Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children and Families


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of children and their families, who have faced innumerable challenges such as illness and death; school closures; social isolation; financial hardship; food insecurity; deleterious mental health effects; and difficulties accessing health care. In almost every outcome related to social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic health and well-being, families identifying as Black, Latino, and Native American, and those with low incomes, have disproportionately borne the brunt of the negative effects of the pandemic. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families will be felt for years to come. While these long-term effects are unknown, they are likely to have particularly significant implications for children and families from racially and ethnically minoritized communities and with low incomes. Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families identifies social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic effects of the COVID-10 pandemic and looks at strategies for addressing the challenges and obstacles that the pandemic introduced for children and families in marginalized communities. This report provides recommendations for programs, supports, and interventions to counteract the negative effects of the pandemic on child and family well-being and offers a path forward to recover from the harms of the pandemic, address inequities, and prepare for the future.




Addressing the Long-term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families


Book Description

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of children and their families, who have faced innumerable challenges such as illness and death; school closures; social isolation; financial hardship; food insecurity; deleterious mental health effects; and difficulties accessing health care. In almost every outcome related to social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic health and well-being, families identifying as Black, Latino, and Native American, and those with low incomes, have disproportionately borne the brunt of the negative effects of the pandemic. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families will be felt for years to come. While these long-term effects are unknown, they are likely to have particularly significant implications for children and families from racially and ethnically minoritized communities and with low incomes. Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families identifies social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, physical, and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and looks at strategies for addressing the challenges and obstacles that the pandemic introduced for children and families in marginalized communities. This report provides recommendations for programs, supports, and interventions to counteract the negative effects of the pandemic on child and family well-being and offers a path forward to recover from the harms of the pandemic, address inequities, and prepare for the future." --




The Handbook of Child Life


Book Description

Child life is a profession that draws on the insights of history, sociology, anthropology and psychology to serve children and families in many critical stress points in their lives, but especially when they are ill, injured or disabled and encounter the hosts of caregivers and institutions that collaborate to make them well. Children and their families can become overwhelmed by the task of understanding and navigating the healthcare environment and continue to face challenges through their daily encounters. It is the job of child life professionals to provide care and guidance in these negotiations to serve as culture brokers, interpreters of the healthcare apparatus to family and child and the child to medical professionals. Despite the best efforts to provide quality, sensitive psychosocial care to children and their families, they remain vulnerable to lingering aftereffects. The goal of this revised edition is to help prepare child life specialists to deliver the highest level of care to children and families in the context of these changing realities. Each chapter has been substantially revised and two new chapters have been added. This book will be a valuable resource for not only child life specialists but also nurses, occupational and recreational therapists, social workers and other hospital personnel.




Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8


Book Description

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.




Youth Mental Health


Book Description

Experts discuss the potential of early intervention to transform outcomes for people with mental disorders. Mental illness represents one of the largest disease burdens worldwide, yet treatments have been largely ineffective in improving the quality of life for millions of affected individuals—in part because approaches taken have focused on late-stage disorders in adulthood. This volume shifts the focus by placing the developmental stage of “youth” at the center of mental health. The contributors challenge current nosology, explore mechanisms that underlie the emergence of mental disorders, and propose a framework to guide early intervention. Offering recommendations for the future, the book holds that early intervention in youth has the potential to transform outcomes for people with mental disorders and to reconfigure the landscape of mental health. The contributors discuss epidemiology, classification, and diagnostic issues, including the benefits of clinical staging; the context for emerging mental disorders, including both biological and sociocultural processes; biological mechanisms underlying risk for psychopathology, including aspects of neural circuitry; and developing and implementing prevention and early intervention, including assessment and intervention modalities and knowledge translation in early treatment of schizophrenia. Contributors Nicholas B. Allen, Mario Alvarez-Jimenez, G. Paul Amminger, Shelli Avenevoli, Hannah F. Behrendt, Tolulope Bella-Awusah, Maximus Berger, Byron K. Y. Bitanihirwe, Drew Blasco, John D. Cahill, Joanne S. Carpenter, Andrew M. Chanen, Eric Y. H. Chen, Shane D. Colombo, Christoph U. Correll, Christopher G. Davey, Kim Q. Do, Damien A. Fair, Helen L. Fisher, Sophia Frangou, John Gleeson, Robert K. Heinssen, Ian B. Hickie, Frank Iorfino,Matcheri S. Keshavan, Kerstin Konrad, Phuong Thao D. Le, Francis Lee, Leslie D. Leve, Sarah A. Lieff, Cindy H. Liu, Beatriz Luna, Patrick D. McGorry, Urvakhsh Meherwan Mehta, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Shreya V. Nallur, Cristopher Niell, Merete Nordentoft, Dost Öngür, George C. Patton, Tomáš Paus, Ulrich Reininghaus, Bernalyn Ruiz, Fred Sabb, Akira Sawa, Michael Schoenbaum, Gunter Schumann, Elizabeth M. Scott, Jai Shah, Vinod H. Srihari, Ezra Susser, John Torous, Peter J. Uhlhaas, Swapna K. Verma, T. Wilson Woo, Stephen J. Wood, Lawrence H. Yang, Alison R. Yung




