Archived by the National Library of New Zealand. Archived copy available at: http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/content-aggregator/getIEs?system=ilsdb&id=1350783 Title from PDF cover (viewed on Sept. 28, 2009). Hypertext links contained in the archived instances of this title are non-functional. Study group members: Jennifer Coote ... [et al.]. "July 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-18).

1 Introduction 2 2 Summary 4 3 Background 6 • Families at risk of passing on their dysfunction to their children • Results of high levels of stress on infant brains • Economic benefits and costs of early intervention 4 Early intervention in New Zeal

This report focuses on the situation of pre-school children in New Zealand families which can be described as seriously dysfunctional over several generations. The report provides information about dysfunctional families and their children, and describes what is already being done to try to reverse the cycle of dysfunction through early intervention programmes. The authors explore what has been learnt from evaluations of intervention programmes and how they are evolving, with a discussion on how and why they need to evolve further. Finally, the report discusses the need to address the long-term nature of efforts required to solve the problem. The authors have drawn on international studies on dysfunctional families and their children, including neurological and economics research related to this topic, and a range of publications and New Zealand media reports, conference and seminar attendance, and interviews with several senior practitioners and researchers in the field of child and family welfare. The authors find seriously dysfunctional families have multiple, complex problems and are likely to pass these problems to the next generation. Neurological studies have shown that the stress children in such families suffer leads to poor outcomes for individuals and the wider community; however, early specialist intervention has the potential to ensure the conditions for normal development, with economic benefits to society that can far outweigh the costs of targeted early intervention (New Zealand specific economic data is required). Although the government funds early intervention programmes for high-risk families with young children, there is still much to be learnt about how best to help these families. Efforts must be made to minimise the number of families that drop out, and a commitment provided to long term funding and evaluation of the programmes. The need for intensive early intervention programmes targeted towards such families needs to be better understood by the public. The report is aimed at members of the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women and others interested in understanding the complexity of the problems of the families it discusses.

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