Child and Adolescent Public Health Newsletter

Dear EUPHA-CAPH members,

We are excited to flag up-coming events at our virtual EUPHA conference ‘Public health futures in a changing world’, which starts in 2 weeks from 10-12th November. You can help us reset our goals at the CAPH Join-The-Network meeting themed ‘Building back after covid 19’. We have two workshops on our other priorities ‘Children and young People: engaging the unheard stakeholder’ and ‘Mental health of children and adolescents’.

This season, many of us have a brighter outlook after the pandemic shocks of 2020. Yet children, families, and their communities are still recovering from disruptions to education, economic impacts of past and current times and the devastating effects on poor health and of losses from covid 19. Existing health inequalities have widened. The threat of outbreaks remains with covid 19 cases rising fastest among young populations who largely remain unvaccinated as we enter a winter that promises viral infections will rise.

The Child and Adolescent Public Health Directorate has been active in joining global efforts  with public health and primary care teams through our strategy and action plan for CAPH and working with EUPHA Council and other Sections as well as health observatories around the world. We have worked with the WHO and supported pan European colleagues including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and UNESCO Chair for Global Health and Education in health promotion and considering the role of schools in preventing covid transmission.

Read more about our campaigns, position papers and research below. We look forward to seeing you all in EPH21.

Professor Sonia Saxena & Dr Julia Dratva

President-Elect, CAPH EUPHA & Vice President CAPH EUPHA

Upcoming EUPHA events

EPH2021. The 14th European Public Health Conference held in virtual Dublin from 10 - 12 November 2021 is getting closer.

Join the network meeting and strengthen child and adolescent public health

On Friday, 12th of November from 10:10 to 11:10 CEST, we invite you to join our CAPH network to aid efforts to improve health of children and adolescents in the post pandemic era chaired by our President Professor Sonia Saxena and Vice President Prof. Julia Dratva. The CAPH Directorate proposes a call for urgent action based on priorities in children and adolescent public health from previous years’ network discussion and emergent priorities arising from the current pandemic. A set of public health actions will be proposed and refined in breakout groups. There will be an opportunity to contribute to a joint position paper arising from this meeting. Come along and join the debate!

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84891303151?pwd=blVLekMxZm96QUg5cjVNQjduelU4Zz09

Access Number: 245512

Join our two workshops jointly hosted by the CAPH with EUPHAnxt and Mental Health

This year we are excited to launch our inaugural workshop co hosted by CAPH and EUPHAnxt. “Children and Young People ‘engaging the unheard stakeholder’.

One of the recurring priorities from our members and wider society is that young people do not have a voice. In this workshop led by young people, participants will hear why it is important that children and young people have a voice and are given power to engage in research and policymaking. Drawing on examples of coproduction, you will learn what is holding them back and consider how embedded engagement of young people in public health can become a reality.

The joint sections will undertake to support this workshop in future conferences including support for conference attendance.

The CAPH EUPHA section together with the EUPHA section Mental Health will offer a workshop title “Impact of COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures on the mental health in youth: evidence and actions”.  Looking forward to seeing some of you at this event.

Other upcoming events

The 12th World Congress on Adolescent Health will be held in a hybrid form from Lima, Peru from the 18 to 21 November. The focus will be Meeting the Challenge of Global Change

The IAAH World Congress brings people together from across the globe who work with and for young people, as well as young people themselves. At its heart, these meetings explore the opportunities, evidence-base, challenges and costs of services, programs and approaches for improving adolescent and young adult health that can be delivered by health services, schools, and communities. The World Congress is an opportunity to explore specific health conditions (eg sexual and reproductive health including HIV/AIDS and pregnancy, mental health, NCDs, injuries) as well as common health risks and determinants that shape adolescents’ health and wellbeing (eg gender inequality, poverty, migration, violence, stigma, bullying, abuse). 

Current campaigns

BMJ editorial on conversations with teenagers about covid 19 vaccines. Covid 19 mass vaccination is now well under way across Europe- read about consent issues here

Help us keep routine vaccination programmes going by joining the ‘Vaccinate Your Child’ Campaign- in 3 steps -1. Download the message in any European language, 2. Take a selfie, 3. Post. Don’t forget to tag @CAPHEUPHA on twitter-

School health promotion and safety: This year CAPH has partnered The UNESCO Chair in Global Health and Education (WHO Collaborating Centre) and contributed to a WHO guideline on school health.

