Kitchens and pantries—helping or hindering? The perspectives of emergency food users in Victoria, Australia

In high-income countries, people affected by food insecurity may seek out free/subsidized food from charities. Their perceptions of the food programs provided and preferences for alternative strategies are underresearched. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the users’ experiences of food insecurity and gain evidence for effective responses in the future. Twelve semistructured interviews with a sample of users, who were also charity volunteers, were conducted in Victoria, Australia. A thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was undertaken. The results show that users have complex needs. Charities have both the capacity to hinder and help people maintain dignity, social inclusion, and health. Alternative community and policy food security strategies were proposed by interviewees. In the future, perspectives of affected community members must inform strategies that seek to improve people’s access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food. A human right to food framework is discussed as a mechanism to help realize food security in Australia.

Progress achieved in restricting the marketing of high-fat, sugary and salty food and beverage products to children

In May 2010, 192 Member States endorsed Resolution WHA63.14 to restrict the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverage products high in saturated fats, trans fatty acids, free sugars and/or salt to children and adolescents globally. We examined the actions taken between 2010 and early 2016 - by civil society groups, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its regional offices, other United Nations (UN) organizations, philanthropic institutions and transnational industries - to help decrease the prevalence of obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases among young people. By providing relevant technical and policy guidance and tools to Member States, WHO and other UN organizations have helped protect young people from the marketing of branded food and beverage products that are high in fat, sugar and/or salt. The progress achieved by the other actors we investigated appears variable and generally less robust. We suggest that the progress being made towards the full implementation of Resolution WHA63.14 would be accelerated by further restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products and by investing in the promotion of nutrient-dense products. This should help young people meet government-recommended dietary targets. Any effective strategies and actions should align with the goal of WHO to reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by 25% by 2025 and the aim of the UN to ensure healthy lives for all by 2030.

Nordic policy lessons for Australia

This report considers public debate on Scandinavian and Finnish policy ideas of possible relevance to Australia since the publication in November 2014 by an Australian university press of Andrew Scott’s book Northern Lights: The Positive Policy Example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. Two years on from the book’s publication, the report considers the varying reception in Australia of propositions advanced in Northern Lights for: expansion of public early childhood education and care and extension of paid parental leave, as well as properly enshrining children’s rights and other actions to reduce child poverty and improve children’s wellbeing (learning from Sweden); more equitable schools funding, better valuing of a quality teaching profession and more effective provision of vocational education in schools (learning from Finland); enhancement of support and skills retraining for mature-age workers displaced by job losses (learning from Denmark); and increasing revenue including through greater taxation and regulation of natural resource wealth (learning from Norway). The report then considers the main priority areas of Nordic achievement nominated by policy actors for additional consideration for Australia to now learn from. These are: better, healthier and more natural urban design, together with more balanced regional development; better workplace design – specifically the importance of taking into account aesthetics, ergonomics and nature in people’s workplace environments; and greater emphasis on both the prevention of crime and the rehabilitation of persons convicted of crimes. Sweden and Norway’s continuing leadership in the provision of quality foreign aid and other foreign policy initiatives such as Sweden's current “feminist foreign policy” are also discussed. Objections raised to the book’s premises, including to the possibility of policy transfer to Australia from nations presumed to be less multicultural, are evaluated.

Legitimising children’s evidence: Inclusive participatory research with children with disability

Achieving human rights is at the core of development outcomes, and the achievement of positive development outcomes increasingly relies on evidence-based policy and practice. However, people with disability have been routinely excluded from research evidence and knowledge production, both due to a lack of interest in their issues (Yeo and Moore, 2003) and through an over-reliance on research design that does not address barriers to their participation as research respondents (Wilson et al. 2013). Children with disability are even more marginalised from participation in knowledge production processes and have been passively subjected to research being conducted on or about them, rather than with them (Gray and Winter 2011a). This exclusion is even more evident in developing countries of the global south though with some rare exceptions (Kembhavi and Wirz, 2009; Singal, 2010; Wickenden and Kembhavi- Tam, 2014; Don et al, 2015; Nguyen et al, 2015). This paper reports on the ‘Voices of Pacific Children with Disability’ project (hereafter referred to as the Voices project) which, drawing on the broader field of child participatory research, developed a method for children with disability to competently provide evidence about their needs, aspirations and human rights priorities. Eighty-nine children with disability living in rural and urban areas of Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea (PNG) participated, using a suite of data collection ‘tools’ designed to support children to express their life priorities and human rights’ needs. In this paper we examine a sub-set of this data related to children’s future priorities, the primary one being employment, and explore the utility of such evidence for governments, NGOs and other stakeholders, in shaping policy and service delivery in line with the rights of children with disability. Such data is important when working in an evidence informed way as often these organisations have limited data on the needs and values of the groups they serve.

