Search Results (6)

For women and families of refugee background having a baby in Australia, trauma-related experiences contribute to maternal and neonatal health inequities. Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background is a new model of care that was codesigned with communities of refugee background, to incorporate a trauma-informed approach to care. The aim of this paper is to explore how trauma-informed care is understood by Group Pregnancy Care professional staff. An exploratory descriptive qualitative study involving twenty-three semi-structured interviews with past and present professional staff was conducted. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The results reported in this paper include five themes: acknowledging the universal potential for trauma; accountability to community; practising in trauma-informed ways; how can we determine whether trauma-informed care is happening?; and understanding equity. The analysis showed that GPC staff aimed to practise in trauma-informed ways and understood that their ability to integrate trauma-informed care could improve over time. However, there were times when participants perceived organisation- or structural-level barriers that were incongruous with their understanding of health equity, which created tension and led to feelings for some of being in a ‘battle against the system’. Key individual- and organisation-level factors were identified that assisted with integrating trauma-informed care, including a safe and accessible space to hold the program, strategies to minimise the risk of retraumatisation and burnout, and adequate time to facilitate group processes and support staff to participate in team reflective practises. Understanding trauma-informed care and equity were seen to have important implications for workforce wellbeing and the promotion of refugee maternal and child health. Full article

Developing programs that ensure a safe start to life for Indigenous children can lead to better health outcomes. To create effective strategies, governments must have accurate and up-to-date information. Accordingly, we reviewed the health disparities of Australian children in Indigenous and remote communities using publicly available reports. A thorough search was performed on Australian government and other organisational websites (including the Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW]), electronic databases [MEDLINE] and grey literature sites for articles, documents and project reports related to Indigenous child health outcomes. The study showed Indigenous dwellings had higher rates of crowding when compared to non-Indigenous dwellings. Smoking during pregnancy, teenage motherhood, low birth weight and infant and child mortality were higher among Indigenous and remote communities. Childhood obesity (including central obesity) and inadequate fruit consumption rates were also higher in Indigenous children, but Indigenous children from remote and very remote areas had a lower rate of obesity. Indigenous children performed better in physical activity compared to non-Indigenous children. No difference was observed in vegetable consumption rates, substance-use disorders or mental health conditions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Future interventions for Indigenous children should focus on modifiable risk factors, including unhealthy housing, perinatal adverse health outcomes, childhood obesity, poor dietary intake, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours. Full article

A child’s independent mobility is essential to their social, emotional physical, and cognitive development and provides children the opportunity to explore and experience their environment. The freedom of free movement and security from all forms of harm is necessary for achieving the capability of bodily integrity which is one of the essential capabilities necessary for well-being. Despite this, research on child independent mobility in Africa remains limited. Hence, this paper focuses on parents’ perspectives on children’s independent mobility in rural towns in South Africa to understand the factors that enhance or impede children’s independent mobility. This is essential in suggesting guidelines and recommendations to promote the independent mobility of children in South Africa. A qualitative methodology was used as the research approach to guide the collection and analysis of the data. Data were collected from a sample of parents in the community and thematically analysed in ATLAS.ti. From this study, it can be noted that parents were not comfortable with the independent movement of their children due to the issues of safety around the community. This led to the restricted movement of children, supervised movements, accompaniment of children to school, and organising transport to ferry children to and from school. This study, therefore, calls for the involvement of stakeholders from various levels to develop and implement strategies to promote safe and child-friendly environments in the community. This is essential in enhancing and restoring a child’s independent mobility. Full article

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a model of care to embed cultural safety for Aboriginal children into paediatric hospital settings. The Daalbirrwirr Gamambigu (pronounced “Dahl-beer-weer gum-um-be-goo” in the Gumbaynggirr language means ‘safe children’) model encompasses child protection responses at clinical, managerial and organisational levels of health services. A review of scholarly articles and grey literature followed by qualitative interviews with Aboriginal health professionals formed the evidence base for the model, which then underwent rounds of consultation for cultural suitability and clinical utility. Culturally appropriate communication with children and their families using clinical yarning and a culturally adapted version of ISBAR (a mnemonic for Identify, Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation) for interprofessional communication is recommended. The model guides the development of a critical consciousness about cultural safety in health care settings, and privileges the cultural voices of many diverse Aboriginal peoples. When adapted appropriately for local clinical and cultural contexts, it will contribute to a patient journey experience of respect, dignity and empowerment. Full article

The findings and recommendations emanating from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2012–2017) have advised religious organisations that they need to undertake significant changes to legal, governance and cultural/theological practices. The reason for urgency in enacting these changes is that religious organisations were the least child safe institutions across all Australian organisations, with poor practices of transparency, accountability and responsibility coupled with a tendency to protect the reputation of the institution above the safety of children in their care. In Australia, new state laws have been enacted and are impacting on the internal governance systems of religious organisations, including removing the secrecy of the Catholic confessional, instituting mandatory reporting of child abuse by clerics and criminalising the failure to report child sexual abuse. Religious organisations have moved to adopt many of the recommendations regarding their troubled governance including the professionalisation of religious ministry; adoption of professional standards; and appropriate redress for survivors and changes to religious laws. However, these changes signal significant challenges to current church–state relations, which have been characterised by positioning religious organisations as special institutions that enjoy exemptions from certain human rights legislation, on the basis of protecting religious freedom. This article examines and evaluates the nexus between state and religion in Australian public life as it is emerging in a post-Royal Commission environment, and in particular contested claims around the meaning and value of religious freedom versus the necessity of institutional reform to ensure that religious organisations can demonstrate safety for children and other vulnerable groups. Full article

On 12 November 2012 the then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she was recommending to the Governor General the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Following inquiries in Australia and elsewhere much is already known about institutional and inter-institutional child protection failures and what is required to address them. That Australia’s national government has pursued another abuse inquiry with terms of reference limited to institution-based (excluding the family) sexual abuse is of interest given the lack of political will to enact previous findings and recommendations. This article examines the background to the Government’s announcement, the Commission’s terms of reference and some of its settings, and literature on the nature of royal commissions across time and place. After the lack of success in implementing the recommendations of previous inquiries into how to better protect Australia’s children, the question is: how will this Royal Commission contribute to Australian child protection and safety? Will the overwhelming public support generated by “truth speaking to power” in calling for this inquiry translate into action? Full article