Handbook of Children’s Risk, Vulnerability and Quality of Life


Book Description

This handbook makes a major contribution to the growing international research and policy interest in children’s experienced well-being or quality of life in childhood, linking it to ongoing research on children’s risk and vulnerability. The editors and contributors adopt the broader concept of ‘risk’ in addition to ‘vulnerability’. Not much work considers the connections between risks that children experience and their quality of life. In examining children’s quality of life, the chapters discuss various issues of risk and vulnerability that may affect their lives and also how the quality of childhood might be enhanced and maintained even in the face of these factors. The chapters discuss experiences of violence and abuse; access to basic services such as housing, health and education; and children’s vulnerability due to broader external factors such as war, conflict, and environmental events. The volume also includes the impacts of new technologies on children and the consequent risks and vulnerabilities they may face, alongside the benefits. This important volume brings together a diverse range of perspectives from established experts and emerging scholars in these fields of work. It covers a wide range of geographical and cultural contexts, and includes theoretical, empirical, policy and practice-based contributions. This handbook is a natural first point of reference for academics and policy professionals interested in quality of life, well-being, and children's rights.




The Quality of Life in Youth Services Scale (QOLYSS)


Book Description

Individual quality of life has been widely used as a frame of reference guiding service provision in social and health services, as well as a critical objective or outcome of these services. Yet, the topic of quality of life in the context of child and youth care remains a relatively uncharted territory. This dissertation is based on a practice-oriented project that focuses on bridging the gap between research and practice on the topic of quality of life of adolescents in youth care. This work concentrates on the development, validation, and application of a new self-report tool, grounded in youngsters’ experiences and perceptions, to methodically and systematically assess the quality of life of adolescents in youth care from their own perspectives: the Quality of Life in Youth Services Scale (QOLYSS). The QOLYSS aims to help understand how youngsters perceive, evaluate, and make sense of varying discrete aspects and circumstances of their lives. This line of work offers valuable insights to develop person-centered planning and implement individualized support, tailored to youngsters’ characteristics, perceptions of life, wishes, and expectations. It further helps unveil critical opportunities and barriers regarding a life of quality on the different layers of everyday life of youngsters. The work presented here provides a concrete tool and a number of cross-cutting implications for research, practice and policy when aiming to build quality of life-enhancing environments for youngsters in youth care that help them (re-)claim ownership of their lives and care pathways.







Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Wellbeing


Book Description

This comprehensive Encyclopedia delves into the underpinnings, approaches, and recent advancements in the dynamic global landscape of happiness and wellbeing research. Laying out the foundational concepts and disciplinary perspectives in the field, international leading and diverse authors survey the determinants and mechanisms which are associated with happiness, quality of life and subjective wellbeing. This title contains one or more Open Access entries.




The Routledge International Handbook of Children's Rights and Disability


Book Description

This handbook provides authoritative and cutting-edge analyses of various aspects of the rights and lives of disabled children around the world. Taking the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) as conceptual frameworks, this work appraises the current state of affairs concerning the rights of disabled children across different stages of childhood, different life domains, and different socio-cultural contexts. The book is divided into four sections: Legislation and Policy Children’s Voice The Life Course in Childhood Life Domains in Childhood Comprised of 37 newly commissioned chapters featuring analyses of UN documents and case studies from Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vanuatu, its multidisciplinary approach reflects the complexities of the lives of disabled children and the multifarious nature of the strategies needed to ensure their rights are upheld. It will be of interest to researchers and students working in disability studies, education, allied health, law, philosophy, play studies, social policy, and the sociology of childhood. It will also be a valuable resource for professionals/practitioners, allowing them to consider future directions for ensuring that disabled children’s rights are realised and their well-being and dignity are assured.




Delivering Culturally Competent Nursing Care


Book Description

Recipient of the 2019 AJN Book of the Year Award: Nursing Management and Leadership! Focusing on what it really means to be culturally competent in nursing practice, this text uses a unique framework to help nurses develop and apply these critical skills and provides numerous techniques for cultural self-assessment and cultural patient assessment. The third edition---imbued with lessons learned from the devastation wrought by COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd and their impact on nurses as frontline workers---is updated to reflect present-day dynamics. It includes three new chapters along with new case studies addressing the changing environment of diversity and inclusion. The third edition also expands on the development of critical thinking skills, aligning with the new format for the Next Generation NCLEX-RN exam. Focusing primarily on developing nurses’ skills in providing care for diverse patients and populations, the text also identifies the inequities and disparities in healthcare access and clinical outcomes experienced by some groups along with strategies for their mitigation. A key element culturally competent practice is enlightened, personal insight of the nurse. The book addresses the application of a self-assessment model (the Staircase Model), enabling nurses to explore their personal biases and limitations and to develop skills in overcoming them. The book explores the use of culturally competent practice in a variety of health care scenarios, considering both nurse-patient encounters and the relationships between health care professionals that can be challenged by differences in race, gender, ethnicity, or language barriers. New to the Third Edition: New chapter: Cultural Considerations When Caring for the Elderly New chapter: Cultural Considerations for Advanced Practice Nurses New chapter: Caring for Victims of Human Trafficking New case studies addressing ways to achieve culturally competent practice Expands on the development of critical thinking skills aligning with the new format for Next Generation NCLEX-RN Key Features: Emphasizes self-reflection as a first step in developing cultural competence Guides readers in using the Staircase Model to promote cultural competence when working with diverse patients Considers the wide variety of populations at risk in contemporary society with strategies for change Highlights critical aspects of case scenarios at the end of each chapter Includes Next Generation NCLEX-RN type questions Examines nurses’ roles in addressing health care disparities




