Paediatrics and Child Health (Canada)
Volume 22, Issue 2, 2017, Pages 68-71

Supporting the developmental health of refugee children and youth (Review) (Open Access)

Minhas R.S.* , Graham H. , Jegathesan T. , Huber J. , Young E. , Barozzino T.
  • a Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pediatric Clinic, 61 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 2T2, Canada, Department of Paediatrics, Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St.Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • b Centre for International Child Health, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, Immigrant Health Unit, Department of General Medicine, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
  • c Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pediatric Clinic, 61 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 2T2, Canada
  • d Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pediatric Clinic, 61 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 2T2, Canada, Department of Paediatrics, Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St.Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, Division of Neurology, Hospital For Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • e Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pediatric Clinic, 61 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 2T2, Canada, Department of Paediatrics, Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St.Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • f Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pediatric Clinic, 61 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 2T2, Canada, Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St.Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, Division of Neonatology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

The Canadian Government has announced that over 50,000 refugees from the Middle East will be resettled in Canada by 2018. More than one-third of these refugees are expected to be children. The Canadian Paediatric Society has called for the Canadian government to prepare for the influx of these children. This should include addressing developmental, behavioural, and mental health needs. The focus of this paper is the role of paediatricians and family physicians in caring for the developmental health of refugee children, as a means of supporting their developmental and learning potential. The authors suggest the use of EMPOWER (Education, Migration, Parents and Family, Outlook, Words, Experience of Trauma and Resources), a mnemonic checklist they developed for assessing developmental risk factors in refugee children. EMPOWER can be used along with online web resources such as Caring For Kids New to Canada in providing evidence-informed care to these children. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Canadian Paediatric Society. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Mental health Development Refugees Pediatrics

Index Keywords

pediatrician general practitioner juvenile Review refugee health care planning child health empowerment Child Development community mental health human Learning migration parent Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85044584042&doi=10.1093%2fpch%2fpxx003&partnerID=40&md5=56dbe1883687d64178e750eb81d1686f
DOI: 10.1093/pch/pxx003
ISSN: 12057088
Cited by: 3
Original Language: English