How to communicate with children and young people in distress

Conn, Rex B.; Monsell, Adam; Bruce, Helen

doi:10.1136/sbmj.j1696

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Interviews with children aged 8-11 with experience of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria revealed remarkable practicality in their knowledge about what to do [33], indicating this education/action pairing is used by parents and caregivers beyond the current sample. Compassionate communication consisted of acknowledging distress and providing honest reassurance, an approach generally recommended when discussing potentially distressing topics with minors [44,45]. The practice of reminding children of the presence and role of civic supports such as firefighters aligns with findings elsewhere that such an understanding is an important component of children's capacity to act appropriately during bushfires [46].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bushfire Smoke and Children’s Health—Exploring a Communication Gap

Walsh

Sargent

Cevik-Compiegne

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019/2020 in Australia generated smoke that persisted for over three months, mainly affecting Eastern Australia. Most communication strategies focused on the fire itself, revealing a knowledge gap in effective communication of the impact of bushfire smoke on health, especially for children and those living in non-English speaking minority groups. To address this, semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with sixteen adults with caring (n = 11) or educational (n = 5) responsibilities for primary-school aged children (5–12 years, with some also having children up to 16 years) who had direct experience of the “Black Summer” bushfires. Overall, 43% (n = 7) of the sample spoke English as a first language, 25% (n = 4) spoke Turkish, with the remainder speaking Persian, Arabic, and Spanish. Thematic inductive qualitative content analysis revealed predominant themes of the role of parents and caregivers as conduits and curators of information. Air quality apps were the most common source of information. Language barriers and the lack of child-friendly methods of communication were highlighted as particular challenges. This qualitative study provides evidence for future development of communication strategies to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse individuals and the children in their care.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%