Family and carer smoking control programmes for reducing children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke

BackgroundChildren's exposure to other people's cigarette smoke (environmental tobacco smoke, or ETS) is associated with a range of adverse health outcomes for children. Parental smoking is a common source of children's exposure to ETS. Older children are also at risk of exposure to ETS in child care or educational settings. Preventing exposure to cigarette smoke in infancy and childhood has significant potential to improve children's health worldwide.ObjectivesTo determine the effectiveness of interventions aiming to reduce exposure of children to ETS.Search methodsWe searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialized Register and conducted additional searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, ERIC, and The Social Science Citation Index & Science Citation Index (Web of Knowledge). Date of the most recent search: September 2013.Selection criteriaControlled trials with or without random allocation. Interventions must have addressed participants (parents and other family members, child care workers and teachers) involved with the care and education of infants and young children (aged 0 to 12 years). All mechanisms for reduction of children's ETS exposure, and smoking prevention, cessation, and control programmes were included. These include health promotion, social-behavioural therapies, technology, education, and clinical interventions.Data collection and analysisTwo authors independently assessed studies and extracted data. Due to heterogeneity of methodologies and outcome measures, no summary measures were possible and results were synthesised narratively.Main resultsFifty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Seven studies were judged to be at low risk of bias, 27 studies were judged to have unclear overall risk of bias and 23 studies were judged to have high risk of bias. Seven interventions were targeted at populations or community settings, 23 studies were conducted in the 'well child' healthcare setting and 24 in the 'ill child' healthcare setting. Two further studies conducted in paediatric clinics did not make clear whether the visits were to well or ill children, and another included both well and ill child visits. Thirty-six studies were from North America, 14 were in other high income countries and seven studies were from low- or middle-income countries. In only 14 of the 57 studies was there a statistically significant intervention effect for child ETS exposure reduction. Of these 14 studies, six used objective measures of children's ETS exposure. Eight of the studies had a high risk of bias, four had unclear risk of bias and two had a low risk of bias. The studies showing a significant effect used a range of interventions: seven used intensive counselling or motivational interviewing; a further study used telephone counselling; one used a school-based strategy; one used picture books; two used educational home visits; one used brief intervention and one study did not describe the intervention. Of the 42 studies that did not show a significant reduction in child ETS exposure, 14 used more intensive counselling or motivational interviewing, nine used brief advice or counselling, six used feedback of a biological measure of children's ETS exposure, one used feedback of maternal cotinine, two used telephone smoking cessation advice or support, eight used educational home visits, one used group sessions, one used an information kit and letter, one used a booklet and no smoking sign, and one used a school-based policy and health promotion. In 32 of the 57 studies, there was reduction of ETS exposure for children in the study irrespective of assignment to intervention and comparison groups. One study did not aim to reduce children's tobacco smoke exposure, but rather aimed to reduce symptoms of asthma, and found a significant reduction in symptoms in the group exposed to motivational interviewing. We found little evidence of difference in effectiveness of interventions between the well infant, child respiratory illness, and other child illness settings as contexts for parental smoking cessation interventions.Authors' conclusionsWhile brief counselling interventions have been identified as successful for adults when delivered by physicians, this cannot be extrapolated to adults as parents in child health settings. Although several interventions, including parental education and counselling programmes, have been used to try to reduce children's tobacco smoke exposure, their effectiveness has not been clearly demonstrated. The review was unable to determine if any one intervention reduced parental smoking and child exposure more effectively than others, although seven studies were identified that reported motivational interviewing or intensive counselling provided in clinical settings was effective.

