PolicyWise for Children & Families

Interventive interviewing is a methodology that guides professionals in generating helpful questions for clients. It is grounded in systemic and social constructionist ways of thinking and has been useful in both clinical and organizational settings. The first part of this paper reviews the original work on this approach in systemic therapy and some adjustments that were made when it was applied in organizational consulting and coaching. The second part of the paper offers a revision of the framework based on several years of applying these ideas in therapy and organizational work. The proposed changes draw upon post-modern initiatives in professional interviewing, increase the breadth and applicability of the approach, and expand the interventive possibilities for systemic interviewers. Reflecting on these frameworks and adopting the methodology offers professionals options for systematically enhancing their interviewing skills. The paper concludes with examples of possible questions in each of the 12 cells of an updated framework.

Through critical and creative reflection, I consider what it means to be a Treaty Person in so-called Canada from the perspective of a settler educator. I focus on winter count making, which is a traditional practice of the Lakota (Sioux), Blackfoot, Kiowa, and Mandan Nations of the Prairies where symbols are created and used to recall significant events. I share about my own winter count making journey to invite reflection on Indigenous-Canadian relations in connection to education and shifting learning contexts. I build on my practice of artivism to decolonize curriculum by incorporating Indigenous métissage. The resulting artivist métissage offers a set of possibilities for learning from and with Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing in an embodied way informed by an artful and relational stance. This approach is tied to an ecological understanding of imagination as inclusive and interconnected with human and non-human relations. Attentive to the risk of appropriation of Indigenous ways of knowing by non-Indigenous people, it offers educators and students, including pre-service teachers, entry points for thoughtful learning from and with Indigenous teachings. The paper concludes with considerations for thoughtfully incorporating the winter count tradition into educational contexts. Par le biais d'une réflexion critique et créative, j'examine ce que signifie être une personne issue d'un traité dans ce qu'on appelle le Canada, du point de vue d'un éducateur issu de la colonisation. Je me concentre sur le calendrier pictographique, une pratique traditionnelle des nations Lakota (Sioux), Blackfoot, Kiowa et Mandan des Prairies, qui consiste à créer des symboles et à les utiliser pour rappeler des événements importants. Je parle de mon propre voyage de fabrication de calendriers pictographiques pour inviter à la réflexion sur les relations autochtones-canadiennes en rapport avec l'éducation et les contextes d'apprentissage changeants. Je m'appuie sur ma pratique de l'artivisme pour décoloniser le programme d'études en y intégrant le métissage autochtone. Le métissage artiviste qui en résulte offre un ensemble de possibilités d'apprentissage à partir et avec les savoirs et les modes de connaissance autochtones, d'une manière incarnée et informée par une position artistique et relationnelle. Cette approche est liée à une compréhension écologique de l'imagination comme étant inclusive et interconnectée avec les relations humaines et non-humaines. Attentive au risque d'appropriation des modes de connaissance autochtones par les non- autochtones, elle offre aux éducateurs et aux étudiants, y compris aux enseignants en formation, des points d'entrée pour un apprentissage réfléchi à partir des enseignements autochtones et avec eux. L'article se termine par des considérations sur l'intégration réfléchie de la tradition du calendrier pictographique dans les contextes éducatifs.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns (stay-at-home orders) had significant mental health consequences in 2020 to 2021 for caregivers and children. Little is known about "postlockdown" periods in 2022 to 2023. We investigated the mental health experiences of Australian families throughout the 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023), by demographic characteristics and lockdown length. A total N = 12 408 caregivers (N = 20 339 children, aged 0-17 years) completed Australia's only representative, repeated, cross-sectional, National Child Health Poll across 6 waves (June 2020-April 2023). Caregivers reported mental health for themselves (Kessler-6, poor versus not) and each child (self-rated mental health, poor/fair versus good/very good/excellent), and perceived impacts of the pandemic on own/child mental health (negative versus none/positive). Binary logistic models were fitted to predict marginal probabilities of each mental health measure by state/territory group (proxy for lockdown length), over time, adjusted for potential demographic confounders. Poor caregiver Kessler-6 was similar between genders but more common for sole caregivers, and those with a home language other than English and lower education. Poor/fair child self-rated mental health was similar between genders and increased with child age. Perceived negative impacts were more common for females and socially advantaged caregivers. Overall, negative mental health experiences increased with lockdown length, peaking with the height of lockdown in July 2021, before declining. Negative mental health experiences of Australian caregivers and children decreased during postlockdown periods of 2022-2023; however, social gradients persisted. These data can inform more precise mental health policies that enable better use of limited mental health infrastructure.

