Poverty and child health: an annotation

SUMMARY. There is a long established link between poverty and child health, both in the United Kingdom and in other countries. In this review of the literature, the author explores the nature of this link. The paper discusses the historical background and briefly reviews the evidence from the developing countries and the controversy surrounding the definition of poverty before examining the association between child health and poverty in the United Kingdom. The author concludes with some suggestions for future research and some thoughts on the implications for doctors working with children     

Constructing the sick child: the cultural politics of children's hospitals

Drawing on an ESRC funded study of children's experiences of hospital space this article explores the cultural politics of contemporary English childhood. Using the words and commentaries provided by both children and young people, the article argues that although, as patients, children and young people share the same hospital spaces, their experiences of them are quite different. Through mundane material and symbolic practices, a number of experiential continuities are created for the youngest children between life in hospital and life at home, continuities that work to downplay their identities as children who are sick. For young people, however, these practices are more problematic since the discourses of childhood that are recreated have little resonance with young people's own experiences and sense of self and identity. Thus this article provides evidence of the need for a more nuanced understanding of not only young people's needs in relation to hospital services, but also of the significance of understanding the ways in which particular constructions of ‘the child’ and ‘childhood’ are threaded through public discourses and come to be realized in institutional settings.     

Promoting sexual health and responsible sexual behavior: an introduction

Facing a myriad of sexual health problems today, health ministries are being compelled to develop comprehensive approaches to sexual health promotion. Recently, there have been several attempts to develop these strategies at national, regional, and global levels. One of the challenges of articulating strategies has been arriving at basic definitions of sex, sexuality, sexual health, and responsible sexual behavior. However, there is remarkable consistency throughout these recent documents. These documents call for leadership of the health sector to create better climates for discussion of sexuality, access to information and education about sexuality, prevention strategies, access to care, and more research in human sexuality and evaluation of programs designed to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior.     

Conceptual and methodologic issues in the evaluation of children's satisfaction with their mental health care

The assessment of client satisfaction has become an important aspect of evaluation research in the adult mental health field, but there has been relatively little extension of that approach to the child client population. This is due to the lack of adequate methodologies for assessing treatment satisfaction in children and to the overriding conceptual issues which make it difficult to develop such measures. Further information is needed to clarify developmental differences in the way both healthy as well as medically and psychiatrically ill children conceptualize illness and treatment. The authors suggest that specific methodologies for assessing child satisfaction with treatment can be systematically developed once a more explicit developmental framework has been delineated in the area of children's understanding of medical and psychiatric disorders and their treatments.     

Children in dual-residence arrangements: Exploring discourses of fairness and children's best interest in Norway

In many countries, dual residence is increasingly common for children when parents separate. This works well for many children, but opinions differ on whether or not it should be the norm. In analysing interviews with 35 nine- to 19-year-olds with dual-residence experience in Norway, undertaken in 2018, we find clear traces of prevailing discourses in society. Claims of equality and fairness and claims of children's rights both emerge, the latter being particularly visible in the participants' recommendations to other children. Children value spending much time with both parents, but may still want more flexibility than their parents realise.     

AIDS: health education in schools:The role of the community child health services

SUMMARY. Health education is seen as the only effective method of combating the spread of AIDS, until an adequate immunisation procedure is discovered. The use of both information and education within schools is discussed, particularly emphasising the need for schools and the community child health services to work closely together. The article represents the views of the authors and is not an official document     

Central Scotland's joint police and social work initiative in child abuse: an evaluation

SUMMARY. The previous article in this issue described the joint police and social work initiative in Central Region for the investigation of child abuse allegations from the point of view of a social work manager. This paper sets out the main findings of an independent evaluative study of the same scheme, focusing on its impact on the way investigations were handled, the aspiration to make procedures more child-centred, and the development in practice of the concept of co-ordination. The study, described more fully in Brown and Fuller (1991), was carried out by the Social Work Research Centre, University of Stirling, and funded by the Social Work Services Group of the Scottish Office.     

