Children and Young People Have Their Say On The New Child Health Strategy

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	The participation landscape can change on a daily basis - new funding, new initiatives and announcements. Participation Works is your specialist news provider for the world of children and young peoples participation. You can view our news on this website. Subscribe to our RSS feed in a reader Or Subscribe to Latest News from Participation Works by Email What is RSS? Do you know of a story we should be covering? E-mail claire@participationworks.org.uk.

Children and Young People Have Their Say On The New Child Health Strategy

The National Children’s Bureau has published their report, Have your say about the Government’s new Child Health Strategy based on the findings from their on-line survey with children and young people on health and well being.

The survey was carried out as part of the development of the Government’s first ever child health strategy which is due out next month. The aim of the survey was to find out what children and young people think are the key areas that the child health strategy should cover. The survey, which ran for a month, was partially filled in by 1673 children and young people and fully answered by 1038.

The survey found that the most common illness or health problem affecting children and young people was asthma or respiratory problems. Second came attention or psychological problems, which represented both learning/ attention difficulties and mental health issues. 321 children and young people that responded to the survey named their illness or health problem.

When asked about the help they receive for their illness or health problem children and young people said that they mainly received help from parents/ foster/ adoptive carers and other family members and friends. They received help to a lesser extent from health professionals. Some children and young people said that they felt they didn’t get any help at all so they turned to health professionals. The report highlights the importance of the need to identify ways in which young people feel they can turn to health professionals and also to identify, which young people in society feel they do not receive any help and look at why this is and how to encourage them to seek support. Children and young people said that they would like to receive social and practical support for their illness or health problem including someone to talk to and to listen to them. A young person quoted in the survey report said, “I get really scared about my heart and I’d like a doctor to listen to me properly.” Children and young people who took part in the survey also said that they would like extra understanding and awareness from teachers, schools, health professionals and the general public about their illness or health problem and they would also like health professionals to have more understanding about the impact their illness has on their lives.

The survey asked children and young people what they would like the Government to do to improve their health and services. The survey found that young people would like to be involved in decision-making and be given a say and more choices over how decisions are made about health services. Children and young people believe that their participation is crucial to the development of child health services and want the Government to listen to their views and find out what they think by talking to them. A young person quoted in the report said, “Listen to the youth more as it is for them, and if they do it without asking, we could be unhappy with how it is done, so instead of it making us healthier, it could discourage people, because they don’t like to do it that specific way.”

Key suggestions made by children and young people for how health services could be improved include that everyone has equal access to services regardless of location, age or financial situation and the efficiency of services should be improved with shorter waiting times and more suitable appointment times. Children and young people also want child friendly services and staff and access to more information, explanation or advice from health professionals about their illness or health problem. A young person quoted in the report said, “need to be informed more with what was going on with my treatment instead of me asking all the time.”

Other suggestions made in the report include that the Government should promote healthier foods and make them more affordable. Young people also felt that the Government should promote the benefits of being healthy through the provision of leaflets and advice and use advertising to promote healthy behaviour. Children and young people would also like exercise to be encouraged with more opportunities and places to get involved in sport and exercise activities and think that school is the ideal place to encourage healthy behaviours.

Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 (Archive on Thursday, September 04, 2008)
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