Abstract: Recently, human-service providers across Canada have made conscious efforts toward reconciliation through Indigenizing programming. However, while the delivery of programs has shifted, how they are evaluated remains rooted in Western ideologies and methodologies. In response to the tension created by using Western evaluation methods for assessing Indigenous-designed programs, we have developed an Indigenous program evaluation framework based in nêhiyaw (Cree) teachings and co-created by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. We use an illustrative example to demonstrate how an appropriately developed Indigenous program evaluation framework leads to more comprehensive, accurate, and meaningful data collection, evaluation, and recommendations.

In this chapter we propose to understand mindfulness as relational ethics, that is, an engaged, culturally mediated form of knowledge committed to “living well”. In so doing, we take Thich Nhat Hanh (TNH) use of “Nirvana” as a poetic inspiration. We consider our proposal relevant in the context of a rather different, currently dominant version of mindfulness that is (a) individualist (or centred in seemingly self-sufficient individuals); (b) instrumental (or techne-centred); (c) medicalized (or health-centred); and (d) disengaged and meaningless (or nihilist/deconstructivist and hyperfocussed in meditative practices aimed at “attending” rather than “understanding”). In our view, these dominant versions of mindfulness, which we call pop-mindfulness (PM), fail to deliver what they seemingly promise to deliver – an answer to the question about the good life. More assertively, we propose a particular strand of mindfulness, understood as “relational ethics” as a collective and pluralistic project towards “spirit” that may help us develop a more apt alternative to our current materialist, “secular” predicament.

Tobacco is the primary export commodity in Malawi and an important contributor to foreign earnings. The entrenchment of tobacco interests within government has partly explained why Malawi has lagged in its efforts to address the health consequences of tobacco and has been a vocal opponent of global tobacco control. Despite the extensive historical and entrenched relationship between the economy of Malawi and tobacco production, there have been important shifts at the highest policy levels towards the need to explore diversification in the agricultural sector. There is explicit recognition that alternatives to tobacco production must be pursued. This study provides an analysis of the policies and perspectives that characterize contemporary government approaches to tobacco and alternatives in Malawi by interviewing key government officials working on tobacco policy and reviewing recent policy documents. This research finds that there is openness and movement towards reducing tobacco growing in Malaw, including efforts to reduce tobacco dependency. Rather than a singular tobacco policy discourse in the country, there is a somewhat conflictual set of policies and perspectives on the future of tobacco in Malawi. Informing these policies and perspectives is the interplay between the economics of agricultural production (tobacco vs other crops), global markets (ranging from the ability to generate export earnings to the inability to compete with wealthier countries' non-tobacco crop subsidies) and the lack of developed supply and value chains other than those created by the transnational tobacco industry. The implications for government policy supporting a move away from tobacco dependence are not straightforward: there is a need to fill the supply chain gap for alternative crops, which requires not only strong intersectoral support within the country (and some challenge to the residual pro-tobacco narratives) but also international support.

IntroductionThe first years of school are critical in establishing a foundation for positive long-term academic, social and well-being outcomes. Mindfulness-based interventions may help students transition well into school, but few robust studies have been conducted in this age group. We aim to determine whether compared with controls, children who receive a mindfulness intervention within the first years of primary school have better: (1) immediate attention/short-term memory at 18 months post-randomisation (primary outcome); (2) inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility at 18 months post-randomisation; (3) socio-emotional well-being, emotion-regulation and mental health-related behaviours at 6 and 18 months post-randomisation; (4) sustained changes in teacher practice and classroom interactions at 18 months post-randomisation. Furthermore, we aim to determine whether the implementation predicts the efficacy of the intervention, and the cost effectiveness relative to outcomes.Methods and analysisThis cluster randomised controlled trial will be conducted in 22 primary schools in disadvantaged areas of Melbourne, Australia. 826 students in the first year of primary school will be recruited to detect between groups differences of Cohen’s d=0.25 at the 18-month follow-up. Parent, teacher and child-assessment measures of child attention, emotion-regulation, executive functioning, socio-emotional well-being, mental health-related behaviour and learning, parent mental well-being, teacher well-being will be collected 6 and 18 months post-randomisation. Implementation factors will be measured throughout the study. Intention-to-treat analyses, accounting for clustering within schools and classes, will adopt a two-level random effects linear regression model to examine outcomes for the intervention versus control students. Unadjusted and analyses adjusted for baseline scores, baseline age, gender and family socioeconomic status will be conducted.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been received by the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Melbourne. Findings will be reported in peer-review publications, national and international conference presentations and research snapshots directly provided to participating schools and families.Pre-Results Trial registration numberAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000326190).

