Health visiting for families facing adversity: qualitative study

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A mixed-methods study to evaluate which health visiting models in England are most promising for families who are facing adversity

• IRAS ID

  340573

• Contact name

  Jenny Woodman

• Contact email

  j.woodman@ucl.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University College London

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  Z6364106/2024/05/128, UCL Data Protection Number

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 6 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  As many as 1 in 10 children in England currently live with parents who are violent or abusive to each other, who misuse alcohol or drugs, or who have mental health problems. These problems have been described as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We describe families living with these problems as “families facing adversity”.
  Children who face these kinds of adversity tend to have more physical and mental health problems as adults than other children

  Health visitors are specialist public health nurses in England. Health visitors are key professionals for young children who are facing adversity, and their families. Health visitors work with a range of other professionals and sometimes refer families to other support services. All families in England should have five contacts with health visitors before the age of 3, and those who are facing adversity should have more.

  We do not know the best ways of balancing health visiting for all families with health visiting that targets support to families facing adversity or other challenges. Health visiting is organised differently across England and many families do not see their health visitor as often as the government recommends.

  We will carry out interviews with professionals and mothers to understand the full picture of health visiting, including what the services looks like for families who are facing adversity and what is seen as most helpful, for whom and why. We will combine this information with what we are learning from information we have on the number of contacts between health visiting teams and families across England.

  This research aims to help us understand which types of health visiting look most promising for helping families who are facing adversity and when and why these approaches might help. This research could be used to inform changes to government recommendations about health visiting.
  

• REC name

  Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  24/YH/0167

• Date of REC Opinion

  16 Aug 2024

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion