Public health policies for children and youth with special health care needs in OECD member countries and Brazil: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Health problems experienced by children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) impose an increasingly heavy cost burden on families and countries. The vulnerability of this population group should be recognized and addressed by governments in the form of public policies. OBJECTIVES: To map the evidence on public health policies for CYSHCN in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Brazil. METHOD: A scoping review drawing on the PCC mnemonic strategy (Population: CYSHCN; Concept: health policies; Context: global) in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and PRISMA-ScR checklist recommendations was performed. The search expression was applied to four databases and one bibliographic index, and supplemented by a manual search. Articles and other types of literature on health treatment and recovery addressing public health policies for CYSHCN aged ≤19 years were included, irrespective of time frame or language. RESULTS: Eleven records were included in this review. No records involving public policies were identified for most of the countries surveyed. The records selected differed in approaches and methods, irrespective of delivery level (primary, secondary, tertiary). CONCLUSION: Records involving national public health policies proved scarce in the countries surveyed, despite the possible existence of federal initiatives to address the health needs of CYSHCN, suggesting gaps in the provision of policies and a compounding of the vulnerability and lack of visibility of CYSHCN and their families.