Refashioning child and family health services in response to family, social and political change

Abstract

Professor Graham Vimpani is head of the Discipline of Paediatrics & Child Health, University of Newcastle.One hundred years ago maternal and child health services emerged as a community response in Australia, and most other industrialised countries, to concerns about the high rates of infant and early childhood mortality from infectious disease and poor nutrition. Major family and social changes over the past 30 years have impacted in new ways on children's health and wellbeing leading to a profound rethink about the kinds of services that are needed. At the same time, second thoughts have emerged about the role of government in service provision, driven by neoliberal and rational economic philosophies as outlined in the paper in this issue by Keleher and Reiger (2004). Together, these issues have challenged the very foundations on which the services were traditionally based.