Children's Social Health Monitor Report released
Tue 30 Aug 2011
Findings from The Children's Social Health Monitor 2011 Update released on 28 August 2011 show hospital admissions arising from "assault, neglect ...
Findings from The Children's Social Health Monitor 2011 Update released on 28 August 2011 show hospital admissions arising from "assault, neglect or maltreatment" were 5.6 times higher for those in the most deprived areas of New Zealand.
The report found that there are currently large disparities in child health status, with Māori and Pacific children and those living in more deprived areas experiencing a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality.
During 2009, as economic conditions continued to deteriorate, a Working Group made up of health professionals from a range of organisations formed, with a view to developing an indicator set to monitor the impact of the economic downturn on child wellbeing. The rationale was the concern that, as the downturn progressed and more families became reliant on Government assistance (e.g. unemployment benefits), that some of the adaptations that families might make in response to constrained financial resources (e.g. house downsizing / increasing the number of occupants to meet rent payments, deferring heating costs to pay for groceries) might result in unintended health consequences for children (e.g. increases in infectious and respiratory diseases, exposure to family conflict). It was thus hoped that if any deterioration in child wellbeing did occur, that it could be identified early, so that proactive policy responses could be put in place in a timely manner.
The indicator set developed by the Working group, the New Zealand Children’s Social Health Monitor (NZCSHM), was launched for the first time in November 2009, and has been updated annually since then (see Appendix 6 for an overview of the methodology used). It currently comprises five Economic and four Health and Wellbeing Indicators.
For background information go to The Children's Social Health Monitor New Zealand website
Download The Children's Social Health Health Monitor 2011 Update (PDF, 2.59MB)
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