For humanities, we had to write a letter to our MP about an issue we thought was important. For this, I decided to write about Childhood Trauma, which falls under the category of mental health. I chose to voice this issue as it is something that most children have to go through on a daily basis and it is affecting their lives terribly.
Below is my letter.
Maya Balagopal
All Saints’ Collage
Ewing Avenue
Bullcreek WA 6149
Ms. Simone McGurk MP
PO Box 912
Fremantle, WA, 6959
Dear Ms. McGurk,
I am a year eight student attending All Saints College, and I am writing to you about the issue of childhood trauma in Western Australia. To me this is a huge problem and I believe that it should be a big problem for you to think about too. Childhood trauma is an important thing that affects numerous people’s lives and affects the younger generation and, if it gets worse, could pose a threat to the future of society.
Childhood trauma may occur when a child witnesses or experiences overwhelming adverse events in their childhood. Various childhood experiences can overwhelm a child. These can happen in relationships such as with abuse, assault, neglect, violence, exploitation, or bullying. This is known as interpersonal trauma. Interpersonal trauma happens among people. But they can also experience these events. These include things like accidents, natural disasters, war and civil unrest, medical procedures, or the sudden loss of a parent or guardian through death, divorce, separation, or imprisonment.
This is a critical issue to me as it is something that I feel others should not have to go through as traumatic events can be very life-threatening and scary. I have chosen to voice this issue as it is an essential part of future generations of society, and it is something that people are going through in their daily lives.
I believe that you, other leaders around Australia, and the world need to be acting on the issue of childhood trauma as it is an issue that is real today and is affecting many other people’s lives. Did you know that approximately 2.5 million Australian adults (13%) have experienced abuse during their childhood This includes 1.6 million adults (8.5%) who experienced childhood physical abuse and 1.4 million adults (7.7%) who experienced childhood sexual abuse. These are all things that people should not have to go through and that can be life-changing for those who do have to go through it.
I understand that you and your team are more than likely doing your best to try and prevent this problem from happening, but it is still a real thing, and something needs to be done to help these people. I would like you to please try and understand what these people are going through and what most have already gone through, it is a ridiculously challenging time for those, and this is something that is affecting many people’s lives. Trauma can have a massive impact on children’s ability to learn, socialise and grow as human beings and feel as though there is no one to protect them, I would like you to help these children so that they can progress and continue on in their daily lives.
I know that this problem will be extremely hard to stop, so I ask you to help those who have or are going through this. There are children that no longer feel safe going to their own home and are scared of walking in the streets alone. There are children that don’t even want to go to school but are forced to. These children are having the hardest time and it is unacceptable. To help these children, I ask you to please inform others around WA and the rest of Australia, and have children learn it in class so they know what to do if it does happen.
Some things that could be done to help these children would be to have things like shelters that kids can go to if they don’t feel safe at home. Or to give teachers more training on how to talk to their students and ask if they do have any problems like this so that the teachers can help them and inform someone like a psychologist to aid them and give them advice on how to recover from these things.
So, once again I ask you to please try and help children who have gone through traumatic events so that they can move on with their lives, and eventually, no one will have to go through what some people once had to.
Yours sincerely,
Maya Balagopal