Handbook of Resilience in Children of War


Book Description

Their frightened, angry faces are grim reminders of the reach of war. They are millions of children, orphaned, displaced, forced to flee or to fight. And just as they have myriad possibilities for trauma, their lives also hold great potential for recovery. The Handbook of Resilience in Children of War explores these critical phenomena at the theoretical, research, and treatment levels, beginning with the psychosocial effects of exposure to war. Narratives of young people's lives in war zones as diverse as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Columbia, and Sudan reveal the complexities of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them, providing valuable keys to their rehabilitation. Other chapters identify strengths and limitations of current interventions, and of constructs of resilience as applied to youth affected by war. Throughout this cutting-edge volume, the emphasis is on improving the field through more relevant research and accurate, evidence-based interventions, in such areas as: An ecological resilience approach to promoting mental health in children of war. Child soldiers and the myth of the ticking time bomb. The Child Friendly Spaces postwar intervention program. The role of education for war-zone immigrant and refugee students. Political violence, identity, and adjustment in children. The Handbook of Resilience in Children of War is essential reading for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in diverse fields including clinical child, school, and developmental psychology; child and adolescent psychiatry; social work; counseling; education; and allied medical and public health disciplines.




Social Justice for Children in the South


Book Description

This book considers that contextual factors are important for the achievement of social justice and it recognizes that vulnerability to which children are exposed is a phenomenon throughout the planet, particularly in the South. It presents a theoretical review of social justice as well as different situations of vulnerability children experience in their daily lives in which they can be injured, affecting their well-being and the exercise of their rights. It examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, considered as a vulnerable group warranting special social policy considerations. It also presents the need to change power structures in knowledge production and decision-making processes to achieve social justice for children; the importance of investing in children; the exclusion of children from participation in certain activities and the shame of not being able to participate in equal conditions with others; the lives of migrant children belonging to ethnic minorities exposed to language barriers and access to technological devices; and the analysis of the process of social re-integration of children from conditions of armed conflict. The book concludes that governments need to assume social justice as part of universal human interests, providing security, conditions for well-being, and guaranteeing social justice for all children.




Handbook of Early Childhood Intervention


Book Description

Eighteen new chapters have been added to the 2000 edition of this valuable Handbook, which serves as a core text for students and experienced professionals who are interested in the health and well being of young children. It serves as a comprehensive reference for graduate students, advanced trainees, service providers, and policy makers in such diverse fields as child care, early childhood education, child health, and early intervention programs for children with developmental disabilities and children in high risk environments. This book will be of interest to a broad range of disciplines including psychology, child development, early childhood education, social work, pediatrics, nursing, child psychiatry, physical and occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, and social policy. A scholarly overview of the underlying knowledge base and practice of early childhood intervention, it is unique in its balance between breadth and depth and its integration of the multiple dimensions of the field.




A Professional's Guide to Working with Vulnerable and Traumatised Children


Book Description

This book presents “The Circle of Safety and Reconnection”, a compassionate reflection model for working with vulnerable and traumatised children and young people in a nurturing way, providing hope for post-traumatic healing and growth. The circle is a holistic and comprehensive framework for professionals working to create safety for children against violence and abuse. It takes into consideration a child’s individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma also assessing their risk and protection factors and using different tools to regulate the nervous system and promote healing. A step-by-step guide, populated with practice examples and exercises to walk the reader through using and adapting the model in practice, the book discusses the nature, signs, and ways of trauma, the reasons for it, and the different ways of healing these wounds outside the therapeutic context. Additionally, as this field is high risk for secondary traumatisation, stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, the author has dedicated a chapter focusing solely on the building of resilience in professionals. This text is written for all professionals working in the field, including therapists and psychologists, social workers, educators, foster parents, nurses, day-care workers, and students.




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