BY
JACOB WAISWA
GRADUATE PEACE AND CONFLICT PROGRAM
P.O. BOX 7062,
MAKERERE-UNIVERSITY
KAMPALA-UGANDA
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug
Introduction:
The study rotates around family conflicts (or family mental health issues) which, if mismanaged, potentially, spills over into the wider community. It goes further to trace individual concerns (inner conflicts) that families consciously or unconsciously perpetuate –which, if not given due attention, like a time-bomb, blows up into serious social costs like substance abuse, aggressive and risky behaviors, increased HIV/AIDS prevalence, low productivity, poverty and looming ignorance to solve those problems. It is, thus, pertinent to address such problems from the environment around the root (individuals at family level) in order to achieve sustainable peace in the wider community (global peace).
A family is a fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children (thefreedictionary.com, retrieved October 7, 2010) defines. Family mental health is critical determinant of future wars, turmoil and their consequences while parenting justified parenthood through realization of noble roles in respect of child development and growth that sees the child re-socialize and project himself or herself to independence, learn to co-exist peacefully with family members and society as well as be in position to prioritize among the various interaction sources in the environment to achieve defined goals in life. Fancher R. (2010) explained, “…Because what other people think determines what opportunities you're going to have in life, and other people already have that power, whether you and your therapist recognize it or not."
Background
There are nearly 54 million people around the world with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder (manic-depressive illness). Estimated 154 million people suffer from depression. People living in developing countries are disproportionately affected. Mental disorders are increasingly prevalent in developing countries, the consequence of persistent poverty-driven conditions, the demographic transition, conflicts in fragile states and natural disasters. At the same time, more than 50% of developing countries do not provide any care for persons with mental disorders in the community. These disorders bring significant hardship not only to those who suffer from them, but also to their caregivers -- often the family, given the lack of mental health resources found in developing countries (WHO, 2007).
Throughout the world, more than a billion people are seriously ill or malnourished resulting into death of some ten million children each year in Africa alone. The Earth’s population nearing 6 billion continue to grow by more than 90 million each year, more than 90% of that growth is in developing countries. This constantly expanding population increases the need for food, housing, water and industry –which brings further damage to land, water, and air from industrial and other pollutants.
The Problem
The poor quality of childhood upbringing characterized by malnutrition, visual inputs, poor model objects, neglect and domestic violence has a toll on child’s wellness and peace, peace and wellness of his or her family, community and global peace. To address the existing global conflict situation we need track personal history, mend it and prevent future conflicts through early diagnosis of children growth and development antagonisms.
Main Objective of the Intervention:
The main objective of the intervention is to proactively deal with violence against children and family level to achieve sustainable global peace.
Intervention Objectives:
The intervention set out to find out how best to make X’s movements safe, to identify origins of the sudden break down of mental functioning, develop ways to recovery of X, and X’s recovery and its implication on peace of the family and wider community.
Scope of the Intervention:
The scope of the intervention is child abuse and neglect in families and their implication on peace in the wider community (global peace).
Significance of the Intervention:
The significance of the intervention is to reach sustainable peace for future generations to thrive by addressing conflict issues (or psychological concerns) right from within individuals in the families to the wider community.
The Case:
There was a case involving a youth (X) who had suddenly broken down –mentally and began loitering on the streets in areas perceived to be secure –since trust had been lost for everyone and everything. No longer could X work, live in a family setting and trust friends. X was sleepless and often rushed out of bed claiming some people wanted to take X’s life.
The Case Interventions:
The interventions involved consulting various mental health professionals in psychiatry and psychology fields, faiths known for their healing powers, seeking networks of people thought to have cared a lot about X, enactment to review and re-show loving and caring scenes with people said to have victimized X, cognitive-based approaches to re-instate truthfulness or rightfulness of situations from the wrongfully perceived states, subjecting X to new environments free from people held responsible for X’s problem, medical care to assess X’s physiological state, examination of X’s love life, and signing in X to the world of social networking (i.e. facebook.com).
