Children’s Health Policy Centre Senior Research Manager Jen Barican is the lead author in a study recently published in the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health.

The study is titled, “Prevalence of childhood mental disorders in high-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis to inform policymaking.”

Barican and her colleagues considered close to two decades of research from 11 countries covering more than 60,000 children aged four to 18. They discovered that roughly one in eight children from high-income countries, including Canada, has a mental health disorder at any given time.

An interview about the study with co-author Charlotte Waddell, director of the Children’s Health Policy Centre, can be found on the SFU website.

The Children’s Health Policy Centre is part of a national team investigating how COVID-19 public health measures — such as school closures, distancing and masking — have affected children’s day-to-day lives, it was announced Oct. 6/22.

Charlotte Waddell, Centre director, and Nicole Catherine, Centre faculty member, are part of the team. “This is the first study to look at a large, representative sample of children both before and during the pandemic,” Waddell said. “So, we will able to really see how all kids were doing,” she added.

Kathy Georgiades from the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University is leading the research which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to a sum of $3.1 million.

The team is partnering with Statistics Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Children’s Healthcare Canada to collect data on children’s physical, emotional, and social well-being, as well as their COVID-19 vaccination status. This study will provide the most robust evidence to date to inform new strategies to support children affected by the mental and physical health challenges stemming from the pandemic.

Close to 27,000 children between the ages of five and 21 will participate in the national study, which gets underway in January and wraps up in June 2023. Statistics Canada previously evaluated this same group, then aged one to 17 years, for the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth.

The results collected in 2019 give the research team solid pre-pandemic baseline data, which will allow them to assess the effects of the pandemic on the group’s well-being. Look to this website for ongoing updates as the study proceeds.

Children in government care face extraordinary challenges. Some of them may have entered  care because they have experienced maltreatment. Then once in the care system, many continue to experience avoidable adversities, such as multiple changes of placement.

This situation can lead to inconsistent caring relationships, school disruptions and cultural disconnections. These children also face higher rates of mental disorders, lower rates of high-school graduation and more conflicts with the law.

Compounding these issues are the unfair burdens faced by Indigenous children who often experience overinvolvement of the child welfare system, an ongoing legacy of colonialism.

How to reduce the need for care — or manage it better when it’s necessary —  was the subject of a report recently prepared by the Children’s Health Policy Centre at the request of the office of the BC Representative for Children and Youth.

The report identifies:

• Successful programs for preventing child maltreatment
• Numbers on the burden of mental disorders for children in care, with prevalence approximately four times higher than in the general population of children
• Successful prevention and treatment programs for addressing mental well-being specifically for children in government care

These findings can inform efforts to improve the well-being of some of British Columbia’s most disadvantaged children.

For more information and to review the entire report, see here.

How can the province of BC better address the current opioid crisis?

That was the subject of a 60-minute Zoom-based talk by the Children’s Health Policy Centre on Aug. 3/22 to the Select Standing Committee on Health for the BC Legislature.

Roughly 10 MLAs and their staff attended to hear a presentation prepared by Charlotte Waddell, Christine Schwartz, Nicole Catherine, Jen Barican and Donna Young.

The CHPC team urged the province to tackle the toxic drug supply problem in a new way — by addressing social inequities that contribute to substance use problems for young people and by providing effective prevention and treatment programs for them. 

“We need to start early in life — not waiting until problems are entrenched in adolescence or adulthood,” said director of the Centre, Charlotte Waddell. “We also need to address the underlying social inequities that are driving the problem.”

The group suggested that the province needs to double its investments in child and youth mental health and work to ensure that services are better coordinated across the multiple ministries and health authorities currently involved.

What are the next steps for the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program in BC?

That was the subject of a 45-minute talk to the Fraser Health Authority NFP nursing team on June 1/22. Nicole Catherine, Mowafaghian University Research Associate with the Children’s Health Policy Centre had been invited to provide a celebratory update to the nursing team.

A primary prevention program for young, first-time moms, Nurse-Family Partnership, has been the subject of a scientific evaluation, the BC Healthy Connections Project led by the Children’s Health Policy Centre in collaboration with Fraser Health Authority, the BC government and three other health authorities.  “The NFP nursing team’s dedication and commitment was tremendous,” Catherine told the group. “The trial is now providing rigorous evidence on how NFP works in BC.”

She also commented on the special challenges presented by Covid. “I’ve heard from the NFP nurses how life has become even more difficult for these children and families since the onset of the pandemic,” she said. “But we feel united by our desire to see all children flourish.”

Many of the nurses currently delivering the program were involved in the original trial and they said they have been impressed by the knowledge being generated by the study – and they hope it will inform new policies and programs to better support underserved children.

How can we prevent maltreatment and ensure all children flourish?

