The role of pediatric polyclinics in social and legal work concerning maternal and child health
Grebesheva, I.I.; Chicherin, L.P.; Esikov, M.S.
Pediatriia 1990(2): 57-62
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-403X PMID: 2349041 Document Number: 371279
Approaches to protection of mother and child health in the USSR are outlined with special emphasis on the role of children's polyclinics. The law on childhood protection is based on 10 principles of Declaration on Children Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1959. Current legislation provides for an increase in the duration of paid leave to care for the sick child up to 14 years of age, an increase in the monthly stipends to the children of military personnel, and free drug prescriptions for children up to 3 years of age treated as outpatients. From September 1, 1990, the duration of paid maternity leave for working women is 70 days. In light of a general legal reform currently conducted in the USSR, children's polyclinics as the primary link in the health care system are charged with protection of legal rights of mothers and children. Presently, 1.4% of all marriages in the USSR end up in divorce, so that every year 700,000 children younger the 18 years old are brought up in a single-parent family. Almost 85% of children in orphanages have live parents. Almost 200,000 children have criminal record, and 14,000 children are diagnosed to have sexually transmitted diseases annually. The legal work of children's polyclinics should be based on the evaluation of social risk factors. Following risk factors are identified: families with single mothers; families with 3 children; low-income families; families of the military personnel; families living in poor conditions; families with a history of death of a child 1 year old; disabled mothers; children of migrants or refugees; families in which one or both parent avoid the parental responsibilities or abuse their children.