Mental health of children who work on the streets in Brazil after enrollment in a psychosocial program

Street and drug use experiences among sheltered children and adolescents in the Federal District of Brazil

PROBLEM

The use of drugs by street children and adolescents is a problem found in most large cities around the world.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study of street children and adolescents living in shelters in the Federal District, Brazil. An objective questionnaire was applied to 84 individuals from September 2016 to October 2017; 14 of them participated in the qualitative study.

FINDINGS

Most participants were adolescents (84.5%) and males (64.3%), with a history of abandonment, domestic violence, and family drug abuse. All spent some time on the street; boys had a higher chance of being behind the school level and using drugs than girls. Over 60% had used drugs in the previous year, mainly alcohol and marijuana. Over 70% understand the health consequences of this behavior, but most have never tried or failed to stop. About 40% consider themselves dependent on drugs.

CONCLUSIONS

The results showed that street-life experience, peer pressure, and exposure to drugs within the family had an important impact on respondent's drug use behavior, reinforcing the importance of education programs that focus on the family.

Recognising and healing emotional wounds of child labourers: call to action based on the evidence and stakeholder views from India and Nepal

Child labourers are at risk of poorer mental health and once rescued require urgent mental health interventions to ameliorate the long-term impact. In our review, only two published scientific studies evaluated custom-made interventions; other programmes were obtained from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which need rigorous trial evaluation. We also sought the viewpoints of stakeholders working directly with rescued young people, as well as consulting young people with lived experiences of child labour. We propose that psychoeducational interventions aimed at employees working directly with young people could represent a fruitful approach for low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region but also more generally.

The CHILD Intervention for Living Drug-free Comprehensive Assessment of Risk, Resilience, and Experience (CHILD CARRE) Measure: Initial Findings

This paper summarizes the development and evaluation of an assessment instrument for children ages 7-12. The CHILD CARRE measure is a semi-structured interview with 7 domains. Children from the USA and Argentina (N=134) completed baseline and follow-up assessments. Substance use occurred at an average age of 8. Almost 33% of the children were taking medications for medical issues, more than 50% of them said that medical problem gets in the way of doing things they like to to do and almost 64% of the children stated that they would like to feel better. On average, children completed third grade in school, 56% of them knew how to read and 26% of the children started making money at age 8. Most children (74%) saw someone drunk or high and 23% of children reported alcohol or psychoactive substance use. Among these children using substances, such substance use occurred at an average age of 8, and in the past 30 days they used these substances an average for 5 days. The rating of level of risk on the part of the interviewer placed these children in the "risky" to "very risky" categories. Most children reported seeing their family members smoking (83%) or using alcohol (67%), and 49% reported seeing their family members high on drugs. Few children (10%) had conflicts with the law, while 46% of their family members had legal problems. Some children (30%) reported having serious problems getting along with family members, neighbors, or friends. These results suggest that this measure can serve as the first comprehensive measure to assess multiple life domains for young children at risk for or using psychoactive substances.