The 1970s saw the rise of shaken baby syndrome diagnoses. In many countries this has led to children placed in custody and parents prosecuted. Child protection services were rapidly established in Anglo-American countries from the 1970s. Often professionals were mandated to report to government authorities on suspicion of child maltreatment, with the definition expanded to include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect. In the desire to keep children safe, child abuse paediatricians may be reluctant to accept possible non-abuse causes for medical findings. Instead of adversarial child protection systems focused on removal of children to keep them safe from dangerous parents, Nordic and some Continental European countries have a family-support orientation. This views abuse as a problem of family conflict or dysfunction arising from social and psychological difficulties, which will respond to support and help. Out-of-home care is last resort. The way that child abuse is framed influences outcomes for children and their families to a much greater extent than whether or not there is mandatory reporting.

Child protection has been focused on detecting and preventing abuse in Sweden since the 1950s. An extensive and efficient implementation of knowledge on SBS/AHT took place from the late 1990s and intensified during the years from 2002, led by paediatricians, neuroradiologists and ophthalmologists supported by government agencies, the parliament and regional health councils. Shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma was presented in textbooks, professional society’s guidelines, conferences, and teaching. A taskforce for child protection was created by the Swedish Paediatric Society and child protection teams were created subsequently at the university hospitals. A steep increase in infant maltreatment diagnoses occurred concomitant to this implementation, also an increase in out-of-home care for infants with SBS/AHT findings. The SBS/AHT knowledge still prevails in the guidelines by the professional societies. However, a decline in infant maltreatment diagnoses has occurred during recent years, which might indicate a burgeoning de-implementation process related to a decision in Swedish Supreme Court (2014) and the SBU-report on traumatic shaking (2016).

Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a determination, typically made by physicians, that a child or infant has been violently shaken whenever three findings are present (subdural and retinal haemorrhage, and brain swelling or dysfunction) and there is no history of major trauma or a fall from multiple stories. These beliefs serve a forensic purpose: they permit physicians and law enforcement to identify abuse in a non-verbal child where the parents or caretakers deny abuse. Globally, thousands of parents and carers have been convicted or had children taken away based on an SBS determination. Shaken baby syndrome, however, has become controversial and many of its foundational tenets have been challenged and proven unreliable. For nearly two decades, paediatric physicians and child abuse prosecutors have defended the SBS determination, while challengers continue to question its reliability in the courts, where judges and juries must sort out its reliability on a case-by-case basis. This chapter chronicles SBS’ history, as that history is helpful to understand the concerns and controversies about the hypothesis.

This chapter outlines a developmental orientation to understanding the mental health of children and young people. It examines the implications for mental health in children and young people in relation to the environment, nature and nurture, and brain development in the context of vulnerability or risk, and resilience or protection. The chapter explores mental health promotion for young people, drawing from two real stories about bullying and altered eating patterns, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which include experiences of depression, anxiety and psychosis. Emphasis is given to prevention, awareness and early intervention for mental illness, including social media and e-mental health interventions for young people in relation to non-suicidal self-injury or suicide crisis, and popular public health initiatives to reduce suicide, such as R U OK? Day, headspace and other online services.

This chapter outlines a developmental orientation to understanding the mental health of children and young people. It examines the implications for mental health in children and young people in relation to the environment, nature and nurture, and brain development in the context of vulnerability or risk, and resilience or protection. The chapter explores mental health promotion for young people, drawing from two real stories about bullying and altered eating patterns, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which include experiences of depression, anxiety and psychosis. Emphasis is given to prevention, awareness and early intervention for mental illness, including social media and e-mental health interventions for young people in relation to non-suicidal self-injury or suicide crisis, and popular public health initiatives to reduce suicide, such as R U OK? Day, headspace and other online services.

This chapter provides a basis for nursing students to understand the ways in which children and young people’s rights are upheld in Australia and New Zealand, particularly within the healthcare systems. It provides insight into the ways in which human rights, and particularly child rights, inform paediatric nursing policy and practice. It begins by looking at the international agreements and covenants regarding the protection of child rights that have been endorsed by Australia and New Zealand, before moving on to examine the national legislation and the implications for health and social support systems. The second part of the chapter looks at some of the ethical challenges regarding child and family rights that you will consider as a paediatric nurse. In particular, we look at issues surrounding access to family, advocacy and consent to treatment of specific diseases in some situations. It provides a basis for understanding the way in which children and young people’s rights – including the right to be protected from all forms of violence and neglect – are upheld in Australia and New Zealand, particularly within the health and welfare systems.

While many children are born into families where parents generally care for their health and education and strive to provide them with safe and happy home lives, other children are not as fortunate and are subject to maltreatment such as abuse or neglect (Australian Government, Department of Social Services, ). Most parents have the capacity to provide love, care and support for their children while others need extra help along the way. There are parents who may appear to neglect their child; however, they may be struggling with a disability and poverty through a work or health situation (Australian Institute of Family Studies, ). Responding to the children in such vulnerable families is an integral focus of Australia’s welfare system (Fernandez, ).

This chapter addresses the topic of information we receive about or from patients and introduces the concepts of privacy and confidentiality in relation to the management of patient information. In this chapter we also outline legal requirements for reporting harmful conduct of health professionals and others. Providing excellent nursing care for a patient requires that each nurse involved in the patient’s care acquire relevant information from the patient (or a representative) concerning the patient’s symptoms, their lifestyle, their medications, their concerns and their experiences. Therefore, nurses routinely see, hear, read and record things about other people that are not normally discussed outside the health-care setting, and have privileged access to matters of patient privacy. This brings with it certain legal and moral obligations. Therefore, managing information about patients is one of the most important ethical and legal roles nurses play in health care and, owing to modern technology (as we discuss below), it is arguably one of the greatest challenges faced by professional practice.