Tags: ADPH

Talking about adversity, trauma and resilience

The Institute of Health Visiting welcomes today’s publication by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) which aims to build understanding of the power of framing messaging when communicating about adversity, trauma and resilience in infants, children and young people (ICYP), alongside three clear recommendations for practice.

The iHV is delighted to have been involved as a partner in this important project which forms part of a three-year, four nations collaboration project, funded by The Health Foundation, focused on Infants, Children and Young People (ICYP) and health inequalities. The project aims to increase engagement across the four nations and bring together key partners across the wider determinants of health to discuss policy and the evidence base, share good practice, and produce resources to improve outcomes and tackle health inequalities for ICYP.

Today’s publication, “Talking about adversity, trauma and resilience” is the key output from a workshop held earlier in the year, led by ADPH and FrameWorks UK with a wide range of professionals working in the children’s sector. The aim was to explore ways to better explain the causes and impact of adversity, trauma and resilience faced by ICYP to policy makers and the wider public. Amongst the key drivers was a recognition of the need to shift away from fatalistic or deterministic language which can perpetuate a sense of hopelessness, or a belief that adverse childhood experiences automatically translate into negative outcomes, or that a trauma response permanently impedes a person’s ability to function.

Alison Morton, iHV CEO said:

“This timely and important publication by the ADPH and Frameworks UK helpfully presents guidance on ways to improve our work with infants, children, young people and parents facing adversity and trauma – how we communicate about social issues matters. At the iHV, we were delighted to be involved in the project which provides three clear recommendations that will be invaluable to practitioners, service leaders and policymakers on the importance of framing our messages carefully and the actions needed to create lasting change”.

Framing refers to the choices we make about what we say and how we say it. It’s what we emphasise, how we explain an issue and what we leave unsaid. This is an important aspect of public health as mindsets guide our thinking. Our task as public health professionals is to strengthen the mindsets that are helpful in achieving social change and avoid those that are unhelpful.

The recommendations, which have been endorsed by ADPH, The Health Foundation, School and Public Health Nurses Association, Institute of Health Visiting and NHS Scotland, provide practical guidance for improving understanding, as well as producing resources and literature, about adversity, trauma and resilience.

The skills that the FrameWorks UK team brought to the project were invaluable to its success. FrameWorks UK is a not-for-profit communications research organisation. They work with charities, public sector bodies and other mission-driven organisations to identify the best ways to build understanding and support for social progress and issues like health inequalities and child development.

The following recommendations from FrameWorks UK are designed to help professionals effectively reach the public, community and policymaker audiences by tapping into language and ideas that expand the public’s mental model of how adversity, trauma and resilience works and sparking a sense of collective responsibility for all children by:

  1. Focusing on community strength, not widespread trauma or crisis.
  2. Harnessing the power of three – talk about adversity, trauma and resilience together.
  3. Talking about positive outcomes and collective solutions.

The report also recognises that further research is needed, as not enough research is being done in the UK in this area.

Download the ADPH publication

iHV joins Consensus statement on Child oral health

iHV joins a group of 8 leading health organisations in publishing and sharing a consensus statement calling for the Government to urgently act to reverse increasing inequality in children’s oral health.

A survey of oral health in five-year-old children, produced as part of the National Dental Epidemiology Programme and published last week, found that over 35% of children in areas of deprivation experienced dentinal decay in 2022 in comparison to only 13.5% in more affluent areas.

With tooth decay the leading cause of hospital admissions for five-to-nine-year-olds, there is a significant, and preventable, knock-on cost to the NHS.

Families do need to be equipped with the knowledge to encourage and oversee good hygiene practice amongst children. However, this report’s worrying findings are not a result of behaviour, poor choices or a lack of education. Rather, they are a result of a wider system failure to take forward proven, cost-effective public health measures that prevent tooth decay and improve everyone’s health and wellbeing.

