The Wire

Indigenous children are suffering four times more stress than non-indigenous children because of difficult family situations, and 60% are not ready for school when they begin year 1. The release of the Western Australian Aboriginal Health Survey was a breakthrough this week in providing some hard facts on what aboriginal kids are dealing with. It concludes that current intervention programs are just not working. Alex Parry asked the report’s author, Colleen Haywood of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, how different community groups have reacted to the report’s findings.