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Children in out-of-home care: does routine health screening improve outcomes?
Dania Nathanson1, Gillian Lee, Dimitra Tzioumi
1Child Protection Unit, Sydney Children's Hospital, High Street, Randwick, New South Wales 2031, Australia.
Insights
Health screening for children in out-of-home care shows high adherence to recommendations. While direct health benefits were unquantifiable, systemic improvements are needed for better inter-agency collaboration and improved child health outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health
- Child Welfare
Background:
- Children in out-of-home care often have complex and unidentified health needs.
- The Sydney Children's Hospital's Child Protection Unit provides health screening for these children.
- Current evidence is insufficient to confirm health benefits from such screening programs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of a health screening clinic on children in out-of-home care.
- To determine the implementation rate of health recommendations for screened children.
- To assess the health outcomes resulting from the screening and interventions.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire was distributed to caseworkers of the first 100 children who underwent screening.
- The study tracked the implementation of health recommendations.
- Efforts were made to ascertain the resulting health outcomes.
Main Results:
- High adherence to the recommended health interventions was observed.
- Quantifying the specific health benefits for the children proved challenging.
- Systemic issues were identified that impede healthcare access for children in care.
Conclusions:
- Comprehensive health screening is presumed beneficial for children in out-of-home care, though direct proof was not established.
- Enhanced inter-agency collaboration between health services and community services is crucial.
- Improved systems are necessary to ensure better health outcomes for children in out-of-home care.
Aim:
Children in out-of-home care have high and frequently unidentified health needs. The Child Protection Unit at Sydney Children's Hospital offers comprehensive health screening to children in care. Recommendations for remediation are made, but follow-up in the clinic is not offered. Current research has failed to establish whether health screening results in health benefits for the children screened. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the health screening clinic on children's health outcomes by tracking the first 100 children screened, determining how many of the health recommendations made for each child had been implemented and, if possible, what the health outcome had been.
Methods:
Research questionnaires were sent to the Department of Social Services caseworkers of the first 100 children screened.
Results:
Adherence to health recommendations was high; however, it was not possible to quantify the degree of health benefit to the children screened. A number of systemic problems were identified, which are likely to hinder the accessibility of health care for children in care.
Conclusions:
Comprehensive health screening of children in care is likely to benefit a child's health, although this could not be determined. Agencies responsible for placing children in care need systems in place to ensure better inter-agency collaboration between the health system and community services. This should help improve health outcomes.
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