Challenging Child Protection New Directions In Safeguarding Children by Desconocido

Author:Desconocido
Language: spa
Format: azw3, mobi
Published: 2017-04-29T10:22:13+00:00

population-level record linkage is often from a state or country, it is possible to use this data, for geographical mapping of areas and to determine community-level factors that may impact on child maltreatment. Utilising spatial data, Freisthler et al. (2007) found that increases in off-premises alcohol outlets was related to an increase in rates of child maltreatment in that area. They also found that rate of entry into foster care was related to the number of bars in local areas and determined that regulating alcohol outlet density may be a viable community intervention in reducing child maltreatment. Geographical mapping and spatial analysis allows the identification of areas where child maltreatment indicators are showing high prevalence. This information can be used by government agencies to direct services and intervention strategies.

Another important use of the linked data is to examine outcomes for children involved in child welfare services. Research from Canada on child maltreatment and emergency department presentations for suicide-related behaviours has shown that children removed from their homes for maltreatment were over five times more likely to have a first presentation for suicide-related behaviour than their peers. This was found for both sexes after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, mental health service use and emergency department presentations (Rhodes et al. 2012). Linked cross-agency data provides the opportunity to investigate educational, health, mental health and juvenile justice outcomes for children in out-of-home care or families who are provided in-home services. If longitudinal data are accessible, then potentially the impact of policy or practice changes can be traced.

Observations

What is vital in the use of population-level linked data is the protection of individual privacy. Governments do not make direct operational use

Advances from Public Health Research

117

of linked population-level data; the data is linked only for research purposes, and the data that researchers receive is de-identified with names and addresses of individuals removed. This is essential for community and government support of this type of research. The protocols and procedures employed by the Data Linkage Branch within the Western Australian Department of Health to link cross-agency data are now accepted as international best practice (Kelman, Bass and Holman 2002).

There are four main advantages of using population-level record linkage in child maltreatment research: first, it is relatively low cost, as it is using existing and available data; second, capture of total population data; third, inclusion of multiple birth cohorts allowing longitudinal analysis; and fourth, as data is de-identified, the privacy and identity of the individuals is protected.

The main disadvantage concerns limitations in the data that agencies collect (Brownell and Jutte 2013). While some datasets capture almost the entire population, such as birth and death registrations and all hospital admissions, other datasets are only available for children and families who have contact with specific government agencies. There may be restrictions in areas in which government services are limited, where families are not accessing services or families have not come to the attention of child welfare services. Not all factors associated with child abuse and neglect are captured by the agency databases, such as parenting styles and child temperament.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.