BackgroundMandates abound to share publicly-funded research data for reuse, while data platforms continue to emerge to facilitate such reuse. Birth cohorts (BC) involve longitudinal designs, significant sample sizes and rich and deep datasets. Data sharing benefits include more analyses, greater research complexity, increased opportunities for collaboration, amplification of public contributions, and reduced respondent burdens. Sharing BC data involves significant challenges including consent, privacy, access policies, communication, and vulnerability of the child. Research on these issues is available for biological data, but these findings may not extend to BC data. We lack consensus on how best to approach these challenges in consent, privacy, communication and autonomy when sharing BC data. We require more stakeholder engagement to understand perspectives and generate consensus.MethodsParents participating in longitudinal birth cohorts completed a web-based survey investigating consent preferences for sharing their, and their child’s, non-biological research data. Results from a previous qualitative inquiry informed survey development, and cognitive interviewing methods (n = 9) were used to improve the question quality and comprehension. Recruitment was via personalized email, with email and phone reminders during the 14-day window for survey completion.ResultsThree hundred and forty-six of 569 parents completed the survey in September 2014 (60.8%). Participants preferred consent processes for data sharing in future independent research that were less-active (i.e. no consent or opt-out). Parents’ consent preferences are associated with their communication preferences. Twenty percent (20.2%) of parents generally agreed that their child should provide consent to continue participating in research at age 12, while 25.6% felt decision-making on sharing non-biological research data should begin at age 18.ConclusionsThese finding reflect the parenting population’s preference for less project-specific permission when research data is non-biological and de-identified and when governance practices are highly detailed and rigourous. Parents recognize that children should become involved in consent for secondary data use, but there is variability regarding when and how involvement occurs. These findings emphasize governance processes and participant notification rather than project-specific consent for secondary use of de-identified, non-biological data. Ultimately, parents prefer general consent processes for sharing de-identified, non-biological research data with ultimate involvement of the child.

IntroductionData collected by myriad not-for-profit (NFPs) agencies while providing social services represent a significant untapped source of intelligence. While much research has been conducted on the governance and capacity to share administrative and research data, little work has been done in the area of NFP data sources.
 Objectives and ApproachSix NFP agencies in Calgary participated in a data sharing project to measure various aspects of poverty. This collaboration required understanding the legal, ethical, policy and data challenges to working with data collected in the NFP sector. This case study will expose (a) the legal analysis on legal and governance issues for, and obligations of, NFPs when aiming to share and re-use information beyond service delivery in Alberta, Canada; and (b) the practical and policy challenges faced by the NFPs and repository. The legal analysis involved a systematic search of academic and grey literature; relevant legislation and case-law (especially privacy law).
 ResultsThe legal analysis demonstrated three key things. First, in many circumstances an NFP is not held to any information-handling legal obligations. This does not absolve NFPs from social privacy expectations, especially involving vulnerable populations. Second, privacy best practices are available to NFPs from other more-regulated sectors and from NFP sector standards. The trifecta of purpose, reasonableness and minimal extent are critical. Third, adhering to privacy best practices would not be overly costly, more efficient, and less risky of negative publicity and lost public trust from privacy complaints. These findings informed the NFP data sharing project. The six participant NFPs varied greatly in their approach to consent, governance and information-handling, which affected their data-readiness for cross-organizational data linkage and analysis.
 Conclusion/ImplicationsUnlike government, most NFPs have limited experience with data linkage. This paper informs ethical approaches to include NFP data in broad cross-sector data linkage. Appropriate data governance is imperative for data sharing amongst NFPs, researchers and public organizations, which promotes community service delivery, evaluation and improvements to benefit vulnerable families.