| Adapting/Reinforcing Service Delivery Models |
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Delivering home-based services.45
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Online materials or mobile health technology (e.g. text-based interventions) can enhance virtual resource delivery and provide social support to promote parenting abilities.44,
67
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Integrating services that are trauma-informed and address economic pandemic consequences.64
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Continued prevention, screening, and interventions at the individual, relationship, community, and societal level for mental health conditions, suicide, overdoses, and violence.51
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| Training of Health Professionals and the Public |
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Health care professionals require training to address the urgent need for emotional support of families during lockdown,50 and to prioritize children.61
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Training health professionals (i.e. first responders, service providers, researchers, and social workers) in understanding, detecting, and treating family violence is critical.46,67
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Training in digital service delivery is essential to further enhance detection of child maltreatment during pandemics,48 particularly in vulnerable families.60
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Both mandated and nonmandated reporters must exercise heightened vigilance for signs of child abuse and neglect, especially as pandemic restrictions are lifted.48
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| Policies as a means to prevent family violence as well as assist families |
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Maintain jobs, bolster families’ mental health, and foster effective coping strategies,64 by creating relevant programs that consider socioeconomic pandemic impacts.42
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Maintain policy budgets for agencies to provide socioeconomic support to families.49
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Prioritize financial stipends via acts or eviction protections policies to support families’ income and housing,54,68,52 along with employment for maximal recovery from pandemic economic pressures.63
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Local and accessible food distribution along with direct cash or asset transfers, are recommended, especially for women using community-based services providing social and economic support.66
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| Improvements to care and other services |
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Primary care and prevention services must be accessible and available (both virtually or in person), with reopening of schools, daycares,63,52,62 and online groups.65
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Parental leave for one parent may increase parental support in families.62
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Child welfare services should work in collaboration with primary health and mental health care clinics to deliver more well-integrated parenting support and provide more points of contacts with parents and children.58
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Proactive screening may help professionals provide resources to vulnerable families and identify those with worsened mental well-being.65
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Solo parenting and social inequality must be reduced to improve maternal mental health,55 and local community services should remain accessible to protect the safety of women.54
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Grandparent kinship caregivers may require support to address parenting stress and mental health issues.68
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| A proactive, preventative, and public health-oriented approach |
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Methods for identification and detection of family violence are required.53
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Implementing universal primary prevention with public health campaigns to educate communities to recognize child maltreatment and partner aggression,58 would destigmatize relevant services, improve parenting, and reduce family violence.57,47
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Strategies targeting men are required o protect against partner aggression,55
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Social media and other platforms should be utilized by law enforcement to emphasize prioritization of violent incidents and encourage use of helplines by victims.59
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| Future Research |
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Focus on monitoring stressors (e.g. socioeconomic, parenting stress, mental health) arising during the pandemic to infer global consequences.41
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Ongoing surveillance of child abuse and neglect is warranted to monitor pandemic outcomes.53
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Epidemiological data may provide insight into pandemic influences (e.g. maternal mental health55, parenting stress65) on children and families by analyzing hospital and emergency room visits58 or police and hotline records,46 preceding, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing these studies on sex-specific effects.59
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Research focusing on grandparents with caregiver kinship across different socio-demographics is warranted.68
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Data should be collected on the characteristics of informants and methods of submitting criminal charges in studies of child and youth abuse and neglect during pandemics.43
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In-depth exploration of reasons for increased violence during pandemics remains important, as this will enable adoption of better strategies to prevent and address similar crises in the future.56
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