Are the voices of young people living in out-of-home care represented in research examining their health?: A systematic review of the literature

‘I’m dealing with all these health issues that could have been addressed when I was younger’. Delivery of health services to Australian young people in out‐of‐home care: Lived experiences

“…Resultantly, the majority of young people reported experiencing ongoing chronic physical and mental health problems. This is consistent with the mounting evidence that young people in care experience poorer health outcomes than their peers not in care (Maclean et al, 2016;Smales, Savaglio, Morris, et al, 2020;, and that such outcomes continue to persist into adulthood (Berlin et al, 2018;Brannstrom et al, 2017;Kaariala & Hiilamo, 2017;Smales, Savaglio, Webster, et al, 2020). Specifically, young people discussed not receiving appropriate support for mental health concerns, leaving them to manage significant mental health issues as young adults.…”

“…However, there are some limitations of the study that bare consideration. First, the data from this paper were sourced from the transcripts of another study (Smales, Savaglio, Morris, et al., 2020). There was little to no overlap in the data being reported here and in the previous study; it was simply not possible to report on all findings within the one paper.…”

“…Typically, participatory research with young people in care is neglected over the views of researchers, professionals, or policy makers, due to challenges gaining consent and difficulties translating young people's recommendations into policy and practice (Mannay et al., 2018). A review of the literature examined young people's involvement in health research, finding only 3 of 39 studies directly interviewed care‐experienced young people about their health status and/or needs (Smales, Savaglio, Webster, et al., 2020). Encouragingly, emerging research has begun to focus on understanding the factors that contribute to poor health outcomes from the perspective of care‐experienced young people (Monson et al., 2020; Smales, Savaglio, Morris, et al., 2020).…”

Foster children’s perspectives on participation in child welfare processes: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

“…In this meta-synthesis, we summarize children’s perspectives on their participation in foster care processes and in particular their (non-) participation in the removal from home, foster family processes, and placement breakdown. The findings of this meta-synthesis will be useful to policy makers, who are increasingly requested to incorporate children’s voices into decision-making [ 16 , 24 , 25 ], and practitioners, who need to consider the nuances of when and how to include children’s voices in practice and decision-making [ 26 ]. The inclusion of children’s voices has a number of benefits to children, practitioners, and policy makers, such as affording children their inherent rights to participate, empowering children and reducing their confusion regarding services, and improving service delivery through more tailored, responsive services [ 24 , 26 , 27 ].…”

An exploratory study protocol examining if assertive integrated service delivery better meets the psychosocial and mental health needs of young people in out of home care

“…The importance of a client-centred approach to research and intervention is integral to trauma-informed practice (Wall et al, 2016); however, young people’s voices are often missing from research. In a recent meta-analysis, only three of 39 (13%) studies included direct interviews with young people as part of their research (Smales et al, 2020). Grace, et al (2019) found a similar gap when completing a systematic review between 2000 and 2018, finding that voices of culturally and linguistically diverse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people were further under-represented, as were young people and adolescents (with most participants being those in ‘middle childhood’).…”