That was the subject of a 30-minute talk to a group of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty at an SFU Faulty of Health Sciences student conference held May 3/22. Nicole Catherine, Mowafaghian University Research Associate with the Children’s Health Policy Centre was the person addressing the group.

Speaking on the results of the BC Healthy Connections Project, an evaluation of a primary prevention program for young, first-time moms, Nurse-Family Partnership, Catherine said the results of the research had been moving. “We were honoured that more than 700 girls and young women and their children had shared their experiences with us,” she said. The research group conducted some 3,700 research interviews for the project.

“We’ve learned that prevention needs to start early in pregnancy before children are born,” Catherine said. “Adversities such as family socioeconomic disadvantage and child maltreatment are socially produced and are therefore preventable.”

Students expressed curiosity about how policymakers are interpreting the trial findings, whether the program is continuing in BC and whether other provinces will explore this intervention. They also noticed that the majority of the research was conducted in English which will have excluded children and families from other cultural backgrounds representative of BC.

Could better monitoring of children’s mental health conditions lead to better outcomes for BC’s children?

That was the subject of a 60-minute virtual talk to graduate students in UBC’s school of population and public health on March 17, 2022, by Charlotte Waddell, director of the Children’s Health Policy Centre.

Speaking on the serious mental health service shortfalls for BC youth and children before Covid-19, Waddell said there is an urgent need to for better measurement now.

“If we measure it, we can start to shift the public conversation,” she said. “This is crucial because until it is their child, people just do not know and so, do not ask policymakers to pay attention.”

The 60-minute talk included enthusiastic discussion of case studies.

A McMaster University team is leading Canada’s first comprehensive investigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child health, with a team from the Children’s Health Policy Centre as Co-Principal Investigators.

Together, we are building on Statistics Canada’s uniquely-positioned 2019 Canadian Health Survey of Children and Youth — conducted just prior to the start of the pandemic. In re-interviewing this representative, population-based sample of 45,000 young people and their families, we will be able to measure the impact not only of COVID-19 but also of pandemic responses on mental health, physical health, learning and social inequities.

This project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Statistics Canada, with additional supports from Children’s Healthcare Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, McMaster University, BC MCFD and donors. Initial results are anticipated in 2023–2024.

Centre members are also providing supports for an associated study of the impact of the pandemic on Ontario children, funded by the province of Ontario. Results are anticipated in 2022. Beyond this, we contributed to a Royal Society of Canada volume outlining safe ways for children to return to school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How can child maltreatment be prevented?

That was the subject of a 60-minute virtual talk, on February 22, 2022, by Nicole Catherine, scientific director for the BC Healthy Connections Project and Christine Schwartz, adjunct professor with the Children’s Health Policy Centre.

They were speaking with just over 200 practitioners attending a virtual conference titled “A multidisciplinary approach to child maltreatment — a path to healing,” sponsored by the Vancouver-based Sophie’s Place Child & Youth Advocacy Centre.

Speaking on the prevalence, risks and outcomes of child maltreatment, Schwartz told the group that one in three Canadians has experienced some form of maltreatment in childhood and that the COVID pandemic has only increased the risk. “Families being isolated in their homes, especially during periods in which schools have been closed, have come at a great cost to children,” she said.

Schwartz also discussed a systematic review of maltreatment prevention programs, citing strong evidence that child maltreatment can be prevented. She also noted that, home-visiting programs, like Nurse-Family Partnership, “provide needed supports to address family socioeconomic disadvantage, promote parenting skills and help children flourish.”

Nicole Catherine then summarized the early results of a recent BC-based scientific evaluation of the Nurse-Family Partnership. Findings of the BC Healthy Connections Project have shown that Health Authorities successfully reached the population that the program is designed to benefit and that it helped reduce prenatal substance use. Findings on child maltreatment and developmental outcomes, as well as maternal life course are anticipated later in 2022.

“To prevent child maltreatment, we must invest in programs that start early, in pregnancy and ensure that we reach underserved children and families who can benefit the most,” Catherine said.

What are the most effective interventions for preventing mental disorders in children?

That was the subject of a  30-minute Zoom talk, Oct. 2/21,  by Christine Schwartz, adjunct professor with the Children’s Health Policy Centre. She was speaking with 60 members of the Health Officers Council of BC — a group of public health physicians who are either practicing in or closely allied with public health.

Schwartz told the group that roughly 12 percent of children experience mental disorders but that only 44% of this group, less than half, receive any treatment. “One of the key ways of addressing this service shortfall is to reduce the number of children needing treatment by having a greater emphasis on prevention,” she said.  “There are effective prevention programs for eight of the most common childhood mental disorders.”

Schwartz also discussed two success stories centred on delivering prevention programs in BC.  This includes Preventure, a program that can prevent problematic substance use and Confident Parents Thriving Kids, a coaching program that helps prevent child behaviour problems and reduces anxiety.