Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Among Children in Humanitarian Settings

Bethel Lulie - The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

The purpose of this evidence synthesis is to summarize what is already known about the impacts of the pandemic on children’s mental health risks, specifically in humanitarian settings with the aim of providing an overview of evidence to date. This synthesis captures the toll that COVID-19 and public health measures to reduce its transmission have taken on children’s mental health worldwide due to stressors from social isolation, family hardships, school closures, service interruptions, and economic crises. Evidence relevant to mental health and psychosocial support generally and in conflict-affected settings were included. Together, 52 academic articles and resources and 21 news articles from April 2020 to July 2021 were compiled for this report. 

File

The Aftermath of Transnational Illegal Adoptions: Redressing human rights violations in the intercountry adoption system with instruments of transitional justice

Elvira C. Loibl

A growing movement of illegally adopted individuals request remedies and reparations for the human rights violations that they and their biological families had suffered. This article explores a number of measures that the stakeholders in the receiving countries can use in an effort to repair the human rights violations caused by illegal intercountry adoptions, borrowing ideas from transitional justice. In order to effectively redress the harm inflicted upon victims of illegal adoptions, a policy on remedies should combine instruments of retributive justice, aimed at holding wrongdoers accountable, with measures of restorative justice that focus on the victims’ needs and interests.

File

Pandemic Ethics: Rethinking rights, responsibilities and roles in social work

Sarah Banks, Nikki Rutter

This article explores responses of 41 UK social workers to ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising UK data from an international qualitative survey and follow-up interviews in 2020. Challenges ranged from weighing individual rights/ needs against public health risks, to deciding whether to follow government/agency rules and guidance.

File

Child Abandonment and the Question of Child Rights: a study of Skolombo boys and Lakasara girls of Calabar, cross rivers state, Nigeria

Adekunle Alaye

This study examined the reasons for the pervasiveness of the practice of child abandonment, using the “Skolombo Boys and Lakasara Girls’’ in Calabar, the state capital of Cross River State, Nigeria, as the analytical context.

File

Shifting Landscapes of Global Child Mental Health: Imperatives for transdisciplinary approaches

Sheila Ramaswamy, Shekhar Seshadri, Joske Bunders-Aelen

There are a multitude of stakeholders involved in the protection, education, mental health and psychosocial care of children for children in low- and middle-income countries. This article presents how the current medical and public health models for child mental healthcare, do not adequately address the complexities of child protection and mental health. It argues for mental health professionals to: (a) recognise the role of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in mental health morbidity; (b) adopt an alternative approach, namely that of transdisciplinarity, to enable more effective solutions to children’s psychosocial and mental health issues, through systemic reform and transformation.

Image
Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Exploring the Impact of the Absence of Parents on the Left-Behind Children and Its Countermeasures

Yu Zhang

"Left-behind children" refer to children whose parents or one of them go out to work in the city all year round. Due to the education conditions in the city, they stay alone in the countryside. Because they are separated from their parents all the year round, the lack of good family education in their growth environment has brought many negative effects on their growth and also caused more serious social problems. It can be seen that the research on the family education of left-behind children in rural areas is very necessary. Therefore, this study takes G Village in Guizhou Province as an example. This study includes literature review and a interview of 40 left-behind children and 20 guardians in G Village, Guizhou Province. Also, the physical and mental health and safety hazards of left-behind children and their causes were analyzed.

File

Социальные установки выпускников детских (интернатных) учреждений в отношении будущего (Social Attitudes Towards the Future in Graduates of Orphan Organizations)

Aleksandra Yu. Telitsyna, Aleksandra Yu. Milakova

Отмечается, что, несмотря на усилия государства и некоммерческих организаций (далее – НКО), сохраняются проблемы адаптации детей-сирот к интеграции в социум. Обращается внимание на тот факт, что исследование речевых поведенческих моделей выпускников детских институциональных учреждений (ЦССВ, ЦССД) некоторых некоммерческих организаций выявляет антиномичность их программ друг другу и исходным целям. Объектом этих противоречий выступает процесс формирования зависимых социальных установок детей-сирот. Задача проведенного авторами исследования – выявить социальные установки выпускников детских (интернатных) учреждений, касающиеся собственной траектории социальной и профессиональной адаптации, и сопоставить, насколько выявленным установкам соответствуют существующие программы постинтернатной адаптации, реализуемые НКО.

