title: Prioritizing vulnerable children: strategies to address inequity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While current strategies to address the needs of vulnerable child populations in Australia aim to reduce inequities, they are isolated, group specific and disparate.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to address health inequities by generating tools that are useful in clinical service settings to assist with the identification, prioritization and monitoring of all vulnerable populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Current local and national initiatives to address inequities were reviewed. Shared strategies in delivering health services to vulnerable populations were highlighted, and existing tools used for identification and prioritization were adapted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analysis of at-risk populations resulted in the formulation of four key questions to identify vulnerable children at presentation to services and strategies for prioritizing children within services. An existing refugee child health service delivery framework was adapted as a proposal for use in the development and evaluation of services for all vulnerable child populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A systemic approach across all vulnerable populations, supplemented by group-specific measures, is likely to add value to health service delivery as well as be more efficient and sustainable than multiple group-specific interventions. Given the limited outcome evidence available, there is also a need to collect data on vulnerable children and to track the effectiveness of interventions designed to address their health needs.
authors.affiliation: Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Randwick Campus, Sydney, NSW, Australia.|University of New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zwi
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Sydney South West Local Health District, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Joshua
authors.affiliation: Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Randwick Campus, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Randwick Campus, Sydney, NSW, Australia.|University of New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D035862:Vulnerable Populations
keywords: child public health; vulnerability to illness