Child abuse and mistreatment, alarm from the Bambino Gesù Hospital: “Over 100 cases every year”

Neglect or excessive care, the most frequent forms of abuse. More than 80% of abuse, in all forms, was committed within the family

ROME – There are over 100 new cases of child abuse and mistreatment every yearmanaged by the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital (Opbg). On the occasion of the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Attack on 4 June, the Hospital highlights the experience gained in over 40 years of working with abused children and young people. More than 3,000 cases have been recorded in the last fifteen years, starting from which risk situations among minors who access the Bambino Gesù are intercepted with a specific screening procedure. Neglect or excessive care are the most frequent forms of abuse. The average age is 12 years. The case series also includes children with war trauma.

FORMS OF ABUSE

Violence against minors takes the form of some specific forms ranging from physical and psychological mistreatment to ‘pathology of care’, i.e. the type of violence that goes from neglect to excessive care ( e.g. the administration of unnecessary drugs); from witnessed violence (the minor witnesses the violence exercised on reference figures such as a parent or brother/sister) to sexual abuse. The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Violence established in 1982 by the United Nations General Assembly has the objective of “raising awareness and acknowledging the pain that afflicts children around the world who are victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse” .

THE PATHWAYS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN

Since 2009, the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital has been using a procedure for detecting child abuse based on the analysis of a series of indicators. This screening tool is applied to patients who enter hospital in any care regime (emergency room, ordinary or day hospitalization, outpatient clinics). In the presence of suspicious signs, an ad hoc clinical process is activated: the case is evaluated by a team of specialists (in particular emergency room doctors, traumatologists, psychologists and neuropsychiatrists, forensic doctors) who issues the diagnosis and defines the most appropriate treatment procedure. The cases of suspected abuse intercepted every year in the emergency room are on average 80. Added to these are the cases detected during outpatient or inpatient treatment. The majority of patients for whom a report is made for suspected or confirmed abuse are taken care of by the Bambino Gesù Neuropsychiatry in a day hospital expressly dedicated to victims of violence (‘Child Care’ path) . Minor victims of abuse reported by external structures (other hospitals, local structures, judicial authorities) can also be included in the same process. Over 50% of patients followed in the neuropsychiatric day hospital are “intercepted” in the emergency room.

THE DATA OF THE CHILD JESUS

In over 40 years of experience in the care of children victims of violence, the Bambino Gesù Hospital has registered more than 5,000 cases through the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Operational Unit, 60% of which in the last 15 years. Among these, also some children and young people fleeing from war zones: Ukraine, Syria, Africa. In detail, between 2008 and 2022, 3,200 abused or mistreated children and young people were followed in neuropsychiatric day hospital: over 200 per year (of which approximately 130 new cases and 70 in follow up), according to a substantially constant trend.< strong> The average age is 12 years. Regarding the type of abuse suffered, the most frequent is the ‘pathology of care’, followed by witnessed violence, sexual abuse and physical and psychological mistreatment. In the case study of the Child Jesus, more than 80% of the abuse, in all forms, was committed within the family. With regards to gender, the various forms of violence are exercised in substantially equal amounts on males and females, except sexual abuse which, in the 7-18 age group, has an incidence 3 times higher among females than males.

THE TOOLS OF PREVENTION AND SUPPORT

The clinical activity with children and young people who are victims of violence is accompanied by the development of tools to support patients and families with a prevention perspective. On the hospital portal there are some contents created by the Bambino Gesù neuropsychiatrists with information, dedicated to children, to recognize potentially risky situations and the indication of the signs that parents must pay attention to in order to intercept the problem. The Lucy Helpline 06 6859 2265 is the free telephone assistance and consultancy service for families and minors in difficulty, active every day, 24 hours a day. A team of psychologists from the Bambino Gesù Neuropsychiatry Operational Unit responds to requests of help which concern, in emergency situations, the mental suffering of children and adolescents.
Finally, on the research front, the Hospital promotes projects to study the impact of abuse and maltreatment on mental health in developmental age and for the definition of adequate therapeutic programs. A support protocol for children and adolescents exposed to domestic violence during the Covid 19 pandemic and a series of psychoeducational interventions in schools on the topics of violence, bullying and cyber-bullying are being developed.

‘SMILE IN THE DARK’: THE DRAWINGS THAT THEY TELL THE VIOLENCE

A group of children aged between 8 and 12 followed by the Neuropsychiatry of Bambino Gesù, with a difficult path behind them despite their very young age, were involved in a creative project to talk about violence through drawings. In the sheets colored by these children, all welcomed into the family home “Il Tetto Casal Fattoria”, you can see a smiling face surrounded by the color black (Smile in the dark), a crocodile eating a heart, a blood red tree, ‘scary’ figures and people screaming.
Dr. Paola De Rose, neuropsychiatrist of Bambino Gesù, coordinator of the “Child Care” programme, explains: “The children who come to our Service carry the signs of violence in their minds and hearts; some they express by closing themselves off and throwing themselves down, others by implementing disruptive behaviors, some freeze their emotions, others make them explode. Everyone, however, has the possibility and the right to change the trajectory to which life has exposed them up to this point it is precisely the task of us adults to contribute to the healing of these wounds”.