Don't You Love Me, Mummy?

By Heather Mackay

Violent abusive behaviours that shatter lives in a community have their roots in the past, meaning today we are dealing with intergenerational violence. With energy and determination, this generation can bring it to an end.

Community Psychology simultaneously fixes individuals as it fixes communities. It has the potential to bring about sustainable changes because it is organised entirely by the community members.

The American anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Just three or four like-minded citizens can begin processes that bring about changes in any community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Mackay
• Release date: Oct 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301539659

Heather Mackay

Mackay Books & Mackay Ebooks based in Auckland, New Zealand. Make 2013 the year you take charge and self publish your own book with Mackay Books. In just 4 weeks you can have your book in hand. Then we start the interesting and fun process of selling the book. We have worked hard to find a system that helps the self published author recoup as much, if not all, of the money invested in getting a book published, in both hard copy form and ebooks. Our process is working well and begins with a free manuscript appraisal. Simply email us your manuscript for a free appraisal and more information on the processes. Mackay Books & Mackay Ebooks Phone + 64 9 235 6272 Email: [e-mail] NOTE: We are accepting manuscripts now for 2013 publishing, not only in New Zealand, but also in the USA, England and Australia.

Book preview

Don’t You Love Me, Mummy?

Heather Mackay

Copyright belongs to H Mackay 2012 ©

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the writer and the publisher.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Published by Mackay Books on Smashwords

350 Bothwell Park Road

R D 2

Waiuku 2682

New Zealand

[e-mail]

Strong, healthy and resilient communities don’t just happen.

They are made to happen.

A community is a group of people—a geographic area encompassing a township; a wing in a hospital or gaol; a factory department; it may be one classroom or an entire school; even an individual family can be viewed as a community.

Community Psychology is research in action. Fixing communities by utilising practical research and action, undertaken by the community, will uncover areas where changes are needed. Partnerships composed of community members undertake research to find underlying causes of problems, plans are drawn up to remedy those shortcomings, plans are implemented and the results are recorded for comparison purposes to see if the plan is working.

Projects that increase resources within the community such as construction or renovation of buildings or development of playing fields or swimming pools can be undertaken in community partnerships to enhance the lives of the community members.

No one person is more powerful than any other in community psychology. All hold equal voices, whether those voices are children’s or adults.

All children and adults in our communities at times need help and friendship. Community Psychology links those who want to help with those who need help, building stronger more resilient communities.

Contents

Part One

Community Psychology simultaneously fixes individuals as it fixes communities

Part Two

Grim information about child abuse

Part Three

Research studies into the long term effects of child abuse

*****

Part One

Community Psychology simultaneously fixes individuals as it fixes communities

The American anthropologist Margaret Mead said, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Just three or four like-minded citizens can begin processes that bring about changes in any community. The principles found in community psychology are similar for small communities or groups or entire towns. Our focus will be on utilising community psychology for a larger community.

Community psychology works within the environment, finding strengths and resources and correcting imbalances of power which cause subordination to some members of the community. It identifies needs within a community through participatory action research and creates change in a community before serious problems arise. A community may be composed of a small group of members such as one department in a factory that contains 15 workers who want better conditions in their workplace; it may be a school of 500 pupils that is trying to eliminate bullying; the community may be a larger group such as 200,000 people living in a particular geographic area who want improved safety on their streets at night. The principles are the same for any community although the types of problems differ.

Most troubles in a community are rooted in the past, years prior to trouble taking place. A similar set of problems that created problems for yesterday’s children will be found in today’s modern towns – extreme poverty, homes where children are maltreated through poor parenting, a child or adult homicide, teen or adult suicide, behavioural problems in the schools, children leaving school with inadequate education, graffiti on public property, dangerous streets in daytime or after dark, drug and alcohol abuse, boy racers on streets, gang problems, home invasions and robbery.

Small children are particularly vulnerable and have little power to control the environment in which they live, being wholly dependent on adults to provide the essentials of life. That initial dependency is in the home. As they grow, they look to others for support and care. Schools are expected to provide a safe place where education and social development takes place; communities too are expected to offer a safe environment with resources available for the use of community members. Communities, like parents and caregivers, hold a stake in seeing children grow into healthy, educated, self-confident people.

Currently, most forms of intervention for disadvantaged children and families takes place at an individual level—for example, counselling an individual member of the family or an entire family; supplying food parcels when money is short; teaching the practicalities of budgeting with an expectation that the family will quickly take responsibility for its own predicament and conform with established societal norms. These intervention measures usually aren’t enough to make any long-term differences.

Interventions take place only when a problem is brought to the attention of the authorities. Inquiries into the family environment may establish that the root of the problems are due to a lack of vital elements in the home—poor parenting skills, inadequate education, inferior genes, few job skills, poor work ethics, mental health issues and so on. The family is given little credit for the fact that they may be trying to survive within a set of impossible parameters.

In Community Psychology there is no yardstick that measures where a family ‘should be’ if they are to be regarded as a functioning unit. Each problem is viewed without judgement, and answers as to why problems occurred will be uncovered in the community. Each family, as problems are fixed, moves along a continuum that is unique to them. There are no hierarchies or experts in community psychology. Victim-blaming and judgmental attitudes are absent. It looks at social structures that define the ways we think and act, and dismantles the structures that fail to promote a fair and just society. The agenda of any research programme is open for all to see and take part in; members of the community participate as co-researchers within the research project.

Interesting findings and interpretations from traditional psychological research projects are often published in specialised journals and books, which are not readily available to the general public. In contrast, in a community psychological research project, the community itself conducts the research, then uses the findings and interpretations resulting from their collected data to construct a planned intervention to bring about changes in their own environment. Social power structures that give power to some are dismantled, judgements and criticisms give way to community structures that empower the unempowered, and as the powerful ones relinquish their power, the less powerful find their voices and their opinions are heard and acted upon and social injustices are addressed.

Strengthening the community

If a community is closely analysed, it will be seen that most communities already contain underutilised resources —volunteers offering free labour and services, vacant buildings, specialised skills, and unfilled