LOGIC June 2017 Vol 16 No 2 | Page 24

CHILD POVERTY IN AOTEAROA/NEW Sue Gasquoine was recently appointed as Nursing Policy Adviser/ Researcher to the Professional Services Team at the New Zealand Nurse Organisation (NZNO). ZEALAND Sue Gasquoine, Nursing Policy Adviser/Researcher, New Zealand Nurse Organisation (NZNO) “Child poverty is fixable but it’s expensive… Simply fixing children up when they come into the health system, then sending them back to the same conditions that caused their health problem in the first place is not good enough.” (Turner, 2017) Turner repeated this message at the NZNO Auckland Regional Convention in April and reminded delegates that it is election year. Why does child poverty matter so much? Poverty in childhood affects their whole life  every health outcome  educational outcomes  secure relationships  future jobs and income The internationally renowned Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development June 2017 L.O.G.I.C Prior to this I worked in nursing education teaching child health and research to undergraduate and postgraduate students of nursing. Research interests include online professionalism, inter- professional education, child health and stroke. Qualifications: RN, MPhil (Hons) Research Unit concludes “… tackling the effects of childhood disadvantage through early-years support for families and children could benefit all members of a society by reducing costs.” If child poverty continues at the rate it is - 29% living in severe or significant hardship in 2014 – then the 12% of adults 65+ years living in severe/significant hardship in 2014 is likely to double as the current generation of children become grandparents. Without opportunity and multi-sectoral intervention poverty becomes embedded and intractable. The Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty published ‘Solutions to Child poverty in New Zealand: Evidence for Action in 2012. It gives 78 high level recommendations to Government across 14 focus areas but the more pragmatic issue of how primary care nurses contribute in their day to day work is not specifically identified. The focus areas of ‘Health and Disability’ and ‘Local Communities and Family’ are the ‘practice arena’ of nurses who can bring their expertise to assessing needs of individuals and whānau, recommending and advocating change and resource allocation and then evaluating benefit. Specific recommendations of the Child Poverty Action Group include:  Universal health services for children, with targeted extra services based on assessment of further need  National housing plan  Housing WOF  Increase minimum wage and address the needs 22