COVID-19 UK family carers and policy implications

Informal (unpaid) carers are an integral part of all societies and the health and social care systems in the UK depend on them. Despite the valuable contributions and key worker status of informal carers, their lived experiences, wellbeing, and needs have been neglected during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Health Policy, we bring together a broad range of clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience as informal carers to share their thoughts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UK carers, many of whom have felt abandoned as services closed. We focus on the carers of children and young people and adults and older adults with mental health diagnoses, and carers of people with intellectual disability or neurodevelopmental conditions across different care settings over the lifespan. We provide policy recommendations with the aim of improving outcomes for all carers

Health, education, and social care provision after diagnosis of childhood visual disability

Aim: To investigate the health, education, and social care provision for children newly diagnosed with visual disability.Method: This was a national prospective study, the British Childhood Visual Impairment and Blindness Study 2 (BCVIS2), ascertaining new diagnoses of visual impairment or severe visual impairment and blindness (SVIBL), or equivalent vi-sion. Data collection was performed by managing clinicians up to 1-year follow-up, and included health and developmental needs, and health, education, and social care provision.Results: BCVIS2 identified 784 children newly diagnosed with visual impairment/SVIBL (313 with visual impairment, 471 with SVIBL). Most children had associated systemic disorders (559 [71%], 167 [54%] with visual impairment, and 392 [84%] with SVIBL). Care from multidisciplinary teams was provided for 549 children (70%). Two-thirds (515) had not received an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP). Fewer children with visual impairment had seen a specialist teacher (SVIBL 35%, visual impairment 28%, χ2p < 0.001), or had an EHCP (11% vs 7%, χ2p < 0 . 01).Interpretation: Families need additional support from managing clinicians to access recommended complex interventions such as the use of multidisciplinary teams and educational support. This need is pressing, as the population of children with visual impairment/SVIBL is expected to grow in size and complexity.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Location, location, location: implications of geographic situation on Australian student performance in PISA 2000

John Cresswell and Cathy Underwood examine the effect of geographical location on the performance of students from schools from all parts of Australia who participated in the OECD/Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000). Students in remote areas were not achieving at the same level as their city counterparts. Results for Australian schools located in major cities and inner regional areas were above the OECD average in reading literacy. Outer regional areas and remote and very remote areas were at or below the OECD average. Levels of proficiency were described, with Level 1 being the most basic and Level 5 the most complex. It was found that 27 per cent of students from remote areas were achieving at the two lowest levels, compared to 12 per cent of students from major cities. At the other end of the scale, 18 per cent of remote students achieved at the two highest levels, compared to 46 per cent of the city students. The most important factor positively associated with success in reading literacy was students\u27 engagement with reading. This was measured by asking students about their reading habits including how often they read, what material they prefer reading and their interest in reading. Students from remote areas scored lower on this factor than students from city areas. Although the pattern of use of school libraries was similar in all areas, students from remote locations did not have access to cultural activities such as live theatre. Cultural activities have been found to be positively correlated with performance in reading. The study also found that females outscored males in reading literacy in all locations; the level of parent education attained was associated with higher student performance in all locations; students in remote areas have access to well-qualified teachers, although they reported the highest level of teacher shortage; and schools in remote areas tended to have a lower level of resources. After a number of factors such as engagement with reading, gender and home background were taken into account, the effect of location was much less significant

COVID-19 UK family carers and policy implications

Informal (unpaid) carers are an integral part of all societies and the health and social care systems in the UK depend on them. Despite the valuable contributions and key worker status of informal carers, their lived experiences, wellbeing, and needs have been neglected during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Health Policy, we bring together a broad range of clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience as informal carers to share their thoughts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UK carers, many of whom have felt abandoned as services closed. We focus on the carers of children and young people and adults and older adults with mental health diagnoses, and carers of people with intellectual disability or neurodevelopmental conditions across different care settings over the lifespan. We provide policy recommendations with the aim of improving outcomes for all carers

The Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ): Development and Preliminary Validation

Background: Following a child’s experience of trauma, parental response is thought to play an important role in either facilitating or hindering their psychological adjustment. However, the ability to investigate the role of parenting responses in the post-trauma period has been hampered by a lack of valid and reliable measures. Objectives: The aim of this study was to design, and provide a preliminary validation of, the Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ), a self-report measure of parent appraisals and support for children’s coping, in the aftermath of child trauma. Methods: We administered an initial set of 78-items to 365 parents whose children, aged 2-19 years, had experienced a traumatic event. We conducted principal components analysis and principal axis factoring and then assessed validity of the reduced measure against a standardised general measure of parental overprotection and via the measure’s association with child post-trauma mental health. Results: Factor analysis generated three factors assessing parent maladaptive appraisals: (i) permanent change/damage, (ii) preoccupation with child’s vulnerability, and (iii) self-blame. In addition, five factors were identified that assess parental support for child coping: (i) behavioural avoidance, (ii) cognitive avoidance, (iii) overprotection, (iv) maintaining pre-trauma routines, and (v) approach coping. Good validity was evidenced against the measure of parental overprotection and child post-traumatic stress symptoms. Good test-retest reliability of the measure was also demonstrated. Conclusions: The PTRQ is a valid and reliable self-report assessment of parenting cognitions and coping in the aftermath of child-trauma

The Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ): Development and Preliminary Validation

Background: Following a child’s experience of trauma, parental response is thought to play an important role in either facilitating or hindering their psychological adjustment. However, the ability to investigate the role of parenting responses in the post-trauma period has been hampered by a lack of valid and reliable measures. Objectives: The aim of this study was to design, and provide a preliminary validation of, the Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ), a self-report measure of parent appraisals and support for children’s coping, in the aftermath of child trauma. Methods: We administered an initial set of 78-items to 365 parents whose children, aged 2-19 years, had experienced a traumatic event. We conducted principal components analysis and principal axis factoring and then assessed validity of the reduced measure against a standardised general measure of parental overprotection and via the measure’s association with child post-trauma mental health. Results: Factor analysis generated three factors assessing parent maladaptive appraisals: (i) permanent change/damage, (ii) preoccupation with child’s vulnerability, and (iii) self-blame. In addition, five factors were identified that assess parental support for child coping: (i) behavioural avoidance, (ii) cognitive avoidance, (iii) overprotection, (iv) maintaining pre-trauma routines, and (v) approach coping. Good validity was evidenced against the measure of parental overprotection and child post-traumatic stress symptoms. Good test-retest reliability of the measure was also demonstrated. Conclusions: The PTRQ is a valid and reliable self-report assessment of parenting cognitions and coping in the aftermath of child-trauma

Artistic and activist memory-work: Approaching place-based practice

While an emerging interdisciplinary field of memory studies exists, what it is and might become remains open to debate. This article calls for a memory studies agenda that remains sensitive to the ways individuals and groups experience memory as multisensual, spatial ways of understanding their worlds. Artistic and activist memory-work in particular offers at least two contributions to such an agenda. It challenges ontological assumptions that underpin much of the recent interdisciplinary body of research on memory, including understandings of site, social and body memory, and the role of place in memory; and it invites scholars to consider their research in terms of socially responsible place-based practice. In this article, I discuss sites of social engagement, embodied and social memory, and wounded places to consider how artistic and activist place-based practice might fundamentally change how memory studies scholars think about their research