Children's health
Invitation for consumers to particippate in a consultation with the Australian Research Council.
Are you talking to me? Negotiating the challenge of cultural diversity in children's health care 2008.The project examined health interactions between families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds (1st and 2nd generation) and health professionals, with a particular focus on the potential cultural ‘mismatches’ in health service provision.
This USA site promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care. It aims to help women and health professioaternity care decisions.
Early Parenting Difficulties: Implications for Health Services Policy
Australia’s residential early parenting centres are unique internationally and provide a highly valued service to parents and their very young children. Clinical practice in these services has been based on extensive experience, but now needs to be derived from an evidence base. In response to this need, Tweddle Child and Family Health Service (TCFHS) in Melbourne — a public access early parenting service — commissioned a review of the literature relating to its practice and a prospective longitudinal survey of a consecutive group of mothers admitted with infants aged up to one year. This article summarises the main findings of both the literature review and the survey.
The National Maternity Action Plan (NMAP) proposes a strategy for federal and state governments to enable comprehensive implementation of community midwifery services in both urban and regional/rural Australia. This article describes the importance of talking about the provision of maternity care within the context of the health system and illustrates how the present structure hinders many women from getting what they want and need from maternity services. It also outlines how the NMAP will provide a maternity care system able to address these issues.
Identifying Fundamental Problems with the Victorian Newborn Screening Program
Newborn screening tests have been available to all babies in Victoria for the last 30 years. The primary purpose of the newborn screening program is the early detection of a range of metabolic conditions to reduce the risk of severe illness and allow for earlier monitoring and treatment, which can result in better outcomes for most for these babies. While few would question the benefit of such screening, confusion and controversy arise with the current process when parental consent to the screening program automatically implies parental consent for the ongoing storage, access and secondary uses of the cards containing the blood spots collected for the screening process.
Informed Parental Consent for New Born Screening in Victoria: Final Report
In May 2005, the Department of Human Services funded Health Issues Centre to develop a report on informed consent by parents for newborn screening in Victoria.The project aimed to explore the factors that facilitate parental consent to newborn screening-and related issues such as secondary uses of the card-and to determine those factors that obstruct/hinder/impede such consent.
Outer Conflict, Inner Discord: Australian Children in Post-separation Disputes
Research indicates that divorce can have an impact on the wellbeing of the children concerned, particularly their mental health. This article looks at baseline data on 111 Australian families gathered prior to their participation in child-focused Family Law Mediation as part of an on-going Australian study. Data gathered includes the nature of parents’ conflict, the strength of their parental alliance, and the psychological functioning of their children at the beginning of the mediation process. The larger study aims to establish which form of intervention has the most benefits for families.
Overveiw of Documents Related to Newborn Screening and Informed Consent
This literature review was conducted by Health Issues Centre as part of a project funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services to develop a report on informed consent by parents for newborn screening in Victoria.
This article was written on behalf of the Maternity Coalition, a national umbrella organisation made up of individuals and support groups committed to advocating for the rights of mothers and for improving maternity care. It discusses how women throughout Australia could be provided with better birth care by adopting a national maternity care framework that is client-focused, particularly at the primary care level rather than one-size-fits-all, is sensitive to women’s individual needs, and provides appropriate services for all on the basis of need rather than ability to pay.
