Dr. James O'Shea:

I thank the Senator. She is absolutely right. In many ways we are like the fire service and we think we provide a pretty good firefighting service but nonetheless, there is a fire alight by the time we get there. I believe trauma runs through the lives of individuals, families and whole generations like a fire and the Senator's question is how we stop that fire starting. There are definitely simple things we can do. Many years ago I asked a public health nurse how we could stop this cycle. She said at the time she did the first baby visit, she could see the risks. One of our colleagues said we need to be working with young men and women before they have kids. It about working with people from the very start of their lives. It is intensive supports, especially for vulnerable families. We need to provide supports for all families but we need to target vulnerable families. We also need intensive resources and supports in our community, intensive youth programmes, education programmes and employment programmes. When young people are engaged in positive activities, education and employment they are far less likely to be engaged in problematic drug use and far less likely to be engaged in the whole range of behaviours that go with that. We need to be aware of the risk factors and try to minimise them, but we also need to invest heavily in protective factors. I mean protective factors around families, particularly in vulnerable families and in communities, especially vulnerable communities.