Making better sense of children's trajectories in child protection in France

In France, the child protection system – as well as family-related policies in general – links specific interventions and schemes to the recognition of a particular situation: this is usually called the status-based approach. But in child protection, the status-based approach has severe limitations that may affect the quality of care. Piling up a number of statuses does not promote an overall vision of the child, and the evolving, dynamic nature of a child's development and history tends to disappear in a framework that relies heavily on ascertained, stable situations. Practitioners have started to develop tools to work with the children and families over time and in a more holistic manner, but these developments need to be mainstreamed and to be mirrored in administrative practices and at policy level to really take into account life trajectories.     

Housing services for child welfare-involved families: an initial evaluation using observational data

This study evaluated the impact of housing services among child welfare-involved families using observational data. Propensity score matching with data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being compared intact families (n = 183) who received housing services 12 months after initial investigation to nontreated families balanced on characteristics at the time of investigation. Results suggested that general housing services failed, on average, to effectively address the needs of inadequately housed families.     

Investing in the future: what is happening to children's health in the UK?

SUMMARY. In June 1987 the Policy and Practice Review Group of the National Children's Bureau produced a review of child health and child health services ten years after the Court Report. This article sets this review in context and summarises its findings. The author wishes to acknowledge the fundamental contribution to the text of this article made by the members of the special sub-committee of the PPRG of the NCB and of its Chairman, Professor Philip Graham.     

Promoting public health through community engagement: Embracing the journey

ABSTRACT

This case study recounts and analyzes the journey that graduate students, enrolled in an experiential, interdisciplinary health promotions course, took with a diverse, urban, Black, Midwest community. Community members, faculty, and graduate students in social work and public health were fellow travelers on this voyage into uncharted territory. A major goal of the journey was to teach students how to recognize community strengths and to facilitate the community in using those strengths. The learner’s stance is used as the guiding principle for this reflective journey that generated serendipitous benefits and challenges. The article concludes with recommendations for interdisciplinary education and curriculum development.     

The impact of child support on child health

The broad goals of child support policy are to keep children in single-parent families out of poverty and to make sure that their material needs are met. One potentially important, but relatively understudied, set of measures of child well-being are health outcomes. A fixed-effects analysis of data from the Child and Young Adult file of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth shows that, conditional upon receipt of some amount of child support, higher payment levels are associated with significantly greater odds of having private health insurance coverage and significantly lower odds of poor or declining health status. These effects persist even after controlling for other factors that are likely to be correlated with child support payments, including total family income and paternal visitation patterns.     

Sexually motivated child abductors: forensic evaluation

1. Forensic nursing evaluations of perpetrators require (at minimum) information on the crime, crime scene photographs (if possible), victim statements, official records, and perpetrator interviews. 2. If multiple crime scenes exist, each needs to be detailed for an evaluation report. 3. Sexually motivated crimes are usually committed based on a well-defined fantasy.     

Championing the interface between mental health and child protection: evaluation of a service initiative to improve joint working in northern Ireland

The importance of establishing effective inter‐agency working between adult mental health services and child care services in order to safeguard children has been repeatedly identified by research, policy, inquiries and inspection reports. This article reports on the evaluation of an initiative in one health and social care trust in Northern Ireland that aimed to facilitate joint working and so improve service provision and protection for children and families. The Champions Initiative involved identifying a Champion in each multidisciplinary community mental health team and in each family and child care team that would have responsibility for providing information, promoting joint working and identifying any obstacles to better cooperation. The evaluation of this Initiative assessed levels of experience, training, confidence, understanding and awareness in the Champions and their team members at baseline. The Champions and their Team Leaders were then followed up after six months to obtain their qualitative views of the impact of the initiative. The results include comparisons between mental health and child care staff, and crucially, views about whether the initiative has had any impact on working together. This study also generated recommendations for further service development in this complex and important area of practice. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

‘Identifying a Champion in each multidisciplinary community mental health team and in each family and child care team’