Findings:
The challenges of children growing in broken families included; the big burden to achieve life goals on their own –with no hope of parental intervention, inability to make wise health decisions, difficulty to ensure personal safety and healthy social relations, generation of high pressure to achieve and to break development barriers (mentally, socially and institutionally), the fear of dropping out of school due to inability to pay fees on his or her own that catapults into failure to concentrate and excel academically in order to attain a good career, inability to solve problems associated with choosing and having healthy relationships, and inability to manage chronic stress that characterizes his or her family life a condition that, potentially, pursues child into adulthood –and in responsible social positions. Also, there are critical challenges of lack of social support coupled with the lack of confidence to seek it –as viable path to building resilience required for the child succeed in life.
It was, then, upon community to proactively change the situation through actively granting political, economic, and socio-cultural and safety rights –to significantly avert insecurity in all its manifestations right from family level. It was concluded from an intervention in the life of an abused and neglected child that the amount of resilience resulting from positive reinforcement from friends, teachers and inspiring leaders or roles models from media products, supported adaptability or coping -and some kind of positive spiritual inclinations greatly catapulted abused and neglected children through traps of childhood suffocation, underachievement, psychopathological enclaves and demeaning parental hostilities.
It was noted that involvement of godly impressions as part of the intervention in addressing psychological implications of child abuse, worked best in situations –where the victim trusted no one –including those who really loved them. However, every intervention counted and complimented each other.
In addition, community interventions at village level, national level, regional and global forces of peace restructuring, reconciliation required actual provision of physical needs to victims of domestic violence –ensuring access to development needs and support information on successful human development –as critical means to control and prevent wars and psychological trauma. From the inner peace of individual family members, society can register sustainable peace.
Limitations of the Interventions:
There is never standard time of recovery; it can be very frustrating if you set your own time. Recovery is very gradual, slow, sometimes showing reversals and stagnation. However, with endurance, optimism and timeless patience, positive results show up.
Discussion:
According to the en.wikipedia.org (2010), Insecurity is a feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving of oneself to be unloved, inadequate or worthless (whether in a rational or an irrational manner). A person who is insecure lacks confidence in their own value and capability; lacks trust in themselves and/or others, or has fears that a present positive state is temporary and will let them down and cause them loss or distress by "going wrong" in the future. Insecurity may cause shyness, paranoia and social withdrawal, or alternatively it may encourage compensatory behaviors such as arrogance, aggression, or bullying. Insecurity is often rooted in a person's childhood years.
Indeed some of the outcomes can be in form of aggressive attitudes, fears, anxieties, and broken ambitions –which later go behavioral in form of acts like substance abuse, irrational decision making, forming socially dangerous alliances or relationships (as means to “address” personal insecurities), registering underachievement in all or selected aspects of life, concerns of anti-social personality disorders, problems associated with authoritative and abusive parenting, poor role-modeling along the path to becoming future parents, high levels of crime and prostitution (and its associated problems), and violence in homes and in the wider society –all of which are true manifestation of structural violence with roots right in the family.
Incidentally, some of the products from such families attain high social positions and, so, society begins to meet the costs. Such (products) are generated from broken families because of the conditions dictated by the negative past.
A 2005 national (US) study of psychiatric disorders revealed the origins of childhood anger –which included rejection by peers and siblings, parental anger, marital conflicts, low self-esteem, difficulty in trusting, separation and divorce, poor body image and academic difficulties (Fitzgibbons P., 2005).
But media too is another form of abuse for children (or adolescents). It influenced adolescent’s later years either to the good or for worst of that child. Psychologist Jeffrey Johnson, PhD, in a report by The Washington Post (2002) noted, “The more people watch [TV], the more they perceive the world to be frightening place. They are prepared to respond aggressively.”
