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Provides information on the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health. Mandate of the institute; Areas of medicine covered by the institute's mandate; Reason behind the focus of the institute on the human life cycle.

Introduction: Youth Excel was a 3-year pan-Canadian initiative to advance youth health through improving knowledge development and exchange (KDE) capacity. KDE capacity refers to an improvement cycle linking evidence and action. Capacities include local surveillance of youth behaviours; knowledge exchange; skills, resources and a supportive environment to use knowledge; and evaluation. Methods: Interviews were conducted with Youth Excel members, including 7 provincial teams and 2 national organizations. Interviews explored participant experiences with building KDE capacity. Results: Local surveillance systems were considered the backbone to KDE capacity, strengthened by co-ordinating surveys within and across jurisdictions and using common indicators and measures. The most effective knowledge exchange included tailored products and opportunities for dialogue and action planning. Evaluation is the least developed KDE component. Building KDE capacity requires frequent dialogue, mutually beneficial partnerships and trust. It also requires attention to language, vision, strategic leadership and funding. Conclusions: Youth Excel reinforces the need for a KDE system to improve youth health that will require new perspectives and sustained commitment from individual champions and relevant organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on Orygen Youth Health (OYH), whose Professor Pat McGorry was awarded Australian of the Year. It is noted that OYH is the biggest youth-focused mental health organization in Australia. Information on Orygen Youth Health Clinical Program, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre and Orygen Youth Health Training and Communications is also offered.

Highlights the increasing level of collaboration, resource sharing and consensus building in youth tobacco control in the U.S. Need for data on research and collaboration to help plan activities and the allocation of funds for tobacco control programs; Definition of three classifications for organizations with national youth tobacco control activities; Overview of institutions and its youth tobacco control research and activities.

In recent times, global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and geopolitical conflicts have significantly impacted pupils' mental health. This opinion article presents evidence-based recommendations to bolster mental health support within educational systems, aiming to alleviate the psychological burden faced by students during these challenging times. This article argues that a proactive, holistic approach to mental health is essential for building a resilient educational infrastructure. More than ever, we support the call for the integration of mental health education into the core curriculum, equipping students with vital coping skills and fostering emotional intelligence. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of training educators and staff to identify and address mental health issues. Furthermore, this article highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration involving general practitioners, mental health professionals, community organizations, and policymakers in crafting and implementing support strategies. Educational institutions can effectively leverage the expertise of diverse stakeholders to create targeted interventions by cultivating partnerships. Finally, the significance of continuously evaluating and refining mental health support policies to ensure their efficacy and adaptability in the face of evolving crises is emphasized. Through these comprehensive recommendations, this opinion article seeks to catalyze a transformation in educational policies, prioritize mental health support, and empower pupils to thrive during tumultuous times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Announces an annual meeting and a world congress related to pediatrics. 3rd World Congress on Child and Youth Health in Vancouver; Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons 36th Annual Meeting with Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons in Sydney.

The significant role of the community in the lives of children and youth at-risk has become increasingly clear to social work academics and professionals over the last three decades. Alongside the more traditional individual and family responses, community interventions have been designed to catalyze change in the environment of children and youth at-risk and supply holistic and sustainable responses to their needs. Ten such community intervention programs were identified from the United States, Australia, Canada, and Israel. Most employed the community development model, focused on developing leadership and social capital (improving community networking) and advancing coordination between the organizations and sectors in the field of risk among children and youth. The diverse programs reviewed focused both on at-risk children and youth in general or specifically on child abuse and neglect. The programs originated from different health, education, and welfare disciplines and sponsoring authorities. The majority were funded originally by private foundations; however, government involvement was significant, particularly in the adoption and support of initiatives after their development. The current analysis of the programs refers to core issues that arose from the review: professional orientation, main target unit, main initiator, and research and evaluation. Analysis of program characteristics enables identifying relevant aspects of these programs for use by policy, governmental, and nonprofit sector stakeholders seeking to develop similar programs. Conclusions and recommendations to advance the field are suggested considering the current context of government cuts in welfare funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to a more nuanced discourse on vaccination policy. Current polarization between either mandatory and entirely voluntary is misleading, as virtually all immunization programs feature a combination of instruments that comprise mandatory and voluntary elements. We develop this argument by presenting five case studies from the European Union (EU). By systematically acknowledging the nuances of political and institutional varieties, we build the case for reframing the terms of the debate in the EU and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evaluators are often called to be flexible in response to changing programmatic and contextual circumstances. However, the field offers little guidance around issues to consider before modifying an in-progress evaluation. Purpose: This article describes the evaluation of an organization that underwent significant mid-evaluation changes, with a focus on factors that went into the evaluator's recommendations about whether to modify evaluation design and instrumentation. Setting: Community collaborative in Wake County, North Carolina. Intervention: NA. Research Design: NA. Data Collection and Analysis: The evaluator noted factors that went in to decisions about modifying evaluation design and instrumentation. Findings: Issues around validity and sustainability push evaluators to update evaluation designs to keep pace with changes, whereas issues around continuity and accountability pull back to the current course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Child and Youth Health Network dental initiative in Ottawa, Ontario. The reasons for launching the initiative are cited. The expressed goal of the effort is to present a comprehensive communications strategy tied to other initiatives across the province such as Best Starts, Healthy Babies, Healthy Children, Early Years, Open Wide and others.

