The Island has 53 people aged between 8 and 19 receiving overseas treatment because of their dysfunctions and behavioural challenges, according to the Minister of Youth, Families, Sport and Community Development Glenn Blakeney.

And he said the "worrying thing" was that some of those people upon their return to the Island had absolutely no family to go to for various reasons and were often dependent on Government support.

He told the House of Assembly on Friday: "We have a situation where there is an individual parent under the age of 25 with six children. Now how can that parent work with six children? It's almost impossible.

"They are almost completely dependent upon the particular social services to help them and not just for the support of their children but in the other extended services which will help to instill the kind of upbringing that she alone will probably be ill equipped to handle because someone under 25 years has had very few of life's experiences.

"The other thing I have realised is that a very significant number of those involved in the gang related activities have been former residents in our residential care facility and in the last several years there has been no truly indicative measured outcome of what we face with these particular individuals."

Mr Blakeney said his new Ministry faced a very daunting challenge but Government was committed to appropriately addressing and helping resolve some of these matters.

He said a woman with a baseball bat had recently gone to a man's home looking for another lady in a "relationship dispute".

In another situation some young men had to rush restaurant employees to give them their food quickly because if seen in a certain area they would be accosted by members of a rival gang.

"These kinds of incidents are happening far and wide and they are concerning to every single individual and I think everyone in the country knows that I have and my family our own personal challenges. And we all have to make a concerted effort in saving the next generation and that is why a huge part of our force in Ministry will be directed to this.

"We have included a significant amount of laws as to discourage and prevent the kind of behaviour and ramifications of such dysfunctional behaviour that continues to spiral out of control."

He said he was particularly concerned about young children who have lost a parent to gun crime and believes they could struggle with their emotional state once they reach school age.

Mr Blakeney said psychological intervention was needed for children "because we can't wait until they are a different age because they do not want to hear it".

He said the Ministry was committed to various forms of intervention that would curtail and prevent these kinds of behaviours, which are becoming common place. He also said they would be looking to use sports clubs and art and music programmes to get through to young people.