Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/international-child-health-group-annual...
Dear Ayesha,
Thank you for your message. It's great to learn from your experience and expertise as the Senior Humanitarian Health Lead with Save the Children UK.
You say: "I'm not aware of much research on the communication and information needs of health professionals in conflict settings or in humanitarian settings".
This would seem to be a gap in our understanding. I hope we can start to explore this topic here on CHIFA.
"It is widely recognised that most of the health service provision in these settings are led and carried out by colleagues who do not have child health expertise and who receive limited, if any, support to care for children."
Perhaps we can start to explore the topic by considering information needs for different caregivers. These would range from members of the general public and family caregivers, through to health workers without child health expertise, those with limited expertise, and child health professionals.
"This paper (Humanitarian paediatrics: A statement of purpose lays out an argument for a need to recognise humanitarian paediatrics as a specialty
https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.... "
This is an important paper. I have selected a few extracts:
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From pandemics to war, from climate change to disasters–in humanitarian settings, children bear a disproportionate burden. Half of all deaths among children under five years occur in such settings...
This discussion aims to elevate the distinct and unmet needs of children and adolescents in humanitarian settings and to propose that these needs can best be met by the purposeful development of a new field: humanitarian paediatrics...
Global child health is broad and unspecific and, so far, has failed to adequately address the requirements of operating in humanitarian contexts. Similarly, humanitarian health has not kept pace with best paediatric practices. Humanitarian paediatrics can address persistent gaps in the quality and scope of health services for children in humanitarian settings, as well as the lack of child-focused training opportunities and research initiatives...
There is a paucity of up-to-date, evidence-based clinical guidelines for treating paediatric patients in humanitarian settings, especially children under five and teenagers; a notable exception is the Neonatal Health in Humanitarian Settings Field Guide [7, 8]. Comprehensive clinical paediatric guidance for healthcare providers in humanitarian settings is needed, as are technical expertise, training, and paediatric-specific medical equipment...
Humanitarian staff specializing in child health issues must have a fundamental understanding of, and training in, how the political and security dimensions of conflict inform and are ultimately expressed in the epidemiology and clinical conditions encountered in the children and communities they serve...
Given that women and children comprise the majority of beneficiaries of humanitarian action, humanitarian actors must ensure that the workforce has the clinical, ethical, communication, and cultural competencies to provide safe and effective care for them.
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From the paper, I understand that a humanitarian paediatrician would have responsibilities beyond the immediate clinical needs of a paediatric patient, to take in the wider context of the setting. This would include an understanding of the (likely) quality of care available to children in the full range of settings, from the home through to a specialist unit (where available), and what approaches could be used to improve quality of care (including access to relevant, reliable healthcare information).
I challenge CHIFA members to identify any existing literature on these topics and look forward to further discussion.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org