A new report from the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) calls for investment in dedicated early childhood health services and for the implementation of five key actions to strengthen the role of health services in the lives of children. One such action is to better support health sector workers to engage with inter-agency initiatives such as Children and Young People’s Services Committees.
In the Impact of Early Childhood on Future Health paper, the RCPI Faculty of Public Health Medicine proposes key actions to be implemented. These are outlined below:
- Develop a public health nurse workforce dedicated solely to child health work
- Establish a dedicated Child Health Office within the HSE to provide leadership for child health and wellbeing
- Provide funding and support for important evidence based interventions, such as: Family support programmes including parenting and home visiting programmes, Infant and child mental health services, Free immunisation services for pregnant women
- Ensure the health system is informed about how best to identify and respond to the needs of children and families by investing in a robust national child health information system
- Continued involvement in multi-agency co-ordinated responses to support children and families in their communities, for example through the Children and Young People’s Services Committees.
Essential points made by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in this paper emphasise that the experiences that a child has in early childhood impact on the health of that child when he or she reaches adulthood. The health and wellbeing of our current child population therefore determines the health of our future adult population.
The report highlights the type of early childhood interventions which can be delivered by health services in conjunction with other statutory, community and voluntary agencies that have been shown to be effective. These are summarised in the report as follows:
Antenatal:
- Home visiting programmes, particularly for disadvantaged families
- Promotion of smoking cessation
- Improvement in maternal nutrition
- Promotion of breastfeeding
- Identification and support of mothers with mental health issues
- Maternal immunisation
- Promotion of parenting skills.
Post-natal and Early years
- Home-visiting programmes, particularly for disadvantaged families
- For services which include universal home-visiting programmes, needs assessment to identify those requiring more intensive interventions
- Promotion of parenting skills
- Continuing the promotion of smoking cessation
- Identification and support of mothers and other primary caregivers with mental health issues
- Promotion of breastfeeding and infant nutrition, parent-child relationships, positive parenting, regular sleep patterns, injury prevention, oral health, early literacy and reading
- Immunisation.
Pre-school
- Parent education programmes
- Quality early education initiatives.
Click here to download the Impact of Early Childhood on Future Health Position Paper of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine
Click here to read the Press Release
Click here to visit the Royal College of Physicians' website
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