State of the World's Children


Book Description

On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.




Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth


Book Description

Healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) development is a critical foundation for a productive adulthood. Much is known about strategies to support families and communities in strengthening the MEB development of children and youth, by promoting healthy development and also by preventing and mitigating disorder, so that young people reach adulthood ready to thrive and contribute to society. Over the last decade, a growing body of research has significantly strengthened understanding of healthy MEB development and the factors that influence it, as well as how it can be fostered. Yet, the United States has not taken full advantage of this growing knowledge base. Ten years later, the nation still is not effectively mitigating risks for poor MEB health outcomes; these risks remain prevalent, and available data show no significant reductions in their prevalence. Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda examines the gap between current research and achievable national goals for the next ten years. This report identifies the complexities of childhood influences and highlights the need for a tailored approach when implementing new policies and practices. This report provides a framework for a cohesive, multidisciplinary national approach to improving MEB health.




Parenting Stress


Book Description

All parents experience stress as they attempt to meet the challenges of caring for their children. This comprehensive book examines the causes and consequences of parenting distress, drawing on a wide array of findings in current empirical research. Kirby Deater-Deckard explores normal and pathological parenting stress, the influences of parents on their children as well as children on their parents, and the effects of biological and environmental factors. Beginning with an overview of theories of stress and coping, Deater-Deckard goes on to describe how parenting stress is linked with problems in adult and child health (emotional problems, developmental disorders, illness); parental behaviors (warmth, harsh discipline); and factors outside the family (marital quality, work roles, cultural influences). The book concludes with a useful review of coping strategies and interventions that have been demonstrated to alleviate parenting stress.




Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children


Book Description

This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically-driven child protection practice. Detailed guidance is provided about how to re-think earlier intervention strategies, and establish stronger and more effective programs and services that prevent maltreatment at the population level. Service user and stakeholder perspectives, particularly from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples, highlight how public health approaches can better support families and keep children safe. Case studies from different countries grapple with the fraught nature of large system change and the various strategies needed to effect multi-level reforms. Presenting the reader with an array of innovative services used in different institutional and community context, this volume confronts the complex challenges found in implementing successful prevention programs that are aligned with diverse cultural and political environments and community expectations.




Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the nation's K-12 education system. The rush to slow the spread of the virus led to closures of schools across the country, with little time to ensure continuity of instruction or to create a framework for deciding when and how to reopen schools. States, districts, and schools are now grappling with the complex and high-stakes questions of whether to reopen school buildings and how to operate them safely if they do reopen. These decisions need to be informed by the most up-to-date evidence about the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19; about the impacts of school closures on students and families; and about the complexities of operating school buildings as the pandemic persists. Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities provides guidance on the reopening and operation of elementary and secondary schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The recommendations of this report are designed to help districts and schools successfully navigate the complex decisions around reopening school buildings, keeping them open, and operating them safely.