Health and Well-being of Individuals in a Residential Childcare Setting - Report Example

Critically analyze the factors influencing health and wellbeing of individuals in a residential child care setting.  Inserts His/Her Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 24th (Friday, December, 2010) Social care as defined by the UK Department of Health is ‘helping people live their lives’, (UK Department of Health, n.d.). Social care broadly constitutes of old, disabled, mentally ill or even people with learning disabilities. It also includes help provided to infants and children or young people in the absence of their parents and family. Studies by different government and health organizations all over the world show that over the last century social care centers have gone through a lot of changes and more people are seeking their help than ever. Changing lifestyles, especially the increased role of women in the workforce across the globe is the top most reason for the popularity of residential child care centers. (Scarr 1998). While these setups are a great support to myriads they have their flaws too. Being a part of a children’s day care centre and a witness of such social setups helps one in assessing the organizations workings. Though these social organizations work for the comfort and welfare of society at large they all have functional loopholes. Health of children, both physical and mental is a major concern of parents and they expect care givers to prioritize it also. Children of different age groups have varied physical, mental and emotional health. Some children cope well in environments of residential centers but most have to be worked upon endlessly. Sensitive children tend to feel neglected and behave accordingly if they belong to bigger groups at their respective center. Health and well being do not only refer to the physical wellbeing of a child residing in a care center but also encompass his or her emotional state, education, learning of etiquettes and over all social conformity. Cynthia F.Bearer (1995), in her book ‘The Future of Children’ focuses on needs of children and adults and how differently they respond to environmental contaminants. She states ‘Interaction with polluted environments can have an adverse impact on humans and other living creatures. This impact is felt first among the most vulnerable members of a population. Children, because of their unique physical, biological and social characteristics, are among the most vulnerable members of our population.’ Cynthia clearly underscores factors that affect child development and health further by saying ‘Children at different stages of development have unique physical risk factors for certain types of exposure because of changing location, levels of mobility, oxygen consumption, eating patterns, and behavior. When children are exposed to contaminants, their developing biological makeup-the ways in which they absorb, distribute and metabolize chemicals- will also affect how their bodies deal with the foreign substance.’ (Cynthia F.Bearer - 1995). Thorough scientific research has enabled her to prove that all these factors bundled up with customs, rules, policies and laws affect the children’s exposure to the contaminants and reflect in their well being in future years. Moreover, since children come from different backgrounds and each one is special in their own case, they should be treated individually. They differ in likes and dislikes, in the way they interpret their environment and respond to a situation. Some have had a single parent, some have bad memories from their infancy and adolescence, another child’s parent may be a drug addict, they could be exceptionally poor and there could be an array of reasons. The AAP and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (2010), suggest that to ensure the well being of a child one should investigate about the center-based care the child is being enrolled into. The agency must have a license to provide the service and there must be regular inspection by the relevant governmental bodies in charge. Some of the other policies for these centers include the following: Accreditation with the NAEYC Staff must be checked for a clear criminal background before getting hired. Centers must follow policies laid down clearly, especially in terms of discipline and handling of sick children. Each child should be associated with one care giver only to ensure a sense of security and bonding is developed for the child Health concerns for children and the staff are rigorous and among many others include that; Staff and children should undergo current prescribed immunity to diseases Staff taking care of children must have basic knowledge and training of Cardio Pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and stages of development of children. Staff should always wear disposable gloves when changing diapers Frequent washing of hands with soap should be promoted Regular disinfection of furniture and toys should be practiced. Frequent disinfection of the facility including all toys, must be (National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, n.d.) However, childcare centre seems to be having a difficult time living up to the required standards, and in most instances, fail to ensure children’s health and well being. The Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Ulleval Univ Hospital, Gaustad – Norway (2004), conducted a study to compare the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems in institutionalized childcare clients when compared to other children. The study concluded that children in residential child care centers, more boys than girls, had a higher incidence of emotional and behavioral problems when compared to the rest of the population (as measured by Achenbachs Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self Report). (Kjelsberg E, Nygren P, 2004) Because of the lack of government aid in many economies, public sector setups face numerous problems including insufficient medical stocks and poor emergency aid to children. Besides this, the lack of trained staff and low standards of services like education, physical exercise and other activities that children enjoy, keep these centers from achieving results that society would hold in respect. Stringent steps must be taken in this regard. Concerning physical health issues, The Society of Health Care Epidemiology of America (2002) has conducted research on ‘hand hygiene’ and provides suitable recommendations to health care settings. Hand hygiene, if practiced religiously can free children and adults of many infections and diseases. The guidelines given by the society promote hand washing and the use of antiseptics in health and social care settings. Strong recommendation of practicing hand-hygiene is pressed by the society because scientific research confirms that it helps reduce the transfer of pathogenic microorganisms. To focus on emotional and social wellbeing of children and infants, organizations should reduce the child to caregiver ratio. This enables a care giver to give more attention to each child in his/ her group and understand their psychology better. It also helps in creating a special bond between the child and his caregiver. According to a study by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) the following child- staff ratio should be followed especially in the case of infants. The AAP guidelines for child care are: Age Birth-24 mos. 25-30 mos. 31-35 mos. 3 yrs. 4-5 yrs. Child: Staff 3:1 4:1 5:1 7:1 8:1 Max. group size 6 8 10 14 16 (Steven Dowshen, MD, November 2010) Care centers are required to ensure means for both physical and mental growth of children. This does only include the assurance of a healthy diet and well maintained cleanliness. It also includes that the care centre provides for physical fitness and mental tranquility of the children. Indoor and outdoor games, exercise, focus groups, celebrations on all important national holidays, assessing talents and guiding children to choose an appropriate career path are all part of the policies that make child care centers successful. The Canadian government launched a nationwide campaign to reduce the incidence of respiratory and diarrheal diseases in toddlers attending day care centers. A study conducted to assess the results of this campaign (Bond et al. 1999) showed that careful monitoring by designated officials alone helped in “reducing the level of bacterial contamination on childrens and educators hands“. Monitoring and intervention also achieved a drop in the number of children getting inflicted with diarreah and upper respiratory tract infections. References UK Department of Health, n.d.  Early Child Care and Childrens Development Prior to School Entry: Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 133-164. Available from Jstor.org (Spring, 2002) Cynthia F. Bearer, Environmental Health Hazards: How Children Are Different from Adults, Critical Issues for Children and Youths published by Princeton University, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 11-26. Available from [1995] Cynthia F. Bearer, The Future of Children, Critical Issues for Children and Youths published by Princeton University, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 11-26. Available from [1995] KidsHealth.Org. Available from: [2010] National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care. Available from: Kjelsberg E, Nygren P. The prevalence of emotional and behavioural problems in institutionalized childcare clients, Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Vol. 5, No. 8, pp. 319-25, Available from: [2004-5] John M. Boyce and Didier Pittet, Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings, Published by: The University of Chicago Press, Vol. 23, No. 12m pp. S3-S40. Available from: [n.d.] Steven Dowshen, MD, Chief Medical Editor, KidsHealth. Available from: http://kidshealth.org [2010] Bond, Hélène Carabin, Theresa W. Gyorkos, Julio C. Soto, Lawrence Joseph, Pierre Payment and Jean-Paul Collet, Effectiveness of a Training Program in Reducing Infections in Toddlers Attending Day Care Centers, Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Vol. 10, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 219-227, Available from [1999] Read More