Children As Caregivers

In Zambia, due to the rise of tuberculosis and the closely connected HIV epidemic, a large number of children have experienced the illness or death of at least one parent. Children as Caregivers examines how well intentioned practitioners fail to realize that children take on active caregiving roles when their guardians become seriously ill and demonstrates why understanding children’s care is crucial for global health policy. Using ethnographic methods, and listening to the voices of the young as well as adults, Jean Hunleth makes the caregiving work of children visible. She shows how children actively seek to “get closer” to ill guardians by providing good care. Both children and ill adults define good care as attentiveness of the young to adults’ physical needs, the ability to carry out treatment and medication programs in the home, and above all, the need to maintain physical closeness and proximity. Children understand that losing their guardians will not only be emotionally devastating, but that such loss is likely to set them adrift in Zambian society, where education and advancement depend on maintaining familial, reciprocal relationships. View a gallery of images from the book (https://www.flickr.com/photos/childrenascaregivers)

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

A sociological study of the diverse contexts in which children take on adult responsibilities in families and serve as caregivers for their siblings or parents.

A sociological study of the diverse contexts in which children take on adult responsibilities in families and serve as caregivers for their siblings or parents.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

An increasing number of people in our country today acknowledge the fact that there is an enormous crisis in the field of early child care. The first chapter of this book examines the major reasons for the crisis and why the economic reality for most American households will cause the problem to continue to grow in the coming years. Following this, the second chapter discusses the criteria of a good early child care setup, based on professional literature in the field and the author's experience. The remainder of the book addresses the serious problem that most day-care workers are very poorly trained for their jobs. Six chapters are devoted to providing a practical guide for people who work with young children. They discuss, from current research in the field but without using technical language, current practical methods of working with children-at-risk or those who may potentially be at-risk. The focus is on working with children in groups, helping day-care workers and substitute parents to minimize or remediate the at-risk factor in the children in their care. The book also addresses parents of these children and emphasizes the need for cooperation between day-care workers and them so that child care providers can effectively convey the skills presented here. There is also a chapter on approaches to working with special children, such as children with autism, and those with physical or neurological impairments. This informative and sensitive book will be useful in advancing the training of workers in infant and early child care settings.

In Zambia, due to the rise of tuberculosis and the closely connected HIV epidemic, a large number of children have experienced the illness or death of at least one parent. Children as Caregivers examines how well intentioned practitioners fail to realize that children take on active caregiving roles when their guardians become seriously ill and demonstrates why understanding children’s care is crucial for global health policy. Using ethnographic methods, and listening to the voices of the young as well as adults, Jean Hunleth makes the caregiving work of children visible. She shows how children actively seek to “get closer” to ill guardians by providing good care. Both children and ill adults define good care as attentiveness of the young to adults’ physical needs, the ability to carry out treatment and medication programs in the home, and above all, the need to maintain physical closeness and proximity. Children understand that losing their guardians will not only be emotionally devastating, but that such loss is likely to set them adrift in Zambian society, where education and advancement depend on maintaining familial, reciprocal relationships. View a gallery of images from the book (https://www.flickr.com/photos/childrenascaregivers)

Learn how to design, develop, and implement good quality education and training programs! Competent Caregivers--Competent Children provides a thorough overview of the design and delivery of effective training and education for practitioners in the field of child and youth care. Some of the leading authorities in the profession, including Henry Maier, James Anglin, and Roy Ferguson, combine conceptual approaches with practical guidelines to produce workable strategies that insure the best preparation for caregivers. In this crucial resource for child care professionals, chapters focus on: the achievements of the child care field thus far, and the internal barriers that block its ongoing development the skills entry level and experienced child care practitioners need, and strategies for developing a content and format that will focus on these needs the models that have been used successfully to deliver programs to child care practitioners in a variety of settings, in a broad range of geographic areas For all who educate and train child care practitioners, and for those who employ them as members of a professional staff, Competent Caregivers--Competent Children is a highly valuable book.