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Showing results for tags 'Children and Young People'.
Found 602 results
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Content Article
Prevention of Future Deaths: Sebastian Hibberd (23 August 2019)
Sam posted an article in Coroner reports
Sebastian Hibberd, 6 years old, became ill on Saturday 10 October having developed intussusception of the bowel. He deteriorated over the weekend. His father sought medical advice on the Monday from NHS 111 and from his GP's surgery. Sebastian's condition went unrecognised as being life threatening. There were several missed opportunities for him to receive life saving treatment. Sebastian suffered a cardiac arrest and transferred to Derriford Hospital where he sadly died in the Emergency Department shortly after his arrival on the 12 October. -
Content ArticleMyla Deviren had congenital intestinal malrotation and developed a volvulus on 26 August 2015. Her mother checked the NHS Symptom finder on line and the advice was to take her to A&E but she called 111 for advice. The Health Assistant who took the call did not appreciate the significance of key symptoms due to multiplicity of symptoms described at the outset. He passed the caller on a “ warm” transfer to the Clinical Adviser whose initial reaction on hearing that the symptoms included blue lips and breathlessness was to call an ambulance, ignored her instincts and took mum through a series of digital pathways re lesser symptoms. When directly asking about the breathlessness Myla's mum put the phone close to her daughter enabling the Clinical Adviser to hear the rapid breathing herself however they did not appreciate the significance of it and did not call an ambulance. She did however pass the call to the Out Of Hours Nurse who decided that this was a case of gastroenteritis early in the call and did not appreciate the description of a child with worsening signs. Whilst the precise point at which Myla stopped breathing is not known it was sometime between when she was last seen alive approximately 06.00 and then found unresponsive at 08.00 on the 27 August 2015. She was then taken by ambulance to Peterborough City Hospital where, despite attempts at resuscitation, she did not recover a heartbeat and she died. Post mortem revealed small bowel infarction from untreated small intestinal volvulus. It is probable that with earlier transfer to hospital by ambulance and with appropriate treatment Myla would have survived.
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Content Article
Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. The risks are even greater for teenage girls who become pregnant, with up to one in ten dying in childbirth. In this blog, Lucy November, co-founder of 2YoungLives, a mentoring project for pregnant teenagers, describes the risks faced by teenage girls in Sierra Leone and the barriers they face to accessing maternity care. She talks about how 2YoungLives is making pregnancy and birth safer for this vulnerable group through mentoring, building community and equipping young mothers to support themselves and their babies. -
Content ArticleIn Sierra Leone, 34% of pregnancies and 40% of maternal deaths are amongst teenagers and risks are known to be higher for younger teenagers. This qualitative study in Reproductive Health aimed to explore the causes of this high incidence of maternal death for younger teenagers, and to identify possible interventions to improve outcomes. Through focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the authors identified transactional sex - including sex for school fees, sex with teachers for grades and sex for food and clothes - as the main cause of high pregnancy rates for this group. They also identified gendered social norms for sexual behaviour, lack of access to contraception and the fact that abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone as factors meaning that teenage girls are more likely to become pregnant. Key factors affecting vulnerability to death once pregnant included abandonment, delayed care seeking and being cared for by a non-parental adult. Their findings challenge the idea that adolescent girls have the necessary agency to make straightforward choices about their sexual behaviour and contraceptives. They identify a mentoring scheme for the most vulnerable pregnant girls and a locally managed blood donation register as potential interventions to deal with the high rate of maternal death amongst teenage girls.
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Content ArticleTo tackle the serious harms, up to and including death, associated with eating disorders it is crucial that more is done to identify them at the earliest stage possible so that the appropriate care and treatment can be provided. The aim of this guidance from the Royal College of Psychiatrists is to make preventable deaths due to eating disorders a thing of the past.
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Content ArticleThis infographic by the Royal College of Anaesthetists shows some of the common events and risks that healthy children and young people of normal weight face when having a general anaesthetic (GA) for routine surgery. It highlights that modern anaesthetics are very safe and that most common side effects are usually not serious or long lasting. It also outlines the conversations children and their families should expect to have with their anaesthetist prior to their procedure.
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Content ArticleThis study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health examines the demographic, clinical and socioeconomic factors associated with diagnosis of Long Covid in children aged 5 to 18 years. The authors conducted a population-based cross-sectional study using data from 20,601 children living in Israel who tested positive for Covid between 1 February 2020 and 30 June 2021. They found several variables associated with the development of Long Covid, including: the severity of acute infection being hospitalised recurrent acute infection ADHD diagnosis chronic allergic rhinitis chronic urticaria. The authors call for heightened clinical awareness that Long Covid can be present in children, and highlight that this should affect public health policy because of Covid-19's long-term health impacts.
