HEALTH AND WELLBEING
REACHING OUT TO CHILDREN IN LIMBO
The global COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on already vulnerable children . Dr Wendy Sims-Schouten wants to make sure that children in state care are not written off as ' lost causes '.
I n late Victorian times , nearly half of the children with complex mental health problems ( regarded at that time as ‘ mentally deficient children ’, ‘ lunatics ’, and ‘ imbeciles ’) and behavioural issues taken into care by the Church of England ’ s Waifs and Strays Society were either deemed as beyond help or ‘ undeserving ’ of support . One hundred years later , children with complex mental health needs and behavioural issues , and their families , are still being judged unworthy of assistance – and at only a slightly lesser rate .
Dr Wendy Sims-Schouten , Reader ( Associate Professor ) in Childhood Studies in the School of Education and Sociology at the University of Portsmouth , discovered this disturbing intransigence while comparing the case files of 108 children taken into care between 1881 and 1918 with the results of 46 interviews with young care leavers and adults between 2015 and 2018 .
Dr Sims-Schouten ’ s work has a particular focus on children ’ s mental health within her field of childhood studies , which spans the study of wellbeing , education and sociology and is informed by the disciplines of psychology , sociology and history .
“ We still have this narrative that although we like to talk about mental health , we like to support vulnerable children , there is always this group of children who are perceived as ‘ beyond help ’, too difficult , too complex , their behaviour is all wrong and they ’ re bad children ,” she says .
ILLUSTRATION : 123RF
10
ISSUE 02 / 2021