The Objectives: The European Commission has highlighted the use of sports as an important venue for engaging citizens in health-enhancing activities, physical activity, volunteerism and active citizenship. Coaching is a central component of sports for children and youth, but there is little research on the promotion of sports coaches' health. In the light of this gap, the aim of this paper was to elucidate youth soccer coaches' visions and thoughts regarding leadership support from clubs and soccer associations. Design and method: The study was based on an online questionnaire conducted with Swedish soccer coaches who coached children and young people between 6 and 18 years of age. In total, 1514 coaches received the online questionnaire via email and 764 coaches (50.5% of the sample) answered. Three hundred and seventy-five coaches answered the open question: 'How would you describe the support you, as a coach, would like to receive from clubs and associations?' Responses were analysed using method. Results: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: financial and other resources support, recognition of contribution, sense of belonging to a value-based association and positive coach development. Conclusion: We discuss the factors that support soccer coaches and how these can serve as health-promoting supports for coaches working with children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this research are to identify, for the first time, the dysfunctional features and processes perceived to take place in assessment centers (ACs) from multiple perspectives (assessment center designers, assessors, and candidates) and to indicate the frequency of these phenomena. Two surveys were conducted in this study. In the first, a wide variety of dysfunctional processes and events were identified, and, in the second, many of these processes are reported to occur with regularity. Based on these findings, it is proposed that ACs should be construed, researched, and managed, not only as large-scale psychometric systems, but also as complex administrative, social, and political events susceptible to a broad range of dysfunctional phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, the South Korean national government implemented a systematic school social work program known as the Education Welfare Priority Zone Plan (EWPZP). The EWPZP was designed to enable all related educational and social agencies in a zone to serve students in need by situating schools within the communities' welfare networks. This research project aims to examine the characteristics of educational welfare networks in a target area in Seoul, South Korea, and assess levels of inter-agency collaboration. The authors also suggest that the EWPZP project needs to institutionalize greater collaboration between schools and welfare organizations and to make networks tighter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people experience high rates of mental health problems, but very few access professional mental health support. To address the barriers young people face in accessing mental health services, there is growing recognition of the importance of ensuring services are youth-friendly. Indeed, almost a decade ago, the World Health Organisation developed a youth-friendly framework for services to apply. Yet, this framework has rarely been evaluated against health initiatives for young people. This article begins to address this gap. Using 168 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with young service users, this paper explores the extent to which the Australian National Youth Mental Health Foundation, also called headspace, applied the WHO's youth-friendly framework which emphasises accessibility, acceptability and appropriateness (AAA). It argues that headspace was largely successful in implementing an AAA youth-friendly service and provides evidence of the importance of tailoring services to ensure they are accessible, acceptable and appropriate for young people. However, it also raises questions about what youth-friendly service provision means for different young people at different times. The findings suggest that youth friendliness should be applied across different stages of interaction (at initial engagement and in the ongoing relationship between patient and clinician) and at different levels (the environment the care is provided in, within policies and procedures and within and between relationships from receptionists to clinicians). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on clinical health psychology topics which include the characteristics of foster parents, the effects of work-related traumatic incidents on the physical and psychological health of emergency nurses, and the psychological impact of prenatal procedures.

Background: This paper is based on a presentation given by the author at the 23rd Quadrennial ICN Congress and 7th International Regulation Congress in Taipei in May 2005. Aim: Nurses worldwide are engaged in innovative practice on a daily basis. In most health systems across the world, nurses provide up to 80% of primary health care and are therefore well positioned to provide critically needed innovative solutions to many global health challenges. The aim of this paper is to increase awareness of the importance and value of innovations in nursing; provide an improved understanding of the contribution nurses make to innovation in health care; and increase understanding of the importance of creating environments that inspire innovation and help shape practice in new and improved ways. Design: This paper explores the concept of innovation, the inherent set of characteristics that need to be present in order for innovations to succeed, and the barriers that impede innovation from occurring. Conclusion: There are numerous examples of successful innovations worldwide that are developed and implemented by nurses, some of which are described in this paper. The paper concludes that organizations need to have a support climate that encourages creativity and innovation to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the foundation for evaluation recommendations, tools, training and technical assistance to help community-based organizations (CBOs) build their evaluation capacity. First, a qualitative study of CBOs, funders and technical assistance providers was conducted. It showed their beliefs and attitudes about evaluation, preferences and requirements for evaluation, and evaluation methods that are being used at CBOs and recommendations regarding feasible and effective evaluation that CBOs can use. The themes that arose in the interviews were the following: facilitators and barriers to conducting evaluation, evaluation methods that CBOs use and how to increase the capacity of CBOs to conduct evaluations.

