Did You Know?

The policy-practice-research collaboration behind the BC Healthy Connections Project — a scientific evaluation of the Nurse-Family Partnership program — is unique. It allows research to be put to use quickly to make a difference for kids and families. Policy and practice partners come from the BC Ministries of Health, Children and Family Development and Mental Health and Addictions, and from four BC regional Health Authorities (Fraser, Vancouver Coastal, Interior and Island Health). The research team comes from four universities (Simon Fraser, McMaster, the University of BC and the University of Victoria).

Policy-makers can use economic measures to help reduce problematic substance use for young people. In particular, setting higher taxes on beverages with higher alcohol content has been shown to reduce harmful drinking in young people. For more information, see Vol. 4, No. 3 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.

Developed more than 40 years ago by Dr. David Olds, Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Preventive Medicine and Nursing at the University of Colorado, Denver, Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) involves nurses visiting young, low-income, first-time mothers in their homes, roughly twice a month. These home visits start during pregnancy and continue until children reach their second birthday. This program has now been helping US families for more than 40 years.

All children with mental disorders need to receive effective treatment. And innovative technologies can help — particularly for addressing service gaps in rural and remote communities. For example, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be effectively delivered using handbooks and videos supplemented with telephone coaching to significantly reduce childhood anxiety. For more information, see Vol. 6, No. 2 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.

The success of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program has been documented in the United States, most recently in a study released July 24/17 by James Heckman, a Nobel laureate economist at the University of Chicago. By ages six and 12, children whose mothers received NFP were healthier and had better cognitive and social and emotional skills, he found. Mothers also had better mental health and parenting skills as a result of the program.

November 20 is an important date for children around the world. It is the day when, in 1959, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the day in 1989 when the UN General assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As well, since 1954, it marks United Nations Universal Children’s Day, celebrated annually to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and the improvement of children’s welfare. It is described as “A fun day with a serious message” by the UN when children get the opportunity to take over high profile roles in the media, politics and sports to raise awareness of challenges faced by children. On social media, these takeovers and other events are shared using the hashtag #worldchildrensday

Parents play a profound role in every child’s life. They provide the care, the environments and the experiences that influence lifelong emotional, cognitive and social well-being and development. Parents can also buffer the impact of adverse childhood experiences, helping children to be resilient. For more information, see Vol. 2, No. 1 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.

A BC-led randomized controlled trial on the Nurse Family Partnership program includes 739 families including 744 children enrolled across four participating regional Health Authorities: 406 from Fraser Health; 84 from Vancouver Coastal Health; 122 from Interior Health; and 127 from Island Health. There are also 744 children participating.

Anxiety disorders are the most common childhood mental disorders. These disorders are also preventable. So, investing in prevention programs has the potential to help large numbers of children. For prevention, compelling research evidence supports school-based programs using Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy. For more information, see Vol. 6, No. 1 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.

Some people might expect that a public health program like Nurse-Family Partnership would be equally effective in Canada and the US. But although the program has succeeded in the US, its effectiveness in Canada is currently unknown — due to provinces like BC having better baseline health and social services than most US states. So, the only way to determine how effective NFP will be in Canada is to put it to the test of a randomized controlled trial. This trial is currently underway with first results expected in early 2020.