The role of public health agencies in addressing child and family poverty: public health nurses' perspectives.

Benita E Cohen,Marion Mckay

doi:10.2174/1874434601004010060

Abstract

Poverty rates among child-bearing families in industrialised countries remain unacceptably high and have significant implications for population health. Both today and in the past, public health nurses have observed the impact of poverty on family health and well-being every day in their practice; yet, their perspectives on their role in addressing child and family poverty are currently absent from the literature. This paper presents findings of a qualitative descriptive study that explored perspectives of public health nurses in an urban Canadian setting about the impact of poverty on the well-being of children and families, and the potential roles of health organisations and public health nurses in addressing this issue. A key finding is the large gap between the role that nurses believe they can potentially play, and their current role. Barriers that public health nurses encounter when attempting to address poverty are identified, and implications of the findings for public health policy, practice, and research are discussed.

Highlights

IntroductionThe true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children—their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they were born [1]
The true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children—their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they were born [1].These words form the introduction to a report that concluded that rates of poverty in child-bearing families remain unacceptably high in many industrialised countries
public health nurses (PHNs) are ideally situated to build the capacity of the health sector to address child and family poverty” (CFP) because, every day, they encounter low-income families while providing health promotion and illness/injury prevention services in homes, clinics, and schools [32]

Summary

Introduction

The true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children—their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they were born [1]. These words form the introduction to a report that concluded that rates of poverty in child-bearing families remain unacceptably high in many industrialised countries. Given this link between early childhood experiences and later health status—and the evidence of the

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