Effect of Health Inequalities on Children

Introduction

Children, defined generally as those individuals who are below the age of 18 years old (Definition of the Child, 2000), have yet to rise to their functions and roles in society. According to a census made last 2002, children 0-14 years of age were shown to comprise about 2 billion of the global population and outnumbered all the other age groups. The study has also made projections of the group population and dictates that the children age group will remain relatively constant at 30% up until the next fifty years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). A clear sign of wellness and health in society is evidenced by healthy children, making communities more dynamic.

This paper has the objective of discussing the current condition of health care which influences their general well-being in a large and significant way. The report also took into significant consideration economic status as an important determinant of the child's environment. The study attempts to respond to the question: "How does the wellness of children living in a poor nation differ from those in affluent nations?" There will also be a discussion about the plans that are aiming for the improvement of the system at health care, such as the newly revised Healthy People 2010 (Donatelle, 2006), and the inclusion of theoretical viewpoints. A report that utilizes these collections of empirical, scientific and systematic knowledge and data from previous studies ensures more objective and valid assertions. Recommendations on the possible courses of action that focus on aspects of children health care towards authentic healthcare transformation are cited.

This report of a closer examination of the health care system delivered to children is directed to Dr. Sutherland. Ultimately, the purpose of this study is to come up with an aggregation of relevant information about child health care, including their implications on the well-being of the child.

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Background

Maroubra Child Care Centre is committed to the provision of high quality childcare to all children and families at the centre. Maroubra Child Care Centre has typically used health and wellness conversely. In actual sense, the centre has defined the two terms differently in different circumstances. Unlike before, however, Maroubra Child Care Centre now has a higher standard for health not merely regarding it as the absence of sickness (Donatelle, 2006). Throughout this report, health has been defined as the dynamic process of accomplishing possible capacity in each person on the dimensions of health. Wellness will be defined as the actualization of the optimum level of the dimensions of health (Donatelle, 2006). To achieve wellness, Maroubra Child Care Centre is much successful at achieving the dimensions of health-physical health, intellectual health, social health, emotional health, environmental health and spiritual health. Each of the dimensions has been characterized as complimentary to one another. A child could not be considered as being healthy with failure to attain one of the dimensions (Donatelle, 2006). Therefore, the attainment of the well-being of children necessitates that Maroubra Child Care Centre staff is properly educated on the six dimensions of health and how each dimension may be addressed pragmatically.

Discussion

Physical health is the most familiar concept of health that children have. This is the most fundamental dimension in which they consider the attributes, conditions and capabilities of children's body (Donatelle, 2006). To attain success in the other dimensions, children must achieve physical well-being. Additionally, intellectual health is defined as children's capacity for reasoning, analysis, learning or any ability of the brain which we efficiently use every day. An intellectually capable child would not only be successful in learning from experiences or analyzing life situations but could effectively come up with solutions to any difficulties that arise. Children must be equipped with this ability. Social health pertains to chioldren's ability to establish effectively relate and interact with other children and other people as well as cope with changes in the social environment (Donatelle, 2006). A child for that matter is in need of this dimension as a functioning unit which Maroubra Child Care Centre staff has been educated upon to provide to the society. Emotional well-being arises from emotional health. It involves children's capability to control and respond with the right emotions to situations in their life. This is also very crucial for the well-being of a child because it includes their feelings of confidence, love and trust for theselves and for others. Environmental health is the centre's concern for the state of children's environment as individuals who have the obligation to maintain, guard, and develop it (Donatelle, 2006). The Maroubra Child Care Centre staff, is well acquainted with the notion that, in Children who have been properly cared for and have achieved holistic well-being are aware of their responsibility to the continuity of the environment, hence have been educated to ensure that this objective is attained in their children. Finally, spiritual health, which refers to children's faiths in a supreme being, feeling of being united with his or her environment and sense of life value, completes the well-being of a child (Donatelle, 2006). The centre has taken spiritual health dimension to assist their children in realizing their purpose and experience emotions that make for an even deeper, grander and richer way of life.

To effectively pinpoint the faults in Maroubra Child Care Centre system for the children, it is good to look at the current conditions of dthe society as a whole. According to a past publication, the centre raise children in a culture of impatience and undoubtedly, this have negative effects on them (Neville, 1999). Examining Maroubra Child Care Centre, the centre is still at the age, where technology has been swiftly advancing and people's beliefs are inevitably evolving, children have grown addicted to the rapid acceleration of life. Children fail to receive proper nutrition because their parents have to work, which leads back to the desire to save in order to purchase things that are sometimes considered not necessary, rather than following trends outlined in Maroubra Child Care Centre. How could then children be raised with well-being? The effect that is quite disturbing is how parents and guardians are able to throw away relationships so quickly. Divorces and separations have been commonplace in the community. What then, will become of the children? Growing up would be difficult where children could be tossed around like a ping-pong ball, back and forth between their parents and there is proof for that. In a survey for industrialized countries, there was a prevalence rate of 7% to 15% of mental illnesses among children under 13 years of age (McMurray, 2007

At a Maroubra Child Care Centre, they have a longer list of problems that needs to be resolved. If Westernization is not their rival in raising healthy children, it is poverty and lack of health teaching and support from the government for pregnancy, child birth and parenting among countries especially underdeveloped ones (McMurray, 2007). This triggers a chain reaction-both parents are forced to work while the children are raised by other care provider which affects their sense of belongingness and trust causing them to become more stressed or aggressive. ). In dealing with such like problems, the Maroubra Child Care Centre management committee has been organizing seminars for their staff to be educated on how to handle such like societal problems.