Research and policy highlights

New WHO Guideline on School Health Services

This WHO guideline on SHS aims to provide national governments and other stakeholders with detailed guidance on the effectiveness, acceptability and content of comprehensive SHS involving a health worker. It is based on extensive literature reviews and it highlights the importance of intersectoral work for the benefit of children and adolescents

The Inbrief: Resilience Series

The Center of Developing Child at Harvard University has organized a series on resilience.  Reducing the effects of significant adversity on young children’s healthy development is critical to the progress and prosperity of any society. Yet not all children experience lasting harm because of adverse early experiences. Some may demonstrate “resilience,” or an adaptive response to serious hardship. A better understanding of why some children do well despite early adversity is important because it can help us design policies and programs that help more children reach their full potential.

A study on Global Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents During COVID-19, published in Jama Pediatrics the past August, found that in this meta-analysis of 29 studies including 80 879 youth globally, the pooled prevalence estimates of clinically elevated child and adolescent depression and anxiety were 25.2% and 20.5%, respectively. The prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 have doubled, compared with prepandemic estimates, and moderator analyses revealed that prevalence rates were higher when collected later in the pandemic, in older adolescents, and in girls.

Disadvantage in early life and persistent asthma. A study published in the journal Thorax following 7,500 children born in the UK at the start of this Millennium has found that social and economic disadvantage in early life (prenatally to age 3) is driving persistent asthma among the most disadvantaged children in the UK. Comparing the relative impacts of a range of early life circumstances on asthma risk (such as birthweight, parental smoking, quality of housing and neighbourhood), the analysis found that being born into disadvantaged circumstances increased the likelihood of developing persistent asthma by 70%, with almost two-thirds (59%) of the risk attributable to early life exposures; before the children reached three years old.

Profiling

Dr. Danielle Jansen, Associate professor on Organisation of care for children and adolescents and former president of the CAPH Section, shares her thoughts about working in the field of CAPH, what she accomplished as former president.

1. What accomplishment in your role as former president CAPH makes you most proud?

One thing I really enjoyed and am proud of is the strong and growing collaboration that I have developed between public health and pediatrics. Collaboration has been established with various pediatric societies, always with the aim of improving the care and health of children and adolescents in Europe. This is only possible if we work together. By jointly writing articles about this and initiating projects, this has not only turned out to be a collaboration on paper, but also in practice.

2. What motivates you to work in this field of CAPH?

Youth is and has the future. Everything we invest now in children and youth represents a guarantee for healthy and happy adults. I am particularly interested and motivated to conduct research into vulnerable children; they deserve all the attention. There is still a lot to gain for them. Researching and investing in healthcare systems that strive for health (care) equity for all children everywhere is my passion.

3. Tell us something about yourself that isn’t on your resume

I grew up in a large family, with parents who divorced when I was a teenager. My mother raised us alone: she had to spend all her attention and her very low income on her six children. Her love for her children and her tenacity and perseverance to bring out the best in us have made us very happy and proud adults with jobs that perfectly align with our talents and wishes. Our family is still very close, and we always support each other, even in sometimes very difficult times. My history shows that despite a less favorable starting position, there are still a lot of opportunities. The condition however is that there must be someone who is able to pave the way and create opportunities, someone with unbridled perseverance and energy, someone who can move mountains. Someone like my mother.

4. What are you looking forward to in 2021?

I look forward to a time when we are able to live with COVID-19. I look forward to meeting live colleagues again, nationally but also internationally. I miss the physical EUPHA conferences where, in addition to the very interesting presentations, there are so many opportunities for networking. I want to get inspired again and I can't do that from behind a computer. You need real meetings for that, meeting people spontaneously and discussions while enjoying a cup of coffee.

5. How do you want this section to grow/develop? Or: How would you like this section to contribute to Europe/the world? (what should our “legacy” be)?

I hope that as a section we will soon be able to join international conferences again. I would like the Child and Adolescent Public Health section to be represented at every important and relevant meeting and conference to identify opportunities for collaboration. And I would like members of our section to feel more involved and also want to be more involved. Improving the care and health of children in Europe requires a huge commitment, one that is beyond the board of our section alone. We need more people who will commit themselves at European level.

6. What is your number one child and adolescent public health priority and why?

My number one child and adolescent public health priority is access to health care. The way health systems are designed and financed and how they operate is an important determinant of health. By realizing well-performing health systems with equal access for every child, we will improve health outcomes. Particularly for vulnerable children, access to care is not always self-evident and guaranteed. It is a priority to research in health systems that are accessible to vulnerable children at all times.

Share your work with us

As a CAPH member, you can expect to receive two newsletters per year. Please contribute with anything you wish to share with the community. It can be short articles 150 words max with any graphics/ pictures to convey your message. Send it directly (lou.cantarero@sund.ku.dk).

And If you have something special to tweet about don’t forget to link to our twitter handle @CAPHEUPHA so we can help to share