Philippe Ariés, Childhood and the Everyday

This commentary navigates the oeuvre of Ariés’ writings on childhood, family, private life and death, with a focus on interrogating ‘who is a child?’ Departing from the intellectual history prevalent at the time, Ariés deployed the psychogenic approach to study the cultural history of childhood and family. He examines the quotidian experience of aesthetics and other documents of culture to reveal ‘what was thought about' viz. the mentalities’ of childhood and family spanning a vast canvas from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. Ariés provocatively proposes that childhood is a modern construct, highlighting that children were not always seen as precious, dependent and in need of adult protection. The magnitude of his intellectual adventure continues to be debated, particularly in childhood studies. The commentary includes an analysis of Ariés’ methods and insights about childhood that unsettle the narrow prisms that refract how we see, understand and educate children.

Positive risk taking: debating the research agenda in the context of adult protection and COVID

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the case for examining the concept of positive risk taking (PRT) in the context of adult protection. The paper argues there is a need for empirical research to understand the application of and attitudes to PRT to explore whether the concept has moved beyond a principle to make an identifiable difference to service users. Design/methodology/approach By investigating evidence from policy, literature and professional opinion, this paper presents the ethical tensions for professional practice in adult protection between respecting a service user’s freedom to make choices to enhance their independence while preserving safety for service users and society. This is considered in the context of risk in health and social care and the recent changes in society resulting from COVID-19. Findings Inherent tensions are apparent in the evidence in health and social care between attitudes propounding safety first and those arguing for the benefits of risk taking. This indicates not only a need for a paradigm shift in attitudes but also a research agenda that promotes empirical studies of the implications of PRT from service user and professional perspectives. Originality/value This paper draws attention to the relatively limited research into both professionals’ and service user’s perspectives and experiences of PRT in practice.

Merging the local and the global: a thematic analysis of rights-based picture books to facilitate a critical understanding of diverse childhood contexts in Ontario elementary school settings

This study examines the importance of explicitly introducing children's rights in elementary educational classrooms in Ontario through the medium of rights-based picture books. Children's rights as framed within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been largely criticized for promoting a Western model of childhood, characteristic of innocence, play, and adult protection. Specifically, the UNCRC is often problematized for not capturing the diversity of childhoods that exist around the globe, as the articles in the Convention may not holistically examine the historical, cultural, and economic variables that children encompass. It is argued in this major research paper (MRP) that despite the limitations of the UNCRC, there is still a need to move beyond the universalism-cultural relativism dichotomy that currently frames this debate surrounding children's rights. Through a thematic analysis of selected rights-based picture books presented in the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario‟s (ETFO) (2011) Social Justice Begins with Me resource kit, this MRP will explore how picture books related to the UNCRC can be a tool in classrooms to destabilize assumptions present between and within Majority and Minority World contexts and encourage pluralistic worldviews where diverse childhoods are actively accepted rather than stereotypically rejected.

Merging the local and the global: a thematic analysis of rights-based picture books to facilitate a critical understanding of diverse childhood contexts in Ontario elementary school settings

This study examines the importance of explicitly introducing children's rights in elementary educational classrooms in Ontario through the medium of rights-based picture books. Children's rights as framed within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been largely criticized for promoting a Western model of childhood, characteristic of innocence, play, and adult protection. Specifically, the UNCRC is often problematized for not capturing the diversity of childhoods that exist around the globe, as the articles in the Convention may not holistically examine the historical, cultural, and economic variables that children encompass. It is argued in this major research paper (MRP) that despite the limitations of the UNCRC, there is still a need to move beyond the universalism-cultural relativism dichotomy that currently frames this debate surrounding children's rights. Through a thematic analysis of selected rights-based picture books presented in the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario‟s (ETFO) (2011) Social Justice Begins with Me resource kit, this MRP will explore how picture books related to the UNCRC can be a tool in classrooms to destabilize assumptions present between and within Majority and Minority World contexts and encourage pluralistic worldviews where diverse childhoods are actively accepted rather than stereotypically rejected.