Fortunately, Maroubra Child Care Centre has noticed the dilemma. Some actions have begun for prevention of exposure of children to any harmful factors and realize children's well-being. A huge chunk of the percentage of childhood injuries or deaths has been prevented by raising awareness in the family. The centre has properly educated child care providers by providing instructions in its websites. It has also helped resolving this issue with conducting researches and studies to broaden their knowledge (McMurray, 2007). In response to that, they have improved their concern in comprehensive programs in areas such as smoking, proper nutrition and quality of health services (Donatelle, 2006). Health promotion programs are being directed towards the reduction of negative health behavior and promotion of positive change. Included also in these programs is the prevention of disease. The management has also been assigned to accomplish this task by educating its staff as well as other workers who are be able to competently create, put into action, and examine programs for disease prevention. However, this program is being faced with some difficulties as prioritization of disease prevention, has been neglected in the past (Donatelle, 2006).

There is a considerably long list of accomplishments in the Maroubra Child Care Centre system that benefits children's well-being. To start with, immunization has successfully reached and surpassed the goals which were set by the centre, (Murray, 2007). Included and worth mentioning are the achievements of the CDC's goals in Maroubra Child Care Centre, which are safety in the use of motor vehicles and in the workplace, management of infections, cardiovascular disease, clean and nutritious foods, maternal and infant care, setting up of services for family planning, fluoridated drinking water and identification of smoking as a hazardous habit (Donatelle, 2006). As a result, they have been able to save countless lives from an otherwise preventable death.

In achieving the dimensions, the staff is well educated in provision of a safe, nurturing environment which is much inclusive and how to respect cultural differences and diversity with no gender bias. The staff has been trained on how to work with other professionals along with families to cater for any child who needs additional care. They know that all children are unique individuals who are able to learn and develop through the process of exploration within an educational play based curriculum. They are acquainted with the children's interests and caters for their interests, weaknesses and strength. As an effect, they all aim at encouraging language, mathematics, and social as well as physical skills.

Conclusion

The adequacy of child health care is indeed questionable as Maroubra Child Care Centre. Even with success in the implementation of the plans, the department that governs these actions responding to the situation of children's health must not feel contentment. The centre initiative (Donatelle, 2006) sets goals that merely elevate a targeted population above an alarming level but not completely transcends society into the marker for health and well-being especially among children. Furthermore, conducting research and establishing guidelines by the centre (Donatelle, 2006) is not sufficient. They must be able to extend this knowledge to the majority of the health care providers of children, if not all. Otherwise, their efforts would be trivial.

Depending on which theoretical perspective the centre applies, the hierarchy of power over health differs. Using a Marxist, Parsons and Foucault view point, the major allocation of power over social health is on the established and dominant structures. The other theories viewed individuals with more power than the previous theory and have more control by making compromises with the strong social structures (Grbich, 1999). The last relevant theory would be the postmodern/post structural theory where the possibility of a fair and equal society is attainable therefore the centre need to be more flexible and develop different aspects of health operations (Grbich, 1999). The centre's management has to build a health system that is close if not precisely the equivalent of a post structural society where every child has equal not equivocal rights to care for their health and well-being.

Recommendations

Having a huge influence on the people in the society, the centre should use its power to create policies or support systems that will provide for all the children's health and wellness. They should focus and improve on public health issues such as administering free vaccinations on a larger scale and establishing safety standards in the workplace (Donatelle, 2006).

Everything can eventually be traced back to the most fundamental unit of society, the family. Even before children are part of society, they begin their lives as part of a family composed of them and the parents. While it would be convenient to believe that, adults can easily perceive or determine what the young ones are experiencing, that is not always the case. They concentrate on the physical health of a child while mostly fail to address the emotional needs which will be successfully succeeded by the other dimensions of health such as social and mental health (Hood, 2009). It would be better for the centre to educate parents on how they can identify meaning of some subtle cues that they subconsciously send out. Furthermore, they need to adults must be cautious with the use of simple, almost commonplace lectures such as "you should be ashamed of yourself".

It has been shown that their children have a barrier for them in handling their emotional well-being (Sorin, 2004). As a result, the centre has to search for a better way to deal with emotions such as sadness or fear should be done to ensure the holistic well-being of a child. For instance, learning to welcome their feelings by acknowledging, empathizing, discussing or even creatively role play with their children (Sorin, 2004). A common mistake that leads to an emotionally distressed child is when caretakers say "things will be okay". Of course, realistically this does not hold as a reality. A more appropriate way to help the child is saying that they can find an approach to manage their emotion (Sorin, 2004). According to Hood, every child's well-being has been established on how emotionally healthy he or she is. Starting from infancy, children have been trying to connect to their caretakers to feel the security that he or she requires as a basic human need (Hood, 2009). To begin developing the well-being for children with education and training about proper health practices, it should be a first concern raised in the centre.