OECD Family database www.oecd.org/social/family/database
OECD - Social Policy Division - Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
The report focuses on several key areas where health outcomes are falling short, and provides insight into ways in which countries can improve the situation for their children and adolescents. Areas in focus include mental health, overweight/obesity and adolescent risk-taking behaviour.
The report ...shows, for example, that:
- mental health remains a neglected subject – only one quarter of countries are collecting data on the number of children treated by a mental health professional;
- half of countries do not regulate the marketing of food to children, despite the fact that childhood obesity rates are high across the Region and physical activity rates are low;
- almost half of countries have no policy that affects the availability of unhealthy foods at school;
- 2 in 5 girls and 1 in 3 boys who are having sex do not protect themselves; and
one third of countries do not offer legal access to contraception without parental consent for those under 18 years of age.
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Child friendly spaces (CFS) have become a widely
used approach to protect and provide psychosocial
support to children in emergencies. However,
little evidence documents their outcomes and
impacts. There is widespread commitment among
humanitarian agencies to strengthen the evidence
base of pr...ogramming. Recognizing this, the Child
Protection Working Group (CPWG) of the Global
Protection Cluster and the Inter-Agency Standing
Committee (IASC) Reference Group on Mental
Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency
Settings have identified research in this area as a
high priority.
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This handbook is intended primarily for front-line health care providers who are likely to see children (among other clients) in their day-to-day practice. These may include general practitioners, nurses, midwives, gynaecologists,
paediatricians, mental health professionals, first responders and st...aff in emergency care.
Other professionals who may find it useful include social workers, those working in social welfare institutions, providers of psychosocial support, and those working in child care facilities and the education system.
Further, the content will benefit the work of policy-makers and managers to enable and support provision of clinical care to children experiencing, or who have experienced, child maltreatment.
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Beat the heat: child health amid heatwaves in Europe and Central Asia finds that half of these children died from heat-related illnesses in their first year of life. Most children died during the summer months.
"Around half of children across Europe and Central Asia – or 92 million children –... are already exposed to frequent heatwaves in a region where temperatures are rising at the fastest rate globally. The increasingly high temperatures can have serious health complications for children, especially the youngest children, even in a short space of time. Without care, these complications can be life-threatening,” said Regina De Dominicis UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.
Heat exposure has acute effects on children, even before they are born, and can result in pre-term births, low birth weight, stillbirth, and congenital anomalies. Heat stress is a direct cause of infant mortality, can affect infant growth and cause a range of paediatric diseases. The report also notes that extreme heat caused the loss of more than 32,000 years of healthy life among children and teenagers in the region.
As the temperatures continue to rise, UNICEF urges governments across Europe and Central Asia to:
- Integrate strategies to reduce the impact of heatwaves including through National Determined Contributions (NDC), National Adaptation Plans (NAP), and disaster risk reduction and disaster management policies with children at the centre of these plans
Invest in heat health action plans and primary health care to more adequately support heat-related illness among children
- Invest in early warning systems, including heat alert systems
- Adapt education facilities to reduce the temperatures in the areas children play in and equip teachers with skills to respond to heat stress
- Adapt urban design and infrastructure including ensuring buildings, particularly those housing the most vulnerable communities are equipped to minimize heat exposure
- Secure the provision of safe water, particularly in countries with deteriorating water quality and availability.
UNICEF works with governments, partners and communities across the region to build resilience against heatwaves. This includes equipping teachers, community health workers and families with the skills and knowledge to respond to heat stress.
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Testimonies from Humanitarian Workers with Disabilities.
By reading the first-hand accounts, we hear how persons with disabilities, not through any particular talent or skill but from unique knowledge gained through life experience, are ideally placed to provide insights, ideas and leadership, to s...upply essential data, and to fill the gaps in humanitarian response that cause this exclusion.
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Child protection in emergencies
The prevention of and response to
abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence
against children in emergencies. An
emergency is defined as threatening
condition that requires urgent action.