It is important to look at children as human capital of the future through integrating health nutrition and early childcare services for young children in developing countries (Young, M. 1996). According to her, childhood problems are greatly influenced by poverty. Poor children in their earliest years faced problems such as stunted mental and physical development, and the lack of preparation for school set the stage for low academic achievement, high drop-out, functional illiteracy, lack of productivity in the work force, and even delinquency and dependence on society.
Brain studies demonstrate that early years are critical in the development of intelligence, personality and social behaviour before the age of three. Childhood education can reduce social costs in such areas as school repetition, juvenile delinquency and drug use (Young, M. 1996).
Absence of love, trust, and feeling of insecurity on the part of the child influences later development outlooks and, in years to come, it will be society that either benefits or suffers. Forgiveness reduces excessive anger in children and in teenagers and may prevent the development of later psychiatric disorders by giving children and teenager a proven method for resolving anger (Fitzgibbons, P. 2005).
By 2002, domestic violence was rife in Uganda as married couples in Eastern town of Jinja were still at war using –using knives, fuel, and other weapons –resulting in serious injuries and death. Violence is highly ‘contagious’ or learned. It swiftly spreads into the minds of growing up children who adopt that tool in future conflicts whether among peers or in a similar situation as marriage.
However, in his book ‘Toddler Taming –A Parent Guide to the First Four Years’ Green, C. 1992:7 outlines the foundation as; love (feeling wanted and welcome); consistency (knowledge where they stand and where they will be tomorrow); tackle tension (which is the most destructive influence in today’s child rearing); a good example to follow; reasonable expectations (what is normal and to expect); fun and enjoyment; and confidence.
Conclusion and Recommendation (s):
Family and individual members in it cannot be separated from the wider community. Indeed communalism is medicine of its own. The wider community had inexhaustible reserves for the family to access for survival and wellness purposes –which is a foundation for community survival and wellness –in return.
This is so because from the community the family obtained enabling policies, social services, physical and psychological security as well as development opportunities for junior members’ progress into the future. Such guaranteed security for the family, inner peace for individuals members of the family and, eventually, sustainable community peace.
As the family continues to play its children development roles –providing both moral and physical support, the community, too, begins to identify its development concerns and wishes in that child. That, though, can either be for the good or worse. Responsibility on the part of family and community and eventual decisions made, thus, contributes to mental wellness of the child that characterizes freedom from the means to psychological trauma as violence.
A multi-sectoral approach to peaceful building is core in recovery and, thus, ought to be put into consideration in any intervention design. This is so because human needs are holistic by nature. But, families must be very careful with what they sow in a developing child, so that society resources can be channeled to prosperity concerns. However, more research is needed to measure extents of each of the various interventions made. It would be interesting to find out differences in the degrees of impact for each intervention.
References:
En.wikipedia (2010) ‘Emotional insecurity’ Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_insecurity last modified on 19 September 2010
Fancher R. (2010). ‘The Necessity of Moral Engagement’ Available at http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=40302&cn=91 Retrieved on October 7, 2010
Fitzgibbons P. (2005). ‘Protecting the Emotional Health of Children’ Available at http://www.maritalhealing.com/conflicts/conflictsinchildren.php Retrieved on October 7, 2010
Green, C. (1992) Toddler Taming: A Parent’s Guide to the First Four years. Vermilion London (UK) P.7
Odeke, A. (2002) Domestic Violence Ripe in Uganda. BBC Monday, May 20, 2002 Available at news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Africa/1998977.stm Accessed November, 2010
The Washington Post (2002) Ed. by K. Hewlett (2002) Monitor on Psychology June, 2002 p. 13 Vol. 33. N0. 6
The free dictionary (2010) ‘Family’ Available at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/family Retrieved on October 7, 2010
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (1993) What is the Purpose of Life? P.1
WHO (2007) ‘Community Mental Health Services Will Lessen Social Exclusion, Says WHO.’ Available at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2007/np25/en/index.html Retrieved October 7th, 2010
Young, M. (1996) The Benefits of Early Child Development Program World Bank
Showing posts with label global problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global problems. Show all posts
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