Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Australia.
Child Abuse Negl. 2017 Mar;65:68-76. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.01.007. Epub 2017 Jan 21.
Prenatal reporting to child protection services has been enacted into most jurisdictions across Australia and in other countries, its aims being to intervene early and provide supports which will either identify or prevent the need for a baby to be taken into care and protection once born. Despite indications that there are increasing numbers of prenatal reports, little is known about the characteristics of those reported, the timing and reasons for reports, service responses, and the impacts of being reported. This study is one of the first to use administrative data to examine the characteristics of two samples from one Australian jurisdiction: (i) data from casefiles of 38 cases reported in 2012-13, and (ii) administrative data from 117 cases reported prenatally in 2013. These data showed that women who were reported to child protection services in relation to their pregnancy were predominantly disadvantaged, and were likely to be reported relatively late in their pregnancy due to 'future risk concerns'. Approximately two-thirds of those reported were provided with some prenatal support, as recorded by the child protection system, generally of limited duration. Twelve percent of the babies born to the larger cohort of women were removed within 100days of their birth. It is likely that longer term supportive interventions are needed, to reduce the risk factors evident in women reported during pregnancy, and to improve their ability to safely care for their children. Information on the short and long-term impacts from rigorous evaluations and longer-term intervention trials are also vital to ensure that prenatal reporting and interventions are, in fact, improving outcomes for infants and families.
在澳大利亚和其他国家的大多数司法管辖区，都已经制定了向儿童保护服务机构进行产前报告的规定，其目的是尽早进行干预，并提供支持，以确定或防止婴儿在出生后需要被照顾和保护。尽管有迹象表明产前报告的数量在不断增加，但人们对报告的特征、报告的时间和原因、服务反应以及报告的影响知之甚少。这项研究是首次使用行政数据来检查澳大利亚一个司法管辖区的两个样本的特征：（i）2012-13 年报告的 38 个案例的档案数据，以及（ii）2013 年产前报告的 117 个案例的行政数据。这些数据表明，因怀孕而向儿童保护服务机构报告的妇女主要处于不利地位，并且由于“未来风险担忧”，她们可能在怀孕后期才被报告。大约三分之二的报告妇女得到了儿童保护系统记录的一些产前支持，通常持续时间有限。在较大的妇女群体中，有 12%的婴儿在出生后 100 天内被带走。为了减少怀孕期间报告的妇女存在的风险因素，并提高她们安全照顾孩子的能力，可能需要长期的支持性干预措施。严格评估和长期干预试验的短期和长期影响信息对于确保产前报告和干预措施实际上改善婴儿和家庭的结果也至关重要。