Citing Literature

Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 15

• Kerry McVeigh, The Think Family Social Work Assessment: outcomes of a family-focused initiative using The Family Model, Advances in Mental Health, 10.1080/18387357.2020.1825969, (1-15), (2020). Crossref
• Billie Lever Taylor, Liberty Mosse, Nicky Stanley, Experiences of social work intervention among mothers with perinatal mental health needs, Health & Social Care in the Community, 10.1111/hsc.12832, 27 , 6, (1586-1596), (2019). Wiley Online Library
• Lelia Fitzsimons, The role of champions in promoting family focused practice across adult mental health and children's services, Advances in Mental Health, 10.1080/18387357.2019.1661783, (1-10), (2019). Crossref
• Nicky Stanley, Khatidja Chantler, Rachel Robbins, Children and Domestic Homicide, The British Journal of Social Work, 10.1093/bjsw/bcy024, 49 , 1, (59-76), (2018). Crossref
• Sanne Rumping, Leonieke Boendermaker, Doret J. Ruyter, Stimulating interdisciplinary collaboration among youth social workers: A scoping review, Health & Social Care in the Community, 10.1111/hsc.12589, 27 , 2, (293-305), (2018). Wiley Online Library
• Robin Mason, Janice Du Mont, Maeve Paterson, Ilene Hyman, Experiences of child protection workers in collaborating with adult mental health providers: An exploratory study from Ontario, Canada, Children and Youth Services Review, 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.02.005, 86 , (271-276), (2018). Crossref
• Andani Thakhathi, Champions of Change and Organizational Development: A Return to Schön and Typology for Future Research and Practice, Research in Organizational Change and Development, 10.1108/S0897-301620180000026007, (265-306), (2018). Crossref
• Phillip Tchernegovski, Andrea E. Reupert, Darryl J. Maybery, How do Australian adult mental health clinicians manage the challenges of working with parental mental illness? A phenomenological study, Child & Family Social Work, 10.1111/cfs.12426, 23 , 3, (381-389), (2017). Wiley Online Library
• Eeva Timonen-Kallio, Juha Hämäläinen, Eila Laukkanen, Interprofessional Collaboration in Finnish Residential Child Care: Challenges in Incorporating and Sharing Expertise Between the Child Protection and Health Care Systems, Child Care in Practice, 10.1080/13575279.2016.1158153, 23 , 4, (389-403), (2016). Crossref
• Barry Luckock, Jane Barlow, Chris Brown, Developing innovative models of practice at the interface between the NHS and child and family social work where children living at home are at risk of abuse and neglect: a scoping review, Child & Family Social Work, 10.1111/cfs.12228, 22 , S4, (62-69), (2015). Wiley Online Library
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• Estela Arcos, Ximena Sanchez, Maria Cecilia Toffoletto, Margarita Baeza, Patricia Gazmuri, Luz Angélica Muñoz, Antonia Vollrath, Social protection systems in vulnerable families: their importance for the public health, Revista de Saúde Pública, 10.1590/S0034-8910.2014048005131, 48 , 3, (398-405), (2014). Crossref
• Oi Ling Wong, Integrative Family and Systems Treatment with Parental Mental Illness: A Hong Kong Chinese Family, Contemporary Family Therapy, 10.1007/s10591-014-9298-2, 36 , 2, (242-249), (2014). Crossref
• Peter Sidebotham, Rethinking Filicide, Child Abuse Review, 10.1002/car.2303, 22 , 5, (305-310), (2013). Wiley Online Library
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Volume 21 , Issue 3 May/June 2012

Pages 157-172     

Parental health and child behavior: evidence from parental health shocks

This study examines the importance of parental health in the development of child behavior during early childhood. Our analysis is based on child psychometric measures from a longitudinal German dataset, which tracks mothers and their newborns up to age six. We identify major changes in parental health (shocks) and control for a variety of initial characteristics of the child including prenatal conditions. The results are robust to placebo regressions of health shocks that occur after the outcomes are measured. Our findings point to negative effects of maternal health shocks on children’s emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity. We estimate that maternal health shocks worsen outcomes by as much as 0.9 standard deviations. In contrast, paternal health seems to be less relevant to children’s behavioral skills.     

Rights and the role of family engagement in child welfare: an international treaties perspective on families' rights, parents' rights, and children's rights

According to international human rights treaties, what rights do family members, parents, and children have in family engagement in child welfare decision-making? A socio-legal analytical approach produces a typology of rights, then applies the typology to eight countries' approaches to family engagement to show that strong bundles of rights are available in some countries, but not in others. This study reveals international treaties have articulated many rights necessary to family engagement, but some rights are missing.