Detection and Intervention in Child Social Vulnerability Situations
Detection of Situations of Social Vulnerability of Children
Collection of Information, Assessment and Diagnosis, Decision Making, Design Intervention Plan
We can define a situation of social vulnerability as a situation in which the child is injured, suffers direct or indirect consequences, or experiences a lack of attention to basic needs, and therefore is a victim of maltreatment. It’s important to bear in mind that this is not accidental, but intentional, with both physical and emotional impact.
Abuse may be active: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse; or passive: physical neglect and emotional neglect. There are also other forms of abuse such as labor exploitation, prenatal abuse, institutional abuse, and Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
The family is the ideal environment for the comprehensive training and development of children, but there are factors that can lead to this protective environment becoming a hostile one, resulting in a lack of protection. For a child in this situation to be protected and for their family to receive the help they need, the first condition is that someone is aware of the situation. This awareness can come from the general public or from professionals in contact with the child or the family.
To identify potential cases of abuse, we must be aware of certain indicators. These indicators include:
- Physical indicators (signs, injuries, etc.)
- Bizarre behavior in the child (anxiety, low self-esteem)
- Parental behaviors (erratic attitudes, repressive attitudes, etc.)
The professional sectors most likely to detect these situations are educational, health, and police services, as well as social services. Once abuse is detected, the process of collecting information will vary depending on the professional sector.
For example, in the education sector, there is a discovery protocol based on four groups of indicators (physical appearance, social aspects of behavior, academics, family issues), with three degrees of frequency (never, sometimes, or always), and it has 68 items.
In the health sector, mandatory medical reports are made, and together with the social worker, the prosecutor and social services are informed.
In the police sector, there are two types of reports: those submitted to the Department of Social Welfare and those referred to the judge, prosecutor, and under-territorial addresses. Social services receive information about the child, the possible perpetrator, the situation or event, and information about the person who reported the case.
Once this information is gathered, child protection services must make an initial assessment of the severity of the reported situation. They need to determine the appropriate procedures and reporting channels, considering whether the child is in imminent danger based on factors such as the type of damage, location of injury, level of vulnerability of the child, frequency of abuse, parental behavior, child behavior, cohabitation of the aggressor with the child, and the family’s attitude.
Once the information is evaluated, action is taken in accordance with the professional sector where the abuse was detected. In education, we must distinguish between non-urgent cases, where any teacher will inform the guardian if they have detected an indicator of risk, and emergency cases, where any faculty member may report the case to the director and the team could notify social services or the police station.
In the health sector, the objective of the initial assessment of alleged abuse is to classify the situation to act appropriately.
Intervention and Prevention
In the design of the intervention plan, preventive intervention within the family aims to reduce or eliminate hazardous situations. Objectives include eliminating or reducing situations that may lead to personal or relationship instability, enhancing defense mechanisms of the individual through training, raising public awareness of child abuse, and ensuring professionals have the skills to tackle this problem.
Measures aimed at society include limiting violence at all levels, recognizing the rights of the child, and modifying the acceptance of “educational cheek”.
Secondary prevention involves early detection of families and children at risk, which can be done from any service that has professionals who care for children, such as schools and health centers.