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Content ArticleThis study in the journal Health and Social Care Delivery Research mapped interventions aimed at reducing restrictive practices in children and young people’s institutional settings around the world. It also assessed which process elements led promising behaviour change techniques, and compared the results with a companion review of adult psychiatric inpatient settings. In the first evidence review of its kind, the authors found that interventions tend to be complex, reporting is inconsistent and robust evaluation data are limited. But they did find some behaviour change techniques that warrant further research. They argue that better evidence could help address the urgent need for effective strategies.
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Content ArticleRecent analysis shows that recognisable mental health issues are increasing amongst young people, with referrals to children and young people's mental health services increasing by 81% in April to September 2021, compared to the same period in 2019. In this blog, Martina Kane, Policy and Engagement Manager at The Health Foundation, looks at the contextual factors that influence young people's mental health, arguing that these are often overlooked in the way mental health issues are treated. She looks at factors such as parental unemployment, the energy crisis and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education, and argues that these must be taken into account when designing mental health services for children and young people. She highlights that while young people benefit personally from good mental health, it is also an asset for society and the economy that must be invested in by the government.
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Content ArticleSerious case reviews from the past twenty years have repeatedly highlighted the absence of professional curiosity as a core failing in the actions of health and social care professionals. However, 'professional curiosity' as a term is still not commonly used amongst healthcare professionals and there is no shared understanding of its meaning. This paper published by Diabetes on the Net, critically reviews current research surrounding professional curiosity and discusses the main themes. explores how inter-agency working can promote professional curiosity by supporting healthcare professionals to overcome the complex barriers that may arise during safeguarding cases. It discusses the role of Children and Young People’s diabetes clinics as an ideal platform for utilising the benefits of professional curiosity.
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Content ArticleThis National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) report highlights the results of a study into quality of care received by people aged 0-24 receiving long-term ventilation (LTV). It aimed to identify remediable factors in the care provided to children and young people who were receiving, or had received, LTV.
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Content ArticleAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), medication harm accounts for 50% of the overall preventable harm in medical care. As well as telling the story of Melissa Sheldrick, who has been campaigning to improve medication safety since her son Andrew died as a result of a medication error, this blog looks at how making it 'safe-to-say' can reduce the risk of medication errors. Healthcare systems need a culture shift that makes it safe-to-say when something has gone wrong, is going wrong, or could go wrong. The authors argue that it is only when errors are appropriately managed, reported, responded to and learned from that we can improve the system as a whole, support people impacted to heal and take informed action to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
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Content Article
IHI's Open School Short: What happened to Josie?
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient-centred care
In 2001, 18-month-old Josie King died of dehydration and a wrongly-administered narcotic at Johns Hopkins Hospital. How did this happen? Her mother, Sorrel King, tells the story and explains how Josie’s death spurred her to work on improving patient safety in hospitals everywhere. -
Content ArticleSorrel King was a 32-year-old mother of four when her eighteen-month-old daughter, Josie, was horribly burned by water from a faulty water heater in the family's new Baltimore home. She was taken to Johns Hopkins--renowned as one of the best hospitals in the world--and Sorrel stayed in the hospital with Josie day-in and day-out until she had almost completely recovered. Just before her discharge, however, she was erroneously injected with methadone, and died soon after. Sorrel's account of her unlikely path from grieving parent to nationally renowned advocate is interwoven with descriptions of her and her family's slow but steady road to recovery, and ends with a deeply affecting description of a ski trip they took recently. The sun is shining, her children are healthy, and they are all profoundly happy--a condition that Sorrel has learned to appreciate all the more for Josie. The book ends with a resource guide for patients, their families, and healthcare providers; it includes information about how to best manage a hospital stay and how to handle a medical error if one does occur.
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Content ArticleOn 3 September 2021 assistant coroner Jonathan Stevens commenced an investigation into the death of Martha Mills, aged 13 years. Martha sustained a handlebar injury whilst cycling on a family holiday in Wales. She was transferred to King’s College Hospital London and died approximately one month later. Her medical cause of death was: 1a refractory shock 1b sepsis 1c pancreatic transection (operated) 1d abdominal trauma.
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Content ArticleSharing her story in the Guardian, Merope gives a heart breaking account of how her daughter, Martha Mills, was allowed to die, but also what happens when you have blind faith in doctors – and learn too late what you should have known to save your child’s life.
