This essay will focus on Williams, J. Nixon, E. Smyth, E. And Watson, D. (2016). “Cherishing all the Children Equally? 100 years on from the Easter Rising” Oaktree press. Cork, Ireland, a longitudinal study of children in Ireland concerning the 1916 proclamation that all the rights of children will be cherished equally. The author will focus on health, the change in family models and also childcare to examine whether or not the needs and rights of children in Ireland are being met.
Health
From reading the book “Cherishing all the children equally? Ireland 100 years after the Easter rising it is extremely clear to see that the health system is extremely unfair towards the children of Ireland both in today’s society and over the last 100 years. The healthcare system is not fair for children at all. Up until this year any child under the age of six received free GP care which also meant that they would receive free medical cards if their parents income was within the threshold to qualify for one, during the setting out of the 2020 budget in October of this year it was announced by minister for health Simon Harris that all children under the age eight would receive free GP care and medical card care again if their parents income was within the threshold required.. Children who are not in this age bracket are being deprived of free healthcare as the cost of healthcare is a substantial amount of money for parents to be paying out, this means that children’s health is deteriorating at a rapid level as they can’t access free healthcare. All children should receive free GP visits no matter the age of the child. It was noted from reading the “Cherishing all the children equally? 100 years after the Easter rising”we see that all other medical cards in the house are based on the income of the parents in the household and whether it is under the threshold required. This is extremely unfair as children who need medical attention and are above the age of eight might not be able to afford it because the parent’s income is above the threshold that is required to qualify for a medical card or free GP visits. The lack of space also in hospitals is stopping children from receiving the highest level of professional health care that is needed. It was reported in July of this year that over 40,000 children in Ireland are on a waiting list to see specialists across Ireland for numerous reasons. This is having a massive impact on both the child’s physical health but also the child’s mental health and this is also having a huge impact on the child’s needs being met which they aren’t with the healthcare system in Ireland today. Another downfall on meeting a child’s needs in today’s society is the lack of mental health services available to children across Ireland, children are having to suffer on in silence as there just is not anywhere for them to avail of service because its either overcrowded or else specialists aren’t available. In July of 2017 “82 children were admitted to adult wards” in the psychiatric unit of various hospitals around the country and this is unacceptable according to John Saunders who is chairperson. This is most definitely not meeting the needs of children in the healthcare sector, children are not being cared for and looked after in ways which they should be and this is simply down to the lack of money that the government is providing towards children’s healthcare in Ireland today. It has been called upon the HSE to “initiate major transformations to deal with the service issues” but when this is going to happen is a question that a lot of parents are waiting to hear the answer. Also announced in the drawing up of the 2020 budget by the minister for children Katherine Zappone free dentist visits will be available to all children who are under the age of six no matter whether they have got a medical card or not. Although dental services are widely available to children up to the age of sixteen if your child does not hold a medical card it will cost to visit the dentist. Although having the free dental care for under six may be a help to families it is still not meeting the needs of children as they cannot go to the dentist when needed as it is not free to them if they are not a medical cardholder, this then means that the young child’s teeth are rotting and this is having an impact on their health also. The Irish healthcare system is not up to standards in which it should be and this is the reason why a lot of children’s needs regarding health aren’t being met.
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Change in Family Models
The change in family models has a huge impact on both the child and the needs of the child being met. Firstly, if a child was born into a one-parent family for whatever the reason may be the parent who is playing both roles in the child’s life may have found it extremely hard to fund all the needs of the child and the reason for this may be that they are out-earning the money and then household bills are consuming a large chunk of their income, which means that the parent only has a small portion of disposable income left at the end of the week or month and then they must try their utmost best to support the child’s needs but sometimes it just isn’t possible, also one parent families only have support from one parent. Staying on the one-parent family topic the child who comes from the one-parent family may not have the same opportunities as someone who is coming from a two-parent family and this again goes back to money and not being able to afford to meet these equal opportunity needs of the child and this can cause conflict whether it be at school or home. The study also states that contraception plays a huge part in the change in family models and this is simply because 100 years ago the Catholic Church did not allow the use of contraception whereas now there are a lot of one child or two children's families. It is clear from the study that contraception is being widely used and families can plan their family and decide whether or not they would like children On the other hand reading “cherishing all the children equally? 100 years after the Easter rising” over 100 years ago children who came from large families weren't given the equal opportunities like children who came from smaller families and this was because there could have been up to 10 children to cater for and the sources and supplies were limited in the bigger families compared to the smaller families and this did most certainly cause problems around meeting the children’s needs as some days they could be seen going around the streets with rags as clothes and sometimes with no shoes on their feet and the child's appearance may seem dirty and scraggy. From reading the “cherishing all the children equally? 100 years after the Easter rising” book it is extremely evident to see that there are certain family circumstances which also make it extremely hard to meet a child's needs and some of these include violence in the home, parental use of drugs and alcohol, perhaps a parent's mental health or even intellectual disability. This hinders the child's needs and the parent can't give their full and all to the child or perhaps abandon or abuse the needs of the child. (September 2018). With parents like this whom are not willing to meet the child’s needs for different circumstances extended family are more likely to step in and support as they feel the parents are wasting all the money and not putting effort into meeting the child’s needs so they will try their best to help the child in any little way possible and try to take care of the child this can cause a strain on the family as parents can feel that extended family are trying to take over the child’s life which then leads to conflict within the family, this then may lead to a child carrying the actions outside of the house and into different environments that a child partakes in such as school or crèche This then impacts the needs of the child, for example, their education because they are not working to their highest potential because of the family circumstances at home and they are getting easily distracted by all the conflict involved. Also by having these certain family circumstances in a child’s means that children may be missing out on certain activities/experiences in life and this has a huge impact on their development both mentally and physically.
Childcare
It was noted from reading and examining the “cherishing all the children equally? Ireland 100 years after the Easter rising” book, it was very clear that childcare plays a massive role in meeting a child’s needs and rights. Every child on the island of Ireland is entitled to 2 years of free childcare whether it be in a crèche or a playschool. In disadvantaged areas childcare may not be available in such a broad range compared to what it may be in a town, this then leads to parents having to get transport to bring the child to the childcare service and this is costing the parent unnecessary money and the parents then may feel that the child is missing out if they do not attend. “Cherishing all the children equally? 100 years after the Easter rising” book tells us that if children’s needs are not being met if they do not attend childcare as they are not learning through play and are not learning the basics. These are things that children need in their life at these early stages and this is a big need not being met if they don’t go to childcare for various reasons such as being in a disadvantaged area or parents not being able to afford it. Published on Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 we were told there was a new national childcare scheme coming into place and this will have both positive and negative effects on children attending childcare. The new scheme tells us that family's who have children under the age of three regardless of the family’s income or earnings are entitled to 50cent off every hour of the childcare that they have availed of. The maximum hours of childcare per week are 40hours this is €20 a week that families are saving this is a massive help to all families. With families being able to avail of this from November 25th, 2019 it will increase the availability of family's being able to meet the child's needs and rights
Overall, from looking at the research done both personally and regarding the 'cherishing all the children equally? Ireland 100 years after the Easter rising” it is extremely evident that we have not lived up to the promise made by the 1916 declaration as from the research undertaken it was clear that in the areas examined children’s rights and needs were not being met, we as a nation need to improve in the following three areas which are health, change in family models and childcare.
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