Objectives: The present paper aims to: (i) describe how the Mental Health Commission in New Zealand works and has contributed to the substantial enhancement of mental health resources and services; (ii) determine whether mental health reform policies will ever be implemented properly without an independent monitor with official influence at the highest levels of government; and (iii) demonstrate how variants on this model work in other Western countries and how it can be adapted to the Federated system in Australia.Conclusions: It is recommended that the Australian National Mental Health Plan 2003-2008 should be complemented by a long-standing national mental health commission (or similarly constituted body), which is also able to report independently from and to the government, with direct access to the Prime Minister, Premiers and Australian Health Ministers. Its aims would be to monitor service effectiveness and identify gaps in service provision, training and performance of the work force, management and government. It would be informed by consumer, carer and provider experience, and by reviews of evidence-based research regarding health needs and cost-effective services. It should accurately cost such service gaps, and advise government on a strategy for implementing them. It could also promote and advise formally on enhancing community awareness, decreasing stigma and discrimination and improving workforce recruitment and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: School-based health centers (SBHCs) are increasingly charged with providing primary care services including asthma care. This study assessed SBHC provider adherence to the National Heart. Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) asthma care guidelines and the association among provider adherence, patient characteristics, and asthma outcomes. A cross-sectional study design was used to assess SBHC chart data from 415 children with asthma attending four inner-city elementary schools (K-5) in the Bronx, NY. Asthma symptoms, peak flow use, follow-up visits, and referrals to asthma specialists were documented in the charts of 60%, 51%, 22%, and 3% of subjects, respectively. Thirty-three percent of charts had SBHC clinician-documented severity classifications, of which 70% had appropriate medications prescribed. Asthma education and an asthma plan were documented in 18% and 10% of charts, respectively. Environmental triggers and tobacco exposures were documented in 71% and 49% of charts, respectively. Older children (> 8 years) were more likely to have documentation of peak flow use for asthma management, asthma education, follow-up visits, and written asthma plans, whereas younger children (< 8 years) were more likely to miss more days of school (all p < .05). Overall, provider adherence to NHLBI guidelines was inadequate, with adherence somewhat better for older children. (J Sch Health. 2003;73(5):186-190) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights the second scientific meeting of the American Academy of Health Behavior. Participants; Theme of the meeting; Awards given during the event.

Talks about the efforts of the American Cancer Society to reduce cancer incidence. How the Society views schools; Aim of an action plan developed by the Society and others in June 1992; Recommendations and guiding principles that emphasized the importance of research-proven strategies and collaboration among the Society and community agencies and entities.

The article reports on the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia (YACSA), which launched the resource "Ethical Youth Work: A DIY Guide for Developing Your Ethical Base."

The article reports on the Mental Health campaign initiated by the Australian Medical Students' Association in 2013. Topics discussed include the four core principles of the organization's campaign and the strategies adopted by the group for its campaign which include the National Vice-Chancellor Tour and Blue Week.

The article discusses the highlights of the inaugural International Early Psychosis Association (IEPA) Short Film Festival which was held at the welcome reception for the 6th International Conference on Early Psychosis, in the Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria, on October 19, 2008. It says that the international audience of 480 film festival attendees viewed a compilation of excerpts from over 30 entries.

The article offers news briefs related to community practitioners in Great Britain as of August 2013, including the negative effect of irregular bedtimes on brain power in young children, the high measle cases in England, and the awarding of the Queen Medal Awards to African and Caribbean migrant nurses.

The article reports on the "Bail Me Out: NSW Young Offenders and Bail" research document, "Driving You Crazy" project and Multicultural Youth Issues Network of NSW (MYINN) involving Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA) NSW.

The article reports on the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic)'s activities including working with rural youth service representatives and Inner City Regional Youth Affairs Network, and the launch of the report "Sticks and stones and Mobile Phones: Bullying in the New Millennium Outcomes of a Forum on Bullying and Young People in Victoria."

Deals with the contributions of the American Cancer Society to coordinated school health programs. Strategies that have been employed to advance the comprehensive school health education agenda; Things to consider in order to achieve the goal of the organization; Advantage of the organization over other community-based voluntary agencies.