Children with special needs: Use of health services, behaviour and ethnicity

The aims of this paper are to 1) describe the types of health services used by children with special needs, in relation to their ethnic background and 2) to investigate the relationship between the severity of their behaviour and the use of services. A sample of 106 children (European=42, Asian=45, Afro-Caribbean=19) was selected. Hyperactivity seemed to be most problemati c for the three groups, though there were no significant differences betwee n them in terms of the five aberrant behaviours, Over the previous year, no children had been seen by their General Practitioners (GPs) for mental hea lth difficulties, rather they had been seen mainly for chest problems, part icularly Afro-Caribbeans, or cold-related problems, particularly Asians. A large proportion of children had sought nursing care for health monitoring. Two European and two Asian children had received nursing help on their beh aviour and living skills. Some had also sought help from hospital doctors f or such physical problems as epilepsy, hearing and vision impairment, cardi ovascular problems, mobility and ENT (ear, nose and throat). More Afro-Cari bbean than European children had sought help from ENT doctors. Some had als o sought dental check-ups, preventative and corrective treatments, as well as help from opticians. The majority of mothers thought that the services t hey had received were satisfactory. Out of all services, they thought that teachers and GPs understood their children's problems best. Some opinions w ere also expressed on the improvement of the above services. A significant association was found between social withdrawal, lethargy or inappropriate speech and GP contact.