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Content ArticleThis article in The BMJ examines the case for vaccinating children under five against Covid, following the US recently recommending that children aged six months to five years should receive Covid-19 vaccines. It looks at the risks and benefits of vaccination for young children, citing recent Moderna and Pfizer trials. It highlights that children are more likely than adults to experience asymptomatic Covid-19 or very mild illness, and are much less likely to have severe disease requiring hospital admission. But for children with underlying health conditions, such as long term neurological disease, vaccination may be beneficial in preventing severe disease.
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Content ArticleThe Commission on Young Lives (COYL) was set up in September 2021, to propose a new settlement to prevent marginalised children and young people from falling into violence, exploitation and the criminal justice system, and to support them to thrive. Its national action plan will include ambitious practical, affordable proposals that government, councils, police, social services and communities can put into place. This detailed report by COYL examines the state of children and young people's mental health, describing the current situation as "a profound crisis." It examines the impact of the pandemic on young people's mental health, as well highlighting the lack of capacity and inequalities present in children and young people's mental health services. It then looks in detail at factors that contribute to mental health issues in children and young people and prevent marginalised groups from accessing mental health support.
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Content ArticleRecent data shows that people aged 10–25 in the poorest areas of the UK will die earlier than those in richer areas. It’s also predicted that people aged 10–14 living in the most deprived areas will live 18 more years in ill health than their peers in the least deprived areas. In this blog for The Health Foundation, Association for Young People's Health (AYPH) policy fellow Rachael McKeown outlines data recently published by AYPH that shows the scale and complexity of young people’s health inequalities, and the need for action.
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Content Article
AYPH Youth health data website
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Children, young people and families
This website from the Association for Young People's Health (AYPH) aims to provide useful data about young people’s health for healthcare professionals, researchers and other professionals working with young people. At its heart is a data compendium called ‘Key Data on Young People’s Health’ produced AYPH, which gives up to date national data on key health outcomes for 10-24 year olds. The website also include links to other resources and sources of data about the key issues facing young people. -
Content ArticleYoung people from different backgrounds with different lived experiences can have different physical and mental health outcomes. This briefing document by the Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH) offers a definition for health inequalities that is specific to young people, and a conceptual framework to help identify key causes and factors that influence health outcomes. As well as highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on young people's health and wellbeing, the paper focuses on different factors that will affect young people's health outcomes now and in the future, including education, employment, housing, geographical area, development of behaviours and relationships.
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Content ArticleOur home is a place where we spend so much more time. However, this is one place where there may be fewer safeguards and less protection from the risks of serious injury, especially to young children. Preventable accidental injury remains a leading cause of death and acquired disability for children in the UK. Moreover, it affects deprived children more. Hospital admission rates from unintentional injuries among the under-fives are significantly higher for children from the most deprived areas compared with those from the least deprived. This short article from Ian Evans highlights what healthcare professionals working with children and families need to know about accidents and accident prevention in a higher income setting.
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Content ArticleThis report draws on data from the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) to investigate how illness around the time of birth affects the health of children up to the age of 10, and to draw out learning and recommendations for service providers and policymakers. This report aims to understand patterns and trends in child deaths where an event before, or around, the time of birth had a significant impact on life, and the risk of dying in childhood.
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Content ArticleThis report outlines the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland's priorities for the Scottish Parliament. The report centres on the idea that there should be 'no wrong door' for individuals in all communities to accessing the right care, in the right place, at the right time for mental ill health. It highlights the significant effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of the population: The number of people with high levels of psychological distress (indicating a potential psychiatric disorder) has doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic to 35.6%. Those most vulnerable to psychological distress (67%) were those with pre-existing mental ill health–the population already supported by psychiatrists. Women, young people, ethnically diverse communities and the economically disadvantaged have also been disproportionately affected.
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Content ArticleThis storyboard poster explains the aims, methods and results of No Wrong Door, a project run by North Yorkshire County Council to ensure young people access the right services, at the right time and in the right place to meet their needs. Young people who enter care during their teenage years tend to spend considerable periods in residential care. They are more likely to have placement breakdowns and can follow a path of multiple placements, over time becoming distrusting of positive relationships, disengaging from education and training and falling into patterns of risky behaviour. No Wrong Door is an integrated service for complex and troubled young people. Their needs are addressed within a single team. Operating from two Hubs, No Wrong Door brings together a variety of accommodation options, a range of services and outreach support under one management umbrella. It is a partnership between seven district councils, nine housing providers, health services (including child and adolescent mental health services) and the police.