Participation of Children and Parents in the Swiss Child Protection System in the Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

As in other European countries, the Swiss child protection system has gone through substantial changes in the course of the 20th century up to today. Increasingly, the needs as well as the participation of children and parents affected by child protection interventions have become a central concern. In Switzerland, critical debates around care-related detention of children and adults until 1981 have led to the launch of the National Research Program ‘Welfare and Coercion—Past, Present and Future’ (NRP 76), with the aim of understanding past and current welfare practices. This paper is based on our research project, which is part of this national program. We first discuss three overarching concepts—integrity, autonomy and participation—at the heart of a theoretical framework in order to understand the position of parents and children in child protection proceedings. Secondly, we critically analyze the historical and legal development of the child protection system in Switzerland and its effects on children and parents from 1912 until today. Thirdly, we give an insight into the current Swiss child protection system, with an investigation of hearings of parents and children conducted by the Child and Adult Protection Authorities (CAPA) based on participant observations. In particular, we show the importance of information exchanges and of signs of mutual recognition. Finally, in light of our findings, we discuss the interplay between socio-historical and legal developments in child protection and their consequences for the integrity, autonomy and participation of the people involved.

Comparing older adult and child protection policy in the United States of America

Compared with policy related to child abuse, older adult protection policy developed later and made slower progress in the United States of America. Few studies have addressed older adult protection policy. This paper compares the two policies and provides implications about how to improve older adult protection policy by emulating child protection policy. The Dimensions of Choice Framework was utilised to illuminate the differences between child protection and older adult protection policies (i.e. allocation, provisions, delivery and finance), while Advocacy Coalition Framework theory was used to explain why these differences exist (i.e. the contentions between ally and opposite coalitions). The Dimensions of Choice Framework refined the descriptive comparison of the two policies while the Advocacy Coalition Framework unfolded the efforts and struggles between advocacy coalitions that result in policy changes; and the conceptual combination further provides a cross-disciplinary link between social work and public policy studies. Findings indicated that, compared to child protection policy, older adult protection policy lacked federal legislative and administrative direction, well-developed diagnosis and evaluation tools, a national data system, sufficient federal funds and a comprehensive response mechanism. This was the case because older adult protection advocates presented a more controversial argument regarding the role of government intervention in protecting victims while respecting individual autonomy, lower public and government awareness, and weaker efforts from ally coalitions.

P071: A three-year analysis of adult protection patients in the emergency department

Introduction: While boarding of patients in the emergency department (ED) has been well documented and is carefully monitored, the time spent in emergency beds by patients waiting for Adult Protection (AP) placement is often relatively unnoticed, as they are not flagged as ‘admitted’. These patients have no emergency needs, yet consume considerable ED resources, often in excess of patients requiring emergency care. Staff familiarity with this issue may also bias them to premature diagnostic closure of patients as ‘placement problems’, risking misdiagnosis of active medical conditions. An observational study to retrospectively quantify the time spent in the ED by patients referred to AP services for urgent placement from the ED. Methods: A three-year audit of ED social work records of patients referred for AP. Results: For the period of October 1 2015-September 30, 2018, the ED social work service kept records of patients referred for AP from the ED. During this period, a total of 142 patients were referred to AP (40, 50, and 52 in each year respectively). There was an increase of 10 patients between 2015/16 and 2016/17 and two patients from 2016/17 to 2017/18. The overall length of stay for this subset of ED patients during this three-year period was alarmingly high, with an average length of stay of four days per patient (range 2.7 hours-18.5 days) compared to an average of all patients of 4.9 hours and admitted patients of 13.6 hours. Conclusion: Patients in the ED who are referred to AP services consume considerable ED resources, often requiring complete medical work-up, capacity assessments and close monitoring by multiple emergency personnel. This has been reported to cause considerable stress and friction between staff and consulting services. Furthermore, these patients are poorly served in a hectic, brightly lit, and noisy environment. The impact is often not fully appreciated due to ineffective capture by patient tracking systems.