Tumor talk and child-well being: perceptions of 'good' and 'bad' news among parents of children with advanced cancer

CONTEXT: Little is known about how parents of children with advanced cancer classify news they receive about their child's medical condition.

OBJECTIVE: To develop concepts of "good news" and "bad news" in discussions of advanced childhood cancer from parent perspectives.

METHODS: Parents of children with advanced cancer cared for at three children's hospitals were asked to share details of conversations in the preceding 3 months that contained "good news" or "bad news" related to their child's medical condition. We used mixed methods to evaluate parent responses to both open-ended and fixed response items.

RESULTS: Of 104 enrolled parents, 86 (83%) completed the survey. Six (7%) parents reported discussing neither good nor bad news, 18 (21%) reported only bad news, 15 (17%) reported only good news, and 46 (54%) reported both good and bad news (1 missing response). Seventy-six parents (88%) answered free response items. Descriptions of both good and bad news discussions consisted predominantly of "tumor talk" or cancer control. Additional treatment options featured prominently, particularly in discussions of bad news (42%). Child well-being, an important good news theme, encompassed treatment tolerance, symptom reduction, and quality of life.

CONCLUSION: A majority of parents of children with advanced cancer report discussing both good and bad news in the preceding 3 months. While news related primarily to cancer control, parents also describe good news discussions related to their child's well-being. Understanding how parents of children with advanced cancer classify and describe the news they receive may enhance efforts to promote family-centered communication.

SOUTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S FOSTER CARE REVIEW BOARD SYSTEM ANNUAL REPORT 1990-1991

The South Carolina Foster Care Review Board at the Office of Executive Policy and Programs annually publishes a report with summary of programs, recommendations, demographic and statistical information, and directory of state board and staff.

SOUTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S FOSTER CARE REVIEW BOARD SYSTEM ANNUAL REPORT 1991-1992

The South Carolina Foster Care Review Board at the Office of Executive Policy and Programs annually publishes a report with summary of programs, recommendations, demographic and statistical information, and directory of state board and staff.

SOUTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S FOSTER CARE REVIEW BOARD SYSTEM ANNUAL REPORT 1992-1991

The South Carolina Foster Care Review Board at the Office of Executive Policy and Programs annually publishes a report with summary of programs, recommendations, demographic and statistical information, and directory of state board and staff.

Developing a classification system of social communication functioning of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder

Background: Impairments in social communication are the hallmark feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Operationalizing ‘severity’ in ASD has been challenging; thus stratifying by functioning has not been possible. Purpose: To describe the development of the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) and evaluate its consistency within and between parent and professional ratings. Methodology: (1)ACSF:SC development based on focus groups and surveys involving parents, educators and clinicians familiar with preschoolers with ASD; and (2)Evaluation of the intra- and inter-rater agreement of the ACSF:SC using weighted kappa(кw). Results: Seventy-six participants were involved in the development process. Core characteristics of social communication were ascertained: communicative intent; communicative skills and reciprocity; and impact of environment. Five ACSF:SC levels were created and content-validated across participants. Best capacity and typical performance agreement ratings varied as follows: intra-rater on 41 children was кw=0.61-0.69 for parents and кw=0.71-0.95 for professionals; inter-rater between professionals were кw=0.47-0.61 and between parents and professionals кw=0.33-0.53. Conclusions: Perspectives from parents, and professionals informed ACSF:SC development, providing common descriptions of the levels of everyday communicative abilities of children with ASD to complement DSM-5. Rater agreement demonstrates the ACSF:SC can be utilized with acceptable consistency in comparison to other functional classification systems.

Validez de contenido de un cuestionario para evaluar las etapas del cambio de comportamiento en estilos de vida en escolares, Colombia: Estudio FUPRECOL

Estudio de validación en escolares pertenecientes a instituciones educativas oficiales de la ciudad de Bogotá, Colombia. Se diseñó y aplicó el CCC-FUPRECOL que indagó por las etapas de cambio para la actividad física/ejercicio, consumo de frutas, verduras, drogas, tabaco e ingesta de bebidas alcohólicas, de manera auto-diligenciada por formulario estructurado.

