The impact of drop-in centres on the health of street boys in New Delhi: An interpretive descriptive study

Ronita Nath, Wendy Sword, Kathy Georgiades, Parminder Raina and Harry Shannon

Children and Youth Services Review, 2016, vol. 68, issue C, 202-208

Abstract: Our objective was to understand how drop-in centres influence the physical health, substance use status, and mental health of street children in New Delhi, India using interpretive description methodology. We conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 23 street children and two staff members from two drop-in centres in New Delhi. We asked participants to describe how they believed drop-in centres worked or did not work to influence street children's physical and mental health and substance use status. We analyzed the interviews using constant comparative method. Participants believed that because street children regularly visited drop-in centres, their health outcomes improved. Street children participated in drop-in services rather than services provided by other facilities because at the centres, the staff members were nonjudgmental, they were free to be a child, their daily struggles were lessened and they received protection. Staff at drop-in centres also provided children with moral direction and an opportunity for a better life. However, children continued to live on the streets despite what centres offered because street life had become normal to them. According to street children and staff members, drop-in centres positively influence the physical health, mental health and substance use status of street children by providing services in an environment tailored for street children.

Keywords: Drop-in centres; Street child; New Delhi; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019074091630233X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:68:y:2016:i:c:p:202-208

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.07.017

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().