Despite the efforts of the state and non-profit organizations (hereinafter — NPOs), the problems of orphans’ adaptation and integration into the society persist. Studies of speech behavioral models in graduates of child care institutions of some non-profit organizations reveal the antinomic nature of their programs and goals. These contradictions revolve around the process of formation of dependent social attitudes in orphaned children. The task of this research is to assess the role that NPOs play in the formation of certain social attitudes of graduates of child care (boarding) institutions (ex-orphanages).

File

One Year Into COVID-19: What have we learned about child maltreatment reports and child protective service responses?

Ilan Katz, Sidnei Priolo-Filho, Carmit Katz et al

This study is part of a larger initiative using an international platform to examine child maltreatment (CM) reports and child protective service (CPS) responses in various countries. The first data collection, which included a comparison between eight countries after the pandemic's first wave (March–June 2020), illustrated a worrisome picture regarding children's wellbeing. The current study presents the second wave of data across 12 regions via population data (Australia [New South Wales], Brazil, United States [California, Pennsylvania], Colombia, England, Germany, Israel, Japan, Canada [Ontario, Quebec], South Africa).

File

Strengthening Caregiving Environments: Prioritising Family-based Care in Humanitarian Settings During COVID-19

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

Understanding the risks and responses to children’s caregiving environment during COVID-19 remains limited. This is especially the case in humanitarian settings. This brief, therefore, aims to report what is known so far during the pandemic. The brief focuses on strategies to strengthen the caregiving environment through family- and community-based approaches. It also offers a series of case studies from various humanitarian and emergency contexts.

File

Virtual Exchange Program on Foster Care: Sharing systems, experiences and best practices to implement and strengthen Foster Care services in Kenya and Italy

Tree of Life, Fondazione L’Albero della Vita

The Kenya-Italy “Virtual Exchange Program on Foster Care” aims to create a platform for learning, networking and sharing knowledge and best practices on Foster Care among different government stakeholders, from Kenya and Italy.

The exchange program took place on 5th, 7th and 9th July 2021.

File

Report 8: Analysis of the Regulatory Framework and Financing Mechanism for the Alternative Care System

Changing the Way We Care

The analysis was carried out in order to develop practical recommendations on improving the regulatory framework and the social services financing mechanism to prevent the separation of children from families and support alternative care mechanisims.

File

Report 7: Findings from Child Assessments from 6 Residential Institutions

Changing the Way We Care

The purpose of the individual assessment of 184 children in six RIs was to collect up-to- date information on the demographics, as well as the social, educational, psychological, and medical status, of children placed in RIs in order to plan their reintegration into their families of origin and/or to prepare them to transition from residential to family care.

File

Report 4: Analysis of National and International Best Practices in Case Management

Changing the Way We Care

The analysis of case management (CM) systems aims to contribute to the development of a CM model that both reflects the latest programmatic, legislative, and methodological developments at national and international levels, and effectively contributes to increasing the quality of services for vulnerable children and families.

File

Report 3: Assessment of Social Services for Vulnerable Children and Families

Changing the Way We Care

The aim of the study is to understand the current situation of social services focused on strengthening families’ capacity to provide a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for children, as well as services for children in need of, or currently in, alternative care and/or in the process of reintegration, in order to be able to formulate recommendations that will contribute to evidence-based decisions for their improvement.

File

Report 2: Situational Assessment of Child and Family Protection Personnel Training in the Republic of Moldova

Changing the Way We Care

The purpose of the evaluation is to strengthen the training program for child and family protection personnel in coordination with recent programmatic, legislative, and methodological developments at national and international levels, and to effectively contribute to improving the quality of services for vulnerable children and families by improving the competencies of professionals in the system.

