Introduction
Working with pediatric patients and their families is an incredibly challenging undertaking. Children and their parents may experience a variety of barriers to health, including, as you noted, structural and societal ones. This post discusses these barriers in detail and addresses how medical professionals caring for patients in a pediatric oncology ward can help overcome them.
Discussion
I find the proposed solutions viable as they will help to tackle the barriers to health without interruption to other duties. All healthcare workers need to be aware of all resources and organizations that can assist patients and their caregivers address such structural barriers as transportation and housing. The proposed involvement of social workers in working with pediatric patients and their families is a suitable suggestion. However, it is also essential to ensure caregivers have the support of people who have gone through the same journey. Support groups for parents of pediatric patients can help empower them and provide them with community and access to various resources (Rao et al., 2021). Therefore, I believe local support groups should be recommended to parents to help them navigate barriers to health.
In addition, I think parents’ health literacy should be discussed more thoroughly. Caregivers’ low health literacy is directly linked to adverse health outcomes for children (De Buhr & Tannen, 2020). It can impact children’s lifestyles and approach to health and well-being, preventing them from leading an active life and accessing nutritious foods (De Buhr & Tannen, 2020). Parents’ health literacy and lifestyle meaningfully impact children, and measures should be put in place to improve literacy from before the child’s birth. When caring for pediatric patients, they should also be explained in an age-appropriate manner how diet and exercise affect one’s body and health.
Conclusion
Overall, the post sufficiently addresses structural and societal barriers to health, but I believe parents’ health illiteracy is too significant a barrier not to address in depth.
References
De Buhr, E., & Tannen, A. (2020). Parental health literacy and health knowledge, behaviours and outcomes in children: A cross-sectional survey. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1–9. Web.
Rao, V. N., Anantharaman Rajeshwari, R., Rajagopal, R., & Normen, M. (2021). Inception of a pediatric cancer caregiver support group guided by parental needs. Cancer Reports, 5(6), 1–6. Web.