Child check

• Healthcare professionals in hospitals: Child Check

  Healthcare professionals in hospitals: Child Check

  As a medical professional, you have a duty of care for children who may have been affected by child abuse. What may be less obvious, but very much the case, is that your contact with adult patients provides you with a unique opportunity to identify child abuse, and is part of your duty of care.

  Research has shown that there is an increased risk of abuse or neglect of children whose parents have serious psychiatric or addiction problems, or who have been affected by domestic violence. To address this, the so called ‘Child Check’ was developed in The Netherlands. The Child Check involves you always checking with certain groups of patients about whether they are responsible for minors.

  In this course, Marjon Donkers, child rights and youth policy consultant, discusses the child check. An example interview shows how the child check is conducted. The questions teach you what the child check involves, why it is important that you carry it out, and how you go about it.

  The course includes a library with additional information.

  duration: 1 hour

  Learning objectives

  This course focuses on:

  1. Knowledge: What the child check involves, what parental signals are, when and how to carry out a child check, and what steps should be taken if concerns arise.
  2. Approach: Awareness that certain parental situations can harm the development of children, and recognition of roles and responsibilities for identifying these problems.
  3. Skills: Recognise parental signs, ask about the presence of minor children, record findings in a file, take appropriate action, and discuss these aspects with the patient / client.
     
     

Signalling child abuse and domestic violence

Please click on the course title for a course description

• Residency training in child abuse and neglect

  Residency training in child abuse and neglect

  As a doctor, you may come into contact with cases of child abuse and you have the task of detecting this abuse. This course offers you guidelines for doing so.
  
  The course begins with an explanation about the various forms of child abuse, the origin and the consequences of it. Next, you will learn how you can substantiate a possible suspicion of child abuse by means of screening questions. You will see how an expert carries out an examination from top to toe and you will learn what you should look out for during such an examination, how you note down details and how you photograph injuries.
  
  As a result of the interactive work forms, you yourself will set to work actively with the information. You will apply the information offered and exchange experiences with the other course participants. The work forms are alternated with animations and case study fragments.
  
  The course is rounded off with a test, for which you must obtain a score of 55 for a sufficient assessment.

  duration: 2 hr

• Nurses: Signalling domestic violence

  Nurses: Signalling domestic violence

  As a nurse, your task is to supervise patients and coordinate their care. During your work, you may well see or hear things which make you feel that something is not right. In this course, you will learn which signals to recognise, and what you can do.

  duration: 1,5 hours

• Doctors and nurses: Identifying and acting on domestic violence against adults

  Doctors and nurses: Identifying and acting on domestic violence against adults

  Adults can also be victims of domestic violence, and they are often unable to stop the violence alone. In this course, you will learn what signals you can recognise, and what you can do to get people to talk about the violence.

  duration: 1,5 hours

• The importance of medicine in evaluating child sexual abuse (de-DE)

  The importance of medicine in evaluating child sexual abuse

  This is one out of three e-lectures on Child Sexual Abuse. Leading experts from the ranks of ISPCAN share their views and specialism on the subject of sexual abuse in interviews recorded during the European ISPCAN conference in Dublin in September 2013.
  
  This course is presented by Dr Martin Finkel, Professor of Paediatrics and an international authority in the area of the treatment of sexually abused children. You will learn how you as a doctor can deal professionally with children who have possibly been sexually abused. You will learn what you should watch out for in the anamnesis (preliminary case history) that you take during the medical examination. Martin Finkel explains how you can take this anamnesis in such a way that this results in a great deal of information and is also supportive and therapeutic for children. The course includes an extensive catalogue with additional information about sexual abuse of children and about taking the anamnesis of children who have possibly been sexually abused. This course lasts approximately 20 minutes. 

  
  

  duration: 20 minutes

Communicating

• Communicating about violence

  Communicating about violence

  Talking about violence evokes emotions in yourself and in the other person. During a webinar, Professor Adriaenssens, child and youth psychiatrist, tells about the functioning of the brain during discussions about domestic violence. He illustrates this using various animations and video case studies. You will learn what a good basic attitude is, what interview techniques you can use and how you can utilize the expertise of parents. Questions included in the webinar are, among others: how do you recognize escalating emotions? Which areas of the brain are active during a conversation? Which communication techniques help if emotions obstruct a conversation? What are important aspects of a basic attitude? This e-lecture lasts approximately 30 minutes.

  duration: 30 min

Consequences of child abuse

• Longterm consequences of adverse childhood experiences (English)

  Longterm consequences of adverse childhood experiences

  The main theme in the e-lecture Long-term consequences of child abuse is the ground-breaking research by Dr Vincent Felitti into the connection between child abuse and health complaints in adulthood, the ACE Study.

  duration: 20 min

Injury indication

• Doctor: Burn injuries (English)

  Doctor: Burn injuries

  As a medical specialist, you may come into contact with a child who has a burn injury as a result of child abuse. Determining whether a burn injury is actually the result of a consciously inflicted injury or neglect by the parents is a complicated task.
  
  This course given in the English language can help you to recognize patterns and characteristics of consciously inflicted burn injuries and suspicious circumstances. In addition, during the course you can practise the screening questions once more, this time specifically aimed at burn injuries.
  
  The course begins with a brief summary of the general course on child abuse and the tools which you can use to detect abuse. Then you will learn about burn injuries related to child abuse.
  
  Next, you will learn about the specific patterns which you can recognize regarding burn injuries as a result of child abuse.
  
  In addition, information is given about burn injuries as a result of continual neglect. The fourth chapter is about the differential diagnosis of burn injuries. The course is rounded off with a test.
  

  duration: 1 hr

• Doctor: Skin lesions (English)

  Doctor: Skin lesions

  As a medical specialist, you may come into contact with a child who has skin lesions as a result of child abuse. Determining whether a skin lesion is actually the result of a consciously inflicted injury is a complicated task.
  
  This course given in the English language can help you to recognize patterns and characteristics of consciously inflicted skin lesions and suspicious circumstances. In addition, during the course you can practise the screening questions once more, this time specifically aimed at skin lesions.
  
  The course begins with a brief summary of the general course on child abuse and the tools which you can use for detecting abuse. Then you will learn about skin lesions which are related to child abuse. Next, you will learn about the differential diagnosis which is used for skin lesions.
  
  The fourth chapter is about the specific patterns which you can recognize in the case of skin lesions resulting from child abuse. The course is rounded off with a test.

  duration: 1 hr

Neglect

• Howard Dubowitz, the importance of medicine in tackling neglect (English)

  Howard Dubowitz, the importance of medicine in tackling neglect

  In this e-lecture you will listen to Professor Howard Dubowitz. Dubowitz, MD, MS is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Families at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. He is also on the Executive Council of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN, 2nd term),  President of the Helfer Society and a board member of Prevent Child Abuse America.

  Dr. Dubowitz is a clinician, researcher, and educator and he is active in the policy arena. He edited Neglected Children: Research, Practice and Policy and co-edited the Handbook for Child Protection Practice, as well as International Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect and ISPCAN’s World Perspectives 2012. Dr. Dubowitz has over 150 publications and has presented at many regional, national and international conferences.

  In this e-lecture you will learn what doctors and nurses can do for families where children are alleged to be neglected. Howard Dubowitz talks about what he believes is neglect, how you can recognize it, how you respectfully talk with parents about neglect and especially can work together with parents in finding solutions.

  This course is a co-production between International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) and Augeo Educates.

  duration: 45 minutes