We therefore urge the Government to:

  • Impose further restrictions on the marketing and sale of sugary food and drinks.
  • Support policy across all departments to improve access to affordable, healthy food.
  • Increase the number of water fluoridation schemes, which are the single most effective public health measure for reducing tooth decay rates.
  • Improve access to fluoride varnish programmes.
  • Facilitate timely access to free child dental services for preventative advice and early diagnosis.
  • Ensure that the early years workforce are educated about the importance of child oral

Signatories:

Read the full consensus statement here

Health visiting during COVID-19

We have received numerous enquiries from health visitors asking for greater clarity for the health visiting service during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Institute is doing all we can to expedite this information for the profession and have a dedicated COVID-19 section of our website which we are using to provide updates as and when they are received. However, at the moment the content still lacks this much needed detail for health visitors’ roles.

We have contacted Public Health England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Public Health to highlight the need for advice to manage the numerous queries that we are receiving from health visitors, including service leads around emergency planning and escalation for the health visiting service – things like, “should we carry on with universal contacts?” “Will I be redeployed? And if so, when?” “What about families who have safeguarding concerns or high levels of vulnerability?” “Am I in a priority key-worker group?” etc…

The latest update that we have received from Public Health England is that the NHS is leading on drafting guidance on community services including health visiting. PHE and local government have provided advice and we are awaiting publication.  We will alert our members and followers when we receive advice that it has been published – hopefully very soon. As there is considerable pressure and pace within the healthcare system due to the pandemic, we suggest that you also keep a look out on the government COVID-19 update web pages and contact your local commissioner and Director of Public Health who will be coordinating the response to the NHS guidance in your area.

Our position at the iHV is that we need to support the government-led decisions (nationally and locally) rather than issuing our own guidance which may cause confusion and mixed messages at this time when clarity is needed.

We will continue to do all that we can to help.

A big thank you to everyone working in health visiting at this time. You are all doing an amazing job during the uncertainties of the COVID-19 situation – it is comforting to know that we have great teams of people who care so much about the communities they work in, and the health and wellbeing of families.

Tackling adverse childhood experiences: new funding to address this vital determinant of health

The iHV is delighted to be partnering with The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) to tackle the serious consequences of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), as part of the Health Foundation’s programme on the social determinants of health.

This project will bring together key partners – including the police, public health professionals, healthcare professionals and children’s social services – to inform the development of resources on what good practice looks like, share and build on the work already underway in Scotland and Wales, and encourage more collaborative working on ACEs locally.

It is estimated that 50% of the UK population experience at least once ACE. Experiences such as physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence or parental separation can have a negative impact on a child’s mental health, physical health, education outcomes, future employment and involvement in crime.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, said:

“Health visitors visit every family with a new baby giving them a unique opportunity to recognise and support parents, who may be taking the trauma of ACEs experienced as children, into their new role as a parent. We know that ACEs can affect how parents respond to their own children but, also that with the right training and a trusting relationship, health visitors can help these parents to manage this early trauma either through direct work, or by referring them onto other local partners, thereby helping to reduce the risk of ACEs for the next generation.”

ADPH Chief Executive, Nicola Close said:

“We know the impact of ACEs can be severe and long term, which is why they are increasingly recognised as being an important social determinant of health. No single agency or organisation can provide the solution – a whole system approach should be adopted which requires engagement from services across the life course. This funding will help us work with local partners to scale up approaches to tackling ACEs and push forward the case for national action.”

iHV co-signs open letter on public health funding

The Times has published an open letter organised by the Association of Directors of Public Health, and co-signed by 54 health leaders including the Institute of Health Visiting, calling for public health to be a priority in the Spending Review.

Furthermore, an article was also published in The Times to accompany it.

The text of the letter and list of signatories is available here on the ADPH website.

 

Go to The Times to read the open letter - please note you need to be a subscriber to read online.

Go to the Times to read the article Long-term plan to prevent illness at risk from cuts

Please note you need to be a subscriber to The Times to read both the letter and article online.

 

 

iHV welcomes ADPH Position Statement – Best Start in Life

The iHV welcomes the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) position statement on the Best Start in Life.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE said:

“The Institute of Health Visiting is delighted to support the ADPH position statement on Best Start in Life.  We hope this will also enhance our own work highlighting the risks where health visiting services have been dramatically reduced across the country. In some places, the cuts greatly exceed the percentage cuts to public health budgets which greatly impacts the services it is possible to deliver for very young children and a light should be shone on that too.”

Download ADPH Position Statement - Best Start in Life