Lean on Me: A Scoping Review of the Essence of Workplace Support Among Child Welfare Workers.

Child welfare workers (CWWs) often work under conditions similar in nature to workers within safety critical organizations (SCOs). This is because most of their work surrounds child neglect, securing homes for foster children, haphazard, and intricate cases, among other things, and where making wrong decisions, inattention to details, and the likes could lead to adverse consequences especially for the kids within their care. Research has shown that employees who experience support at work often report less stress symptoms, burnout, and a host of other negative workplace experiences. Experience of support at work has also been found to boost employees' retention, job satisfaction, and productivity. Despite this development, research exploring the essence of workplace support among CWW is very scarce in the literature, and we know very little about the type of workplace support and their influence on a host of workplace outcomes, especially the negative ones like secondary traumatic stress, aggression, and violence toward CWWs. The purpose of the current scoping review was to uncover what is known about workplace support and their relationship with workplace outcomes among CWWs. The authors explored four databases and identified 55 primary studies investigating workplace support and workplace outcomes among CWWs in the review. Studies mostly framed support under three main support types of coworker/peer support, social/organizational/management support, and supervisor/leadership support. Findings showed that workplace support has a positive impact on workplace variables like job satisfaction, engagement, commitment, and reduces the risk of turnover, burnout, and other negative workplace variables. The review highlights possible directions for future research.

Why are they reluctant to report? A study of the barriers to reporting to child welfare services among public dental healthcare personnel.

This study is a national cross-sectional survey, conducted in November 2014, of 366 dental hygienists and dentists who had suspected maltreatment but did not report it to Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS). The aims of the present paper are to identify the reasons why public dental healthcare professionals are reluctant to report suspected child maltreatment to CWS and to determine whether there are differences in the identified barriers according to socio-demographic variables. The questionnaire was based on earlier studies and was adapted to fit the Norwegian context. The most frequently chosen reason for not reporting was "unsure of own assessment" (90.4%). Thirteen items pertaining to not reporting were factorised into three factors of barriers. These factors were "insufficient knowledge of child maltreatment and reporting", "fear of the consequences for oneself and the dental clinic", and "fear of the consequences for the patient and their family". A t test revealed that public dental healthcare personnel who had not received training on maltreatment and reporting to CWS during their professional education scored significantly higher on the barrier "insufficient knowledge of child maltreatment and reporting" than did dental personnel who had received such training. Furthermore, dental personnel with more years of experience (11+) scored higher on this barrier than did dental personnel with less experience. No other significant differences in barriers were observed. Public dental healthcare personnel have a mandatory obligation to report to CWS if they suspect child maltreatment. Despite this obligation, the present study reveals that several barriers to reporting exist. This study underscores the importance of strengthening knowledge among dental hygienists and dentists about when and how to report, both during education and in clinical practice.

Family assessment conversations as a tool to support families affected by parental mental illness: a retrospective review of electronic patient journals.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown a link between parental mental illness and adverse development in their offspring. In Norway, it is mandatory for health professionals to identify if patients in adult mental health services have children, and subsequently to provide support for the children. An important tool to detect if families are affected by parental mental illness and to assess if there is a need for further intervention is the Family Assessment Conversation. Family Assessment Conversations is potentially a powerful tool for communication with families affected by parental mental illness because it facilitates early identification of children at risk of various adversities due to the family situation. Additionally the tool may initiate processes that enable children and parents to cope with the situation when a parent becomes seriously ill. Little is however known about how the mental health practitioners use the family assessment form in conversations, and to what extent they record relevant information in the electronic patient journals. METHODS: The main aim of the study was to provide information about the existing practice within mental health services for adults in terms of parental mental illness and family assessment conversations. The project is a retrospective journal review. The data base consists of relevant journal data from 734 patients aged 20-60 years admitted. In total, 159 recordings of family assessment conversations were discovered. RESULTS: The main result in this study was that many of the questions in the family assessment form lacked documented responses and assessments from the healthcare professionals. Only 17% of the participants had been assessed with the total family assessment form. Additionally, there was a lack of documentation about whether or not the children had been informed in a large proportion of the assessment forms (31%). A total of 55% say that the child has not been informed. This implies that there is still a long way to go in order to make sure that children of parents with a mental illness are given relevant information and support. CONCLUSIONS: The documentation and family assessment frequency is low and reflects the challenges healthcare professionals and patient experience when the child's situation becomes the topic of assessment. There is a need to further investigate the challenges of changing the mental health systems to incorporate the children and families of patients. More research should promote knowledge on what may facilitate family assessment dialogue.

Experience with suspecting child maltreatment in the Norwegian public dental health services, a national survey.

OBJECTIVE: Detecting and responding to child-maltreatment is a serious challenge and public health concern. In Norway, public dental health personnel (PDHP) have a mandatory obligation to report to child welfare services (CWS) if they suspect child-maltreatment. This study aimed to assess PDHP's frequency of reporting and failing to report to CWS and whether the frequencies varied according to personal, organizational and external characteristics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An electronic questionnaire was sent to 1542 public dental hygienists and dentists in Norway, 1200 of who responded (77.8%). RESULTS: The majority 60.0%, reported having sent reports of concern to CWS throughout their career, 32.6% had suspected child-maltreatment but failed to report it in their career and 42.5% had sent reports during the three-year period from 2012 to 2014. The reporting frequency to CWS was influenced by PDHP's personal, organizational and external characteristics, while failure to report was influenced by personal characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to international studies, PDHP in Norway sends reports of concern and fails to report to CWS at relatively high rates. PDHP's likelihood of reporting was influenced by age, working experience, number of patients treated, size of the municipality and geographical region, while failure to report to CWS was influenced by working experience.

Does socio-economic status and health consciousness influence how women respond to health related messages in media?

During the past few decades, people have been increasingly exposed to health-related messages in the mass media, conveying recommendations for healthy lifestyles. The present study investigates whether these messages represent a stressor, and whether coping responses increase levels of motivation or levels of negative affect. A sample of 403 women aged 45 years were surveyed twice, at an interval of 4 weeks. A substantial proportion of the participants perceived the health messages to be stressful (increased levels of threat). Overall, the participants reported a greater use of adaptive than non-adaptive coping when exposed to the health messages. Socio-economic status (defined in educational terms) was negatively correlated with non-adaptive coping, while health consciousness was positively correlated with adaptive coping. Adaptive coping was positively related, and non-adaptive coping was negatively related, to intentions and behaviours. Non-adaptive coping was associated with stronger negative emotions. The results indicate that less-educated women tend to respond more non-adaptively to health messages than more-educated women; for the former group, this has negative consequences in terms of increased levels of negative emotions and decreased levels of motivation to engage in healthy behaviours.