Relatos y Redes de Política Pública de Niñez en Colombia 1991 - 2014

El presente estudio describe los cambios en la políticas públicas de niñez en Colombia entre 1991 y 2014, mediante el análisis tanto de las narrativas y contranarrativas de política gestadas en este periodo de tiempo, como de los factores que propiciaron la conformación de una red de política pública y el posterior desarrollo de diversos modos de interacción entre los grupos de actores identificados. Parte esta investigación de situar antecedentes y factores relevantes que permiten contrastar, por un lado, contenidos y perspectivas entre diferentes periodos de tiempo, y por otro lado, el número, tipo, y dinámica de relaciones entre los diversos actores involucrados en este campo antes de 1991, y posterior a este año hasta 2014. En síntesis, a través de los hallazgos y análisis realizados se busca no solo plantear qué se transformó entre 1991 y 2014 respecto a la construcción de la niñez como referente de políticas públicas, sino también, cómo se gestó esta transformación, con el fin de proveer elementos que permitan comprender principalmente los énfasis y las variaciones que han tenido las políticas públicas de niñez en el país, pero también, algunas continuidades por periodos más específicos de tiempo.

Impacto del Programa de Alimentación Escolar en el Trabajo Infantil: Una aproximación desde la toma de decisiones familiares

Esta investigación analiza el impacto del Programa de Alimentación Escolar en el trabajo infantil en Colombia a través de varias técnicas de evaluación de impacto que incluyen emparejamiento simple, emparejamiento genético y emparejamiento con reducción de sesgo. En particular, se encuentra que este programa disminuye la probabilidad de que los escolares trabajen alrededor de un 4%. Además, se explora que el trabajo infantil se reduce gracias a que el programa aumenta la seguridad alimentaria, lo que consecuentemente cambia las decisiones de los hogares y anula la carga laboral en los infantes. Son numerosos los avances en primera infancia llevados a cabo por el Estado, sin embargo, estos resultados sirven de base para construir un marco conceptual en el que se deben rescatar y promover las políticas públicas alimentarias en toda la edad escolar.

Estado de las enfermedades raras que cursan con discapacidad intelectual en Colombia

Las enfermedades raras o huérfano son una problemática que ha tomado mucha importancia en el contexto mundial del presente siglo, estas se han definido como crónicas, de difícil tratamiento de sus síntomas y con baja prevalencia en la población; muchas de estas enfermedades cursan con varios tipos de discapacidad, siendo el objetivo del presente trabajo el enfocarse en aquellas enfermedades raras que cursan con discapacidad intelectual. Para poder profundizar en estas enfermedades se realizó una revisión teórica sobre las enfermedades raras, así como de la discapacidad psíquica y su importancia a nivel mundial y nacional. A partir de estas definiciones, se revisaron en profundidad 3 enfermedades raras que cursan con discapacidad intelectual en el contexto colombiano, como son: el síndrome de Rett, el síndrome de Prader-Willi y el síndrome de X frágil. En cada una de estas enfermedades además se explicaron los tipos de diagnóstico, intervención, prevención, grupos de apoyo y tipos de evaluación que más se usan en el contexto nacional

Ideación suicida y desesperanza en pacientes con cáncer

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue identificar la relación entre ideación suicida y desesperanza en 160 pacientes con cáncer. La ideación suicida se midió a través de dos ítems de una entrevista semiestructurada, la escala de ideación suicida (ISS), el ítem 9 del inventario de depresión de Beck (BDI-IA). La desesperanza se midió con la escala de desesperanza de Beck (BHS). Los resultados obtenidos indicaron una relación significativa (p=.000) entre ideación suicida y desesperanza; una prevalencia de ideación suicida en los pacientes con cáncer entre 4.4% y 13.8% y de riesgo de suicidio entre 5.6% y 30.6%; y algún grado de desesperanza en 31.9 % de los participantes. De acuerdo con lo anterior, se confirma que existe relación entre la desesperanza y la ideación suicida en pacientes oncológicos adultos. Adicionalmente, que estas variables están presentes en los pacientes y que ameritan atención en la intervención interdisciplinaria.