  community we care about their health and
  we’re making a small step to climbing the
  challenge of conquering chronic disease

A call to action
•   No-one can win this fight alone
•   We need to work together
•   Get involved in this social movement
•   We are determined to improve the health
    of Central Queenslanders