Fellows from 2018 program reconvene online for follow-up discussion
Salzburg Global Seminar’s Healthy Children, Healthy Weight program saw Fellows reunite virtually for a session to share and discuss their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and how learnings from this can be best utilized to optimize children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive health and well-being.
Key Takeaways
- The nurturing of relationships between caregivers and other support services in children’s well-being will be central to a more holistic and inter-disciplinary approach to child welfare post-pandemic.
- Children need to be involved in conversations about their health and well-being.
- Data on vulnerable groups not previously been tracked pre-pandemic can help professionals to understand the context better and lead to more effective collaborations between policymakers and community-level organizations.
A More Holistic Approach to Child Well-being
When participants left Salzburg following the 2018 program, the intent was to affect a shift in child well-being to being more holistic and inter-disciplinary.
A significant part of achieving this comes from looking at the circle of care and the influence of systemic racism, and how it impacts child welfare. At the same time, the nurturing of relationships between caregivers and other support services in children’s well-being will be crucial.
Building Equity of Child Wellness and Into Systemic Changes
Inequities have widened during the pandemic, meaning children with fewer benefits have suffered the most.
The link between the focus on vaccinations during COVID-19 and the impact of this on child well-being during COVID-19 was highlighted in discussions, with a general misguided belief that children are less vulnerable to the virus resulting in a decreased attention on younger children in some instances. This needs to be redressed with a building of equity of child wellness into any systemic changes being pushed post-pandemic.
Part of this systemic change needs to involve children being brought into conversations in an equal manner to adults. In addition, the value of community work on the ground and empowering families on the needs of their children will be hugely important in optimizing measures to improve children’s all-round well-being.
The discussion also focused on the importance of maintaining focus on social issues and not being too drawn into the biomedical, as more change around social determinants such as social health need to be implemented.
New Ways of Collaborating
Participants heard how the use of new in-depth data by the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Program, which brought forward information on vulnerable groups of children previously not covered, had helped professionals understand they were not reaching everyone.
Better collaboration between policymakers and community-level organizations using such data can help improve work around child well-being. In addition, the pandemic had opened the door for pulling together expertise from across sectors as evidence-based work gained traction, noted other participants.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was mentioned as one national measure during the pandemic that will have an impact on child poverty, albeit temporarily. At a more local level, participants were told how the London Recovery program in the UK has had a direct impact on the previous Healthy Children, Healthy Weight program, with young people a specific area of focus in the nine key missions outlined in the white paper.
