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Understanding how survivors of complex trauma navigate towards resources can inform the design of interventions and health promotion strategies. However, there are little data on the resilience and help-seeking experiences of this group or others who have experienced institutional abuse in childhood. This empirical study sets out to illustrate the help-seeking experiences of Irish emigrant survivors of institutional childhood abuse (ICA). Twenty-two survivors of ICA were purposefully recruited from community organisations in the UK and data were collected via semi-structured interviews. As a result of negative initial help-seeking experiences in Ireland, most participants engaged in long periods of self-management and disclosed information about their childhood as part of a redress scheme in later life. Outside of this scheme, turning points, such as illness or family problems, and the needs of children were influential in seeking help. Peer support networks played an important role as a trusted signposting pathway towards formal interventions. Participants identified interpersonal barriers to formal help-seeking as helping professionals' failure to share control, insensitivity to identity loss and literacy issues, and the lack of explicit boundaries. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications for research and future practice. Key Practitioner Messages: Turning points, such as illness and bereavement, and the desire to provide for children, influence the help-seeking of survivors of ICA., Irish emigrant survivors of ICA cite failure to share control, insensitivity to identity loss, literacy issues and the lack of explicit boundaries as barriers to help-seeking., General awareness of ICA can help practitioners in low-threshold services prevent against culturally insensitive practice., Peer support networks can provide uniquely trusted signposting towards formal interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a study commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland. It addresses the topic of recommendations emanating from child death inquiries and reviews; it looks at the factors which privilege some recommendations over others when it comes to implementation and explores whether a more collaborative approach to development might be more beneficial. As part of the study, the researchers to propose a new model for developing recommendations which will address the complexity of child protection practice, reflect its core principles and promote learning. The study found that recommendations were generally implemented when they fitted with social norms and aspiration of the time and particularly when they synchronised with policy developments that had already been initiated and required increased investment and public support to reach completion. The research drew a distinction between addressing and implementing recommendations, and overall found that a type of 'recommendation fatigue' had evolved following the succession if inquiries. It proposed that in the future, recommendations should be drafted in collaboration with key stakeholders which would provide the team with a range of expert knowledge strengthen the methodological rigour of the process and promote the likelihood that they would be feasible and realistic. The study proposed a new model of CLEAR recommendations (Case for change; Learning orientated: Evidence based; Assigning responsibility and easy to Review). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages When inquiry or review recommendations are too numerous, impractical, expensive, lack relevance and are too far out of step with social norms, they are unlikely to be implemented, A collaborative approach can ensure that recommendations are informed by relevant sources of information, knowledge and expertise., Recommendations should be framed in a way that illustrates the rationale for change, promotes learning, cites evidence and identifies the organisations responsible for implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survivors of clerical institutional childhood abuse (ICA) experience poor mental health outcomes in adulthood. Resilience research with this group has focused on psychological adjustment and we know less about the factors across the social ecology that support positive adaptation, including the impact of migration. This study explores the influence of resilience‐enhancing factors across the social ecology on the mental wellbeing (MWB) of Irish emigrant survivors of ICA and how this compares with non‐migrant survivors. Fifty‐six survivors based in the UK and 46 based in Ireland completed a quantitative survey that assessed resilience‐potentiating resources and associations with MWB. A further nine participants, resident in the UK, engaged in a structured interview which aimed to further explain these quantitative data. Results indicate more resilience‐enhancing resources across the ecology of emigrant survivors of ICA. Personal skills and competencies, such as problem‐focused coping, altruism and defiance, and social inclusion were associated with MWB regardless of country of residence. For the migrant group, social identity not defined by institutional care facilitated social inclusion. Migration to the UK and informal instrumental support in the aftermath of institutional care were identified as key turning points towards resilience. Key Practitioner Messages: Multiple factors across the ecology influence the resilience of survivors of institutional childhood abuse (ICA).Resilience strategies for survivors of ICA are contextual and may appear maladaptive to practitioners unfamiliar with the cultural context of this abuse.For Irish emigrant survivors of ICA, problem‐focused coping, defiance, altruism, social inclusion, instrumental support and a social identity not defined by childhood abuse enhanced resilience.Resilience is dynamic and emerges over time for adult survivors of chronic childhood abuse. 'Explores the influence of resilience‐enhancing factors across the social ecology on the mental wellbeing... of Irish emigrant survivors of institutional childhood abuse' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]