Professionals’ views on children’s service user involvement

Abstract

Purpose Children are gradually attaining recognition as service users and their involvement in service development has been advanced in recent years. This study draws on empirical research in social and health-care services designed for children and families. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how professionals understand children’s involvement as experts by experience. The focus is on professionals’ views and intergenerational relations. Design/methodology/approach The research data comprise 25 individual and 10 group interviews with managers and professionals working in social and health-care services in one Finnish province. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Findings The professionals recognised the value of children’s service user involvement. However, they concentrated more on the challenges than the possibilities it presents. Health-care professionals emphasised parental needs and children’s vulnerability. In turn, the professionals from social services and child welfare non-governmental organisations perceived children as partners, although with reservations, as they discussed ethical issues widely and foregrounded the responsibilities of adults in protecting children. In general, the professionals in both domains saw themselves as having ethical responsibility to support children’s service user involvement while at the same time setting limits to it. Originality/value This study confirmed the importance of taking intergenerational relations into account when developing children’s service user involvement. The results indicate that professionals also need to reflect on the ethical challenges with children themselves as, largely owing to the generational position of children as minors, they rarely perceive them as partners in ethical reflection.

Children's and young people's experiences of expressing their views and having them heard in health care: A deductive qualitative content analysis

“…This study supports the conclusion of other studies, that there are prevailing views that children lack the rationality and capacity to make informed decisions (Coyne, 2008;Kilkelly & Savage, 2013;Traseira & Singh, 2020), with little change having been made since the publication of these studies. The need to protect children from their perceived poor decision-making continues to dominate when it comes to the judgement of best interests of children in health care (Kiili et al, 2021;Twycross, 2016). This is particularly true when children are younger or seriously unwell (Coyne et al, 2012(Coyne et al, , 2014Day et al, 2018).…”

“…Although children gave examples of being listened to and taken seriously in this study, it was common for health professionals to direct conversations towards parents, and for parents to dominate conversations with health professionals. Children and young people are often left out of discussions between parents and health professionals (Coyne & Gallagher, 2011; Frederick & Mack, 2018), with many studies finding that parental needs are prioritised in medical consultations (Kebbe et al., 2019; Kiili et al., 2021; Teleman et al., 2021), and parents' views being seen as more valuable than children's (Jordan et al., 2019). Children in this study also described situations where communication was directed at them, rather than a two‐way process in which they got to express their views.…”

Tutkimusta lasten kanssa

“…Kiili ym. 2019;2021b;Punch 2020;Tisdall 2017. ) On siten syytä pohtia tasapainoa aikuisten antaman tuen ja lasten taitoihin luottamisen välillä.…”

‘ZOOMing’ in on Consulting with Children and Parents Remotely to Co-Create Health Information Resources

“…Consultation is part of the wider endeavour of fostering public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) [ 16 , 17 ] and integral to many studies focusing on issues of concern to children and young people’s health services [ 18 , 19 ], including the design of information materials [ 20 ]. Children are keen to be involved in consultation and research [ 21 ].…”