Alison MacDonald, Chair, Scottish Attachment in Action

Sir Harry Burns, Professor of Global Public Health at University of Strathclyde

What’s the best way to help communities thrive?

Conventional medical thinking has led us to believe it’s the bad choices we make that causes our poor health. However, for many people, it’s their inability to make good decisions for themselves that is the problem.

Modern science shows that the circumstances into which we are born and grow up determines our ability to feel good about ourselves. Children who grow up feeling secure and loved are much more likely to have a positive view of themselves and to see the importance of having a positive lifestyle which enhances their wellbeing. The children who live in circumstances which see them experience domestic problems such as violence, drugs and alcohol or parental mental health problems find it difficult to make positive decisions about themselves. If Scotland is to improve its health, narrow inequality across the population and allow all our children to achieve their full potential in life, building secure connections and relationships in families must be a priority.

Professor Helen Minnis, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow

Thriving through community and connections

Attachment relationships are the key way in which we learn to manage our stress responses through life – but some of us struggle to achieve these relationships more than others. Children who have experienced abuse and neglect, and children who have neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and Autism, often struggle more than others to use the support of parents, extended families and communities. This also means that some children are harder to parent than others. Through understanding the different ways in which children can struggle to get the best from relationships we might be able to offer better support to parents to, in turn, support their children’s development. We are “pack animals” and, as we grow up, it is our parents, our extended families, and our communities that support us to thrive.

This session provides an opportunity to hear from  a number of speakers with voices of experience and the great work already taking place in our communities along with two recent pieces of research recently undertaken by Glasgow University interns for Scottish Attachment in Action.

Moira Greentree, Executive Director of The Why Not Trust – The Village – A supportive social network, of safe trusted people, makes becoming a parent much easier.  Recognising not everyone has supportive relationships readily available the Village was developed to provide a digital, accessible, welcoming, community.  From the proverb, it takes a Village to raise a child, we created The Village, which is now part of The Why Not Trust.  Co-designed with voices of experience, learning from experience and research, and in collaboration with Early Years Scotland and Scottish Attachment in Action. The Village is now aiming to reach all expectant and new parents with experience of care in Scotland.  Moira will share the learning and future plans.

Virginie Clayton, Unity Sisters – The person is who they are because of another person. Unity Sisters is a self-organised support group for asylum-seeking women, refugees, and their children. A group of women who have all experienced the process of going through the immigration system, and Unity Sisters aim is to support women going through similar experiences to fully integrate into their communities.

“Unity Sisters support us to connect to each other and build the sisterhood’s relationship.”

Sapna Agarwal – Colonisation, displacement and migration have all, in different ways, caused a rupture in the transfer of cultural norms and understanding from one generation to the next. A key aspect of this is how people relate to each other and form attachments, both within family groups but also in the wider community. This talk will look at what has been lost and why, and the attempts being made to reclaim ancestral knowledge.

Research launch

Fatima Durrani – The impact of multi-generational poverty on attachment dynamics within south Asian families residing in Scotland: an investigation of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities

Isabelle McTamney – An investigation into the interplay between parental incarceration and attachment theory in families experiencing intergenerational poverty and inequality.

Q&A Poverty, Communities and Attachment

Wendy McAuslan, Director, Scottish Attachment in Action