Book chapter
Improving the wellbeing of Australian children and youth: the importance of bridging the know-do gap
Bridging the 'Know-Do' Gap: Knowledge brokering to improve child wellbeing, pp.3-17
ANU Press
2010
Abstract
This chapter seeks to place the need for knowledge sharing in the context of children and youth growing up in Australia today. We present evidence of the disturbing lack of progress in improving the life chances of our young people, including continuing if not accelerating socio-demographic inequalities, and describe how a determination to address these issues led to the creation of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY). We emphasise the critical importance of an evidence-based approach to policy and practice in improving children’s life chances and describe some of the obstacles to the uptake of knowledge, such as the ubiquitous ‘silo’ mentality and rigid organisational structures. We then highlight some instances where available knowledge is not being fully applied. For example, we know that prevalent problems such as child abuse and neglect are the result of a complex set of causal factors and that we will never have the capacity to provide effective responses to all children and youth affected by them. This leads to the conclusion that we must shift the emphasis to prevention and early intervention. Yet, the majority of resources continue to be channelled into responding to the problems rather than their causes. We end by describing some of ARACY’s recent initiatives, which are aimed at advancing our capacity to use knowledge to improve the health, development and wellbeing of children and youth.
Details
- Title
- Improving the wellbeing of Australian children and youth: the importance of bridging the know-do gap
- Authors/Creators
- Ann Sanson - The University of MelbourneFiona Stanley - Univ Western Australia, Sch Paediat & Child Hlth, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia
- Contributors
- G Bammer (Editor)Annette Michaux (Editor)Ann Sanson (Editor) - The University of Melbourne
- Publication Details
- Bridging the 'Know-Do' Gap: Knowledge brokering to improve child wellbeing, pp.3-17
- Publisher
- ANU Press; CANBERRA ACT
- Number of pages
- 15
- Identifiers
- 991005571153907891
- Copyright
- © 2010 ANU E Press
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Ngangk Yira Institute for Change
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
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