File

Situational Analysis of Care Reform in the Republic of Moldova

Changing the Way We Care

This comprehensive situational analysis was comprised of seven unique pieces of research, conducted by individual researchers, research firms and CTWWC, and in close coordination the Government of Moldova. The research findings were presented to and validated during a process in which more than 140 participants representing 96 government bodies and NGOs participated in July 2021. All research is available in Romanian and English.

File

Ruta de prevención de la separación familiar innecesaria y derivación a servicios sociales y especializados

Changing the Way We Care

Esta Ruta de Coordinación, fue construida y diseñada de manera participativa y liderada por CTWWC Guatemala, con el objeto de articular de manera eficiente y coordinada los esfuerzos que los profesionales de las instituciones gubernamentales y municipales vinculadas a la prevención y proteccion, deben promover, gestionar y facilitar la derivación a los servicios sociales y especializados que permitan la prevención de la separación familiar innecesaria de los niños, niñas o adolescentes de su entorno familiar, basando las acciones en la metodología de manejo de casos y priorizando ante cualquier desición que se tome, la observacnia del interés superior del niño

File

Changing the Way We Care in Guatemala

Changing the Way We Care Guatemala

This two-pager highlights 2018-2020 results of the The Changing the Way We Care℠ (CTWWC) initiative for decision makers, government officials, media, other institutions or organizations working with children and adolescents, and private and public counterparts. CTWWC was formed in 2018 to transform care systems and demonstrate sustainable change at scale in 5 to 7 countries, including Guatemala, Kenya, Moldova, India, and Haiti. In Guatemala and around the world, more than 80-90% of children and adolescents living in orphanages (referred to as “protection homes” in Guatemala) have at least one living parent.

File

Estudio de caso de una transición de alto riesgo: Lighthouse Children’s Village

Better Care Network and Kinnected

La Aldea Infantil Lighthouse se estableció en 2004 como una institución de atención residencial de gestión privada y financiada con fondos privados. En 2014, su donante principal desde hace mucho tiempo tomó la decisión de eliminar gradualmente la atención institucional de apoyo financiero. Este estudio de caso destaca algunas de las señales de advertencia tempranas y el posterior descubrimiento de comportamientos no éticos y delictivos que a veces se pueden observar en un proceso de transición.

Estudio de caso del proceso del cambio: Haciendo la Transición del Orfanato Firefly

Better Care Network and Kinnected

Este estudio de caso destaca algunas de las dinámicas clave que surgieron a lo largo del proceso de transición de sus servicios de la atención residencial a la programación no institucional de una organización y examina cómo esas dinámicas influyeron en la transición y determinaron el tipo de apoyo brindado, así como el más apropiado. estrategia de transición. El estudio de caso se organiza en torno a las distintas etapas de la transición y explora algunos de los temas clave descritos en la Herramienta de evaluación de modelos de atención en transición.

Estudio de caso de las condiciones que conllevan a una transició n segura: Bridges Safehouse

Better Care Network and Kinnected

Este estudio de caso destaca algunos de los requisitos previos para el punto de partida de una transición exitosa de la atención residencial a un modelo no residencial, muchos de los cuales a menudo se pasan por alto o se subestiman. El estudio de caso se organiza en torno a las distintas etapas de la transición y explora algunos de los temas clave descritos en la Herramienta de evaluación de modelos de atención en transición.

Minimum Standards for the Care of Children in Residential Care Facilities

Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

This document presents a set of minimum standards of care, which it is recommended that residential care facilities (RCFs) strive to adopt, particularly those RCFs engaged with or receiving support from CRS. The standards are designed to be applicable to a variety of residential care settings and are recommended to be used to promote care practices and approaches that contribute to positive child well-being.

Webinar Recording: COVID-19, Children, and Caregiver Loss

Georgetown University's Collaborative on Global Children's Issues, Global Health Initiative, and Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

This panel discussed coronavirus-associated caregiver loss and the work being done by the international community, the U.S. government, and faith-based actors to support vulnerable children and turn the tide toward better care. It was moderated by Gillian Huebner, executive director of the Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues.