Great question. Ideally, role modeling the right behaviours starts at home. But, many home environments are dysfunctional and violent (I speak from personal experience). You cannot expect that domestic abusers will teach their kids how to treat others respectfully. Therefore, external intervention to ‘break the cycle’ is required.
Externally, the most obvious choice is education via the school system. Teachers quite frankly have enough on their plate already, but unfortunately we seem to be in such a widespread public health crisis that a nationwide public health system intervention is required.
I can tell you that having grown up in such an environment, it never occurred to me that being beaten up regularly by my father was unusual. It wasn’t until a video was shown at high school when I was about 16 years old that I realised this. Even then, I did not disclose this to anyone until I was at least 18 years old because the shame is very real. You think it’s your fault.
Fortunately, I realised at some point that education was my way out and I left home and travelled far away to go to university.
Nowadays, I’m leading a research project at a prominent Australian university to support mental health and suicide prevention for Aborignal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
I could bang on all day about this topic because 1 in 3 Australians will need mental health support in their lifetimes and the vast majority are slipping through the cracks due to public under-funding at a national level, and poor social determinants of health that are exacerbated for any minority sub-demographics.
