In 1959, the
United Kingdom's Ministry of Health published the
Platt Report 1959, a three-year investigative account of the welfare of children in United Kingdom hospital that required hospitals to implement major changes in the non-medical care of children in hospital. That led to the 1961 formation of
Mother Care for Children in Hospital (MCCH), a group formed to increase the roles mothers had over the care of their child in hospital. The Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare (AWCH) was founded as Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital (AWCH) on 15 February 1973 in
Australia as a voluntary organisation that gives non-medical attention and support to hospitalised children and their parents. The newly formed organisation wanted to make the public aware of conditions for children in NSW's hospitals, including deficiencies in standards of care. The Association was particularly concerned whether parents were allowed to visit freely in hospitals. Years of debate over the need to consider the emotional as well as physical needs of children in hospital lay behind the formation of the new body. The group changed its 1973 name from Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital to Association for the Welfare of Child Health in 1993, and then to Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare in 2007. In 2008, the Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare and the
Royal Australian College of Physicians co-wrote "Standards for the Care of Children and Adolescents in Health Services," a set of guidelines for treating children and teenagers in wards that are separate from adults. The standard concluded that treating children and teenagers on mixed wards alongside adults exposed the minors to poor care and mental trauma. To address this, the Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare proposed in the standard to treat children in separate areas of adult wards where staff are trained in children's needs or in wards that are completely separate from adults. ==Publications==