Emergencies often have devastating
effects on children’s lives. They res...ult in
girls and boys being killed or injured,
becoming orphaned, separated from their
families, being recruited into armed
forces or groups, being sexually abused,
becoming children with disabilities, being
trafficked or, worse, experiencing several
of these at the same time (CPMS).
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Letter to the Editor / Carta al Editor
Background: Healthcare workers’ mental health was affected by SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Aim: To evaluate healthcare workers’ mental health and its associated factors during the pandemic in Chile. Material and Methods: An online self-reported questionnaire was designed including the Goldberg Healt...h Questionnaire, the Patient Health
Questionnaire, (PHQ-9), and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale among other questions. It was sent to 28,038 healthcare workers.
Results: The questionnaire was answered by 1,934 participants, with a median age of 38 years (74% women). Seventy five percent were professionals, and 48% worked at a hospital. Fifty nine percent of respondents had a risk of having a mental health disorder, and 73% had depressive symptoms. Significant associations were found with sex, workplace, and some of the relevant experiences during the pandemic. Fifty one
percent reported the need for mental health support, and 38% of them received it.
Conclusions: There is a high percentage of health workers with symptoms of psychological distress, depression, and suicidal ideas. The gender approach is essential to understand the important differences found. Many health workers who required mental health care did not seek or received it.
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Grounded in the foundations of child centered community development, the success of this strategy will be measured by how individual countries contribute to their child protection systems and partner at various levels to combat violence against children. This strategy is a result of a highly consult...ative process that reached children and youth, Plan International staff, external specialists globally and the paper has been put in place with the joint efforts of the global child protection programming reference group.
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This checklist will help child psychosocial support and Child Friendly Space supervisors adhere to quality standards during program implementation. This checklist was developed by consultant Nicole Bohl, based on her previous work with Plan International and Save the Children. It has been adapted wi...th input from CRS EMECA Core Team members.
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The community based programme aims to address the psychosocial needs of children and youth through helping to rebuild peaceful child- and youth-friendly communities through the use of cultural, creative, recreational, sportive and social activities. Within War Child, the community-based approach is ...relatively new and Sierra Leone was the first self-implementing War Child Programme Area (WPA) applying this approach.
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These guidelines are informed by evidence of ‘what works’ and lessons learned in the field. They are designed to accelerate UNICEF regional and country offices’ programming on social service workforce strengthening, and support work to better plan, develop and support the social services workf...orce with national and regional partners.
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The booklet includes a number of child protection case management forms to be used in tandem with the Training Manual and Framework.
For applying the new operational guidance on CB-MHPSS in the field, UNICEF country offices and partners will need ready access to tools and resources that can be used to implement the programs. By bringing together resources from different contexts, the compendium makes options available to country ...offices and partners for programming.
The compendium aims to strengthen UNICEF capacity for MHPSS programming consistent with the IASC Guidelines for MHPSS in Emergencies and described by the 9 circles of support in the UNICEF operational framework.
The compendium is a compiled set of resources, already being used by UNICEF and partners, both national and international, in diverse settings.
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Despite the increasing population of refugees stuck in protracted situations and our awareness of the vulnerability of children and adolescents growing in up these contexts, relatively little is known about community based child protection mechanisms (CBCPMs) in refugee communities. CBCPMs, defined ...broadly, include all groups or networks that respond to and prevent problems of child protection and vulnerable children. These mechanisms may include family supports, peer group supports, and community groups such as primary and secondary schools, non-formal education and vocational training structures, women’s groups, religious groups, and youth groups, as well as traditional community processes, government mechanisms, and mechanisms initiated by international or domestic non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In diverse contexts, CBCPMs represent front-line, day-to-day efforts to protect children from exploitation, abuse, violence, and neglect and to promote children’s well being. This study, together with a parallel study conducted among the urban refugee population in Uganda, is the first study of CBCPMs undertaken in refugee settings.
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