BY Khush Funer
According to the science of child development, the base for complete mental health is built in the initial years of life when children gain good early experiences through their relationships with parents, caregivers, other relatives, peers, and teachers which influence the construction of brain development. During this developmental process, disturbances can spoil children’s abilities for learning and connecting to others, with lifetime effects ranging from the failure to complete high school to confinement to poverty. Thus, considerations for refining children’s settings, associations, and involvements in the early years are essential.
Comprehensive mental health is vital in human development for the creation and management of relations and achievement in school, work, and community. Attention to mental health issues in early childhood through the identification of cause and early intervention can reduce future compounding effects.
Comprehending how emotional happiness can be supported or disrupted in infancy can help policy makers plan for the varieties of situations and experiences that avoid issues and resolve early problems, so they do not impede child development.
It is important to recognize that:
- Mental health complications can and do arise in infants
- Damage in psychological well-being can result because of the interaction between a child’s inherited tendencies and her or his experiences
- Poisonous pressure, which is the consequence of robust, common and lengthy organic replies to danger, can impede brain development and increase the probability of mental health issues in future
- Some people exhibit amazing abilities to suppress the acute challenges of early abuse shock and sensitive destruction; however, there are restrictions to the capability of children to emotionally recuperate.
- Handling mental health issues is best done inside the setting of families, birthplaces, and societies.
Policy Implications
Policy plays a key role in early intervention. For example:
- Coordinated services: focused on young children’s full environment of relationships such as professionals, extended family members, and adults (particularly parents of young children). Mental health services will have a broader impact if they pay attention on a daily basis to the needs of young children.
- Early care and education: providers and medical professionals would be well armed to understand and manage the emotional and social problems of children if they had more professional training and frequent access to child mental health professionals as needed.
- Improved management of assets and finances: well planned access to appropriate mental health services for young children and their parents would provide for timely interventions.
The writer works as a faculty member in the Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre North (AKU-PDCN).