Dr Az Hakeem's Views on Children in Crisis!

Stories involving children in crisis have raised serious questions about kids and their parents.  Dr. Az Hakeem shared his thoughts on 'Weekend Sunrise' programme on Australian TV and below is a transcription...

What are the reasons for children to run away from home? 

Every year 30 thousand Australians go missing and more than half of that number are below the age of 18. 

What are a the warning signs the Parents should look for:..

1. The child becoming more isolative
2. More arguments at home, 
3. Changes in behaviour and these happen usually in teenagers. 

The signs are really vague and these don't really help much in teenagers. It makes it quite difficult to identify. But, the more unusual the child’s behavior is from what you expect and that could be a sign. 

The pull and push factors of children running away:-

The pull factor can be the idea when child feels life can be better when they have more freedom.

The push factor can be impulsive acts in response to recent event/an anticipated event, running away from something at a spur of the moment kind of thing. 

For some children it is not impulsive, it is a planned escape perhaps when they have some conflicts at home, conflict with parents, a style of parenting to get away from, or they worry they can be in trouble for something, or they may have some problems with drugs or alcohol or might be coming out with their sexuality or something like that. 

Some group are escaping from some form of physical/sexual or emotional abuse. There is another category where it is termed 'throw away-runaway children'...where is not clear whether they have been run away or thrown out of home- a blurred category. 

What parents can do to prevent this:

There is no foolproof way to prevent this. If you think of the run away child as indicative of something having  gone wrong from their environment they are running away from; then surely getting that environment right is the best approach. 

Other things that parents can do include...

1. Providing a supportive environment for the child
2. Being available to talk to the child when something is wrong
3. Fostering a culture of emotional articulacy within the family 
4. Children having the freedom to approach you and talk to you when something's up, this is very straight forward. This is really not taking place in most of the families. 

It takes time and effort in fostering an environment which is supportive.

For the video click here.