The health visitor and the prisoner's child

Abstract

This paper comments on the relevance to health visitors of research carried out to establish the number of children in England and Wales whose fathers' are imprisoned, the impact of this on the children concerned and the need for intervention by health and social welfare agencies. Men received into prison during two separate three month periods were surveyed, a sample of wives interviewed and health visitors and teachers questioned. The findings suggest that in one year more than one hundred thousand children have a father sent into custody. Because of the current concentration of crime in areas of high deprivation, imprisonment of a father is a relatively normal occurrence in some districts, frequently adding pain, confusion and worry to the child's social, economic and educational disadvantage. Health visitors and teachers reported disturbed behaviour, ill health and problems at school. The role of the health visitor can be crucial in some of these cases yet frequently she is unaware of the family's predicament.