This blog will be focusing on health
issues that poverty can cause for children.
Firstly, overcrowding is one implication within poverty which can have a huge impact on a child’s health. On the Child Poverty Action Group website I came across an essay writing competition for medical students, I read one written in 2011 by medical student Sarah Merry. She had moved from South Africa to Auckland, she said New Zealand “seemed a land of milk and honey” until she went on a placement, doing home visits with the community team. On her rounds she soon realised the true meaning of overcrowding with one three bedroom home housing twelve people. One of the children she visited “suffered severe bronchiolitis (a serious chest infection) and at the same time scabies infection, both spread by human contact” (Merry, 2011).
| Scabies |
For Sarah Merry’s full essay click on the link below:
Furthermore, on the Child Poverty Action Group website, I watched TV3’s John Campbell interviewing Auckland paediatricians on the preventable diseases that children are admitted for. In this interview it is said by one of the paediatricians that it is more often than not the homes these children live in. Damp, cold, overcrowded, just what germs and diseases would class as heaven, places to grow with many people in these homes becoming their hosts, always though, the youngest child being the most venerable. I found this interview very heart wrenching especially when one of the doctors said that all the admissions he was seeing, was just like working in South Africa a decade ago and this is our country, New Zealand, not a third world country. As he said we should not be seeing these types of diseases. I totally agree with the last doctor seen in this interview, she said this is “state child neglect” because we have known about this and we have known about this for the past ten years! Why has nothing changed?
This is a link to John Campbell’s
interview:
The overcrowding within these homes can cause many serious infections. “Infectious diseases such as meningococcal disease, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis, and respiratory infections…” (Howden-Chapman & Wilson, 1999, p. 133). Fletcher and Dwyer’s (2008) report ‘A fair go for all children’, also add other infectious diseases such as asthma, skin diseases, depression and other mental illness. Additionally, infectious diseases among children under five years accounts for 64% of acute admissions for Maori children, 68% for pacific children, compared with 55% of European and other children. This information was discovered when reading a published piece of research from the University of Otago, Wellington, discussing the increase in hospital admissions within the last two decades (Baker, 2012). This is the link to this research:
Not only is it the homes in which some of these children live that can make them sick, it could also include affordability and accessibility regarding appropriate health care. Fletcher and Dwyer’s (2008) report ‘A fair go for all children’ stated affordability can be an issue for parents living in poverty. If a child under six years is registered at a G.P practice the cost can often be at low-cost or free within normal working hours. “However, after-hours charges are highly variable and can be as high as $120 an hour” (Turner & Asher, 2008, cited in Fletcher & Dwyer, 2008, p. 55). This makes me question, when families are living in poverty do they own or have access to a vehicle within normal working hours? And if they do not own their own vehicle, is waiting for a family member or friend after-hours the only option they have? Therefore, it seems to me that if the latter is the case, how are parents supposed to afford to take their children to the doctor? Additionally, within this report Fletcher and Dwyer have proposed four objectives that may help to improve the health of these children:
- “Ensure that all children are enrolled in Well-child and a general practice service at birth.
- Ensure children can get after-hours and weekend medical attention and prescriptions at all times, without cost.
- Improve immunisation rates to match the best-performing OECD countries.
- Progressively extend free medical visits to children of all ages in all areas” (Fletcher & Dwyer, 2008, p. 56).
"Many
things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his
bones are being formed; his blood is being made; his mind is being developed.
To him we cannot say tomorrow.
His name is today." (Gabriela Mistral, n.d., cited in, Child Poverty
Action Group)
This is a link to the full Fletcher and Dwyer (2008) report:
When children are living in poverty for extensive periods of their life, not only will they be at higher risk of health issues as children, but this could continue throughout adulthood. Fletcher and Dwyer (2008) stated that in New Zealand a child that has grown up in poverty “is associated with higher rates of heart disease, alcohol and drug dependence, and worse oral health at age 26” (Poulton et al., 2002, cited in Fletcher & Dwyer, 2008, p. 14). In turn this may have an impact on their children, thus potentially repeating the same cycle.
Therefore, putting the proposed objectives suggested by Fletcher and Dwyer (2008) in place for children living in poverty may help prevent poor health and other implications. Likewise, provide positive experiences and teach those living in poverty how to source future help.
Within my next blog I aim to consider what
I have learnt about poverty and how this will affect my teaching practice.
References
Baker, M. (2012.). Alarming increase in serious infectious diseases in NZ. Retrieved
from http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago030366.html
Campbell, J. (2008.). The future of New Zealand depends on the well-being of every child.
Retrieved from http://www.cpag.org.nz/topics/
Fletcher, M, & Dwyer, M. (2008.). A fair go for all children: Actions to
address child poverty in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/media/6348/A%20fair%20go%20for%20all%20children_full.pdf
Howden-Chapman, P, & Wilson, N. (1999.). Housing and health. Retrieved from http://www.healthyhousing.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/SIHch7.pdf
Merry, S. (2011.). Child health and child poverty In New Zealand: A medical student’s
experience. Retrieved from http://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/sm/upload/ix/0n/26/bf/Report%20Sarah%20Merry.pdf
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