Protection of Hospital- Stranded Children in China: Based on Cases Analysis of Three Children’s Hospitals in Shanghai

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Introduction

Hospital-Stranded Children (HSC) refer to children (0-18) who are staying in the hospital for a long time due to their lack of guardianship. According to the Chinese policy context, Hospital-Stranded Children cannot be categorized as abandoned children or orphans; their parents can be contacted somehow but refuse to take the children back home. However, the rights of these children are severely deprived. Lack of parental care, intimate attachment, and even school education may cause an egregious impact on children’s growth and development. By taking Hospital-Stranded Children as an example, after exploring the current situation of these children, this study analyses drawbacks of the hospital-based child protection system in China, on both hospital and national level. Finally, suggestions for policymaking is provided to construct a national wide child welfare system.

Literature Review

The WHO World Report on Violence and Health (2014) highlights the key role that health care professionals play in identifying and reporting suspected cases of maltreatment. They suggest that hospitals, in particular, have a vital role in early detection and recommend improving the training and education given to health care professionals on recognizing the presence of family or other risk factors that might suggest child abuse or neglect. However, in Shanghai, one of the most developed and advanced cities in China, as Zhao and her colleague (2017) revealed, there was still a massive gap between the current hospital-based child protective services and what the service system ought to be.

Methodology

This study uses case study to address the research aims. A total of 20 cases of HSC are included in this study. Within the case study process, the researcher investigated 6 administrative staff, 5 social workers, 1 surgeon, 1 lawyer and 1 volunteer from 3 different children’s hospitals by semi-structured interviews. Case record and observation are also included. Qualitative data was analyzed by NVivo 12.0 software and the coding framework is shown in the table1.

Results

This study believes that the current child protection work in Chinese hospitals is facing the following four challenges: (a) Insufficient cooperation among the intervening departments; (b) Limited capabilities and experience among the intervening practitioners; (c) Lack of professionalism in the intervening process; (d) Inadequate attention to ethical issues in the child protection process. The reasons behind these problems are the inadequacies of the child protection system in China, including: (a) The laws and policies related to child protection are not operational; (b) The absence of a national child protection institution; (c) The lack of national-level mandatory reporting and feedback mechanism; (d) Insufficient alternative care system; (e) Limited involvement of professional social workers. Finally, in light of the research results above, this study puts forward suggestions for the establishment of a child protection service system in the hospital and the construction of a national child protection system.

Author

• Yihang WANG, University of Hong Kong (HKU)
  Presenting Author