Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Covid-19 vaccination campaigns for adolescents have been taking place in many countries for some months. The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunisation have called for vaccine prioritisation within countries to take into account the needs of those groups that, due to underlying social, ethnic, geographic, or biomedical factors, are at greater risk of getting infected or suffering most severe consequences from covid-19. Since the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is considerably higher in prisons and detention facilities than elsewhere, adolescents who are detained in juvenile institutions should be prioritised for vaccination.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led some governments to mandate the rapid return of children in residential care to families. Constrained timelines and limited support lead to wellbeing risks for children and families in this situation. The goal of the present study was to better stand the needs of the families, as perceived by the children and families themselves. This can inform targeted service provision. Participants were 131 families who had experienced government-mandated rapid return in five nations. Using a qualitative design, results examined child and family perception of needs.

The conditions imposed by the Covid-19 outbreaks forced residential care (RC) facilities to experience new challenges and to adopt new practices. The aim of the current study is to analyze how RC facilities have experienced and managed confinement during the 1st wave of the pandemic. A thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals responsible for managing crisis in RC facilities. The main implications of the confinement measures on RC dynamics and relations were organized in three major themes: Chaos, novelty and organization; reinventing normalization and deconfinement. The pandemic exposes the structural weaknesses of RC, namely mobility of human resources, scarcity of supportive networks, and fragilities in providing comprehensive and integrative care. These factors need to be considered when addressing risk/vulnerability and discussing best practices and policies on child/youth welfare domain. Future studies should explore representations of important key actors as youth, families and other professionals from youth care.

Case management can be a complex process where multiple factors must be considered for the safety and well-being of a child in any care option. Miracle Foundation’s proprietary Home Thrive ScaleTM is a strengths-based assessment tool that makes it easier to identify strengths, risks and address areas of support within a family home over time. A home’s safety is measured based on five well-being domains—family and social relations, health and mental health, education, living conditions and household economy—with the child and family’s thoughts at the core. Intervention options are then offered to put assessments into action. The tool serves to both prevent family breakdowns and reintegrate children from institutions back into families (or other family-based or alternative care options). This study provides an overview of the tool, including its purpose, set-up and functionality within a case management system. The use of the tool is illustrated with the COVID-19 situation in India where masses of children were rapidly placed from institutions back into families without preparation.

Applying the antitorture framework to the situation of people with disabilities during a pandemic is no simple task. Yet, it is an important one, perhaps most importantly in prompting states to prevent ongoing and future violations from occurring. This is an immensely complex legal undertaking, requiring cumulative assessments of legislation, emergency powers, public health policy and vast quantities of data, while also assessing the levels of harm that have been caused, or that could have been reasonably foreseeable. This process, which must remain grounded in international human rights law, necessarily gives rise to complicated questions of law, policy and ethics, and indeed the very scope of protection provided under international law. This anthology cannot answer all of these questions and does not purport to do so. Instead, its single purpose is to promote critical reflection, discussion and debate amongst legal communities and disability rights defenders. Some articles clearly open more questions than they answer, but it is our hope that this collection can stimulate greater levels of action to prevent and redress suffering in the weeks and months to come. It also serves as a launching pad for developing more sustainable, non[1]discriminatory public policies which protect fundamental human rights, even during periods of crisis.

COVID-19 is having unprecedented impacts on children and families across the globe; however, these are not being evenly experienced. While the challenges of caregiving are increasing for most families, the effects are particularly acute for those already engaged in low-wage or in-kind work, often in the informal economy where there are few safeguards. Caregivers are stretched, and there is a lack of quality, affordable childcare, with limited access to social protection, services and support to address the multiple and cumulative risks associated with the pandemic, as well as persistent poverty, systemic inequality and discrimination.

This article has been developed based on a systematic review of research studies conducted in the last 10 years on family-based childcare systems and a rapid review of research and assessments conducted in 2020 to explore the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on adoption and foster care in India. The study explains child vulnerabilities with a focus on challenges to adoption and foster care before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings depict that India is home to a large number of vulnerable children who have been living with hardships, and the COVID-19 pandemic has put them at a higher risk of adversity

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has rattled the world and has severely compromised not only the public health system but has decelerated the global economy. In this backdrop, the article explores the dynamics of the institutional care of the out-of-home care (OHC) children, adolescents and children who are residing in alternative care homes, childcare institutes (CCIs), foster homes and who are in conflict with law like refugees or in juvenile correctional centres. The article attempts to highlight the risk factors and systematic barriers that CCIs and associated functionaries have been confronting in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. It would also catalogue the remedial, preventive and protective initiatives undertaken as best practices. 

The report presents the findings from a rapid global survey of persons with disabilities and other stakeholders which took place between April and August this year. The report analyses over 2,100 responses to the survey which were received from 134 countries around the world. The vast majority were received from individuals with disabilities and their family members. Very few governments or independent monitoring institutions responded. The survey collected over 3,000 separate pieces of testimony, many of which manifestly demonstrated a complete failure by states to adopt disability-inclusive responses. This was the case in many countries, regardless of their level of economic development, pointing to a collective failure on the part of leaders.

Evidence indicates that healthcare and social service providers (HSSPs) receive inadequate education related to recognizing and responding to child maltreatment. This is despite the fact HSSPs are identified as an important factor in the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of this childhood exposure. The need for online education for HSSPs’ is highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and will continue to be relevant afterward. The objective of this commentary is to provide an overview of: (a) educational interventions for HSSPs’ related to recognizing and responding to child maltreatment; (b) the development of VEGA (Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action), which is an online platform of educational resources to support HSSPs to recognize and respond to child maltreatment; and (c) the RISE (Researching the Impact of Service provider Education) project, which is an ongoing multi-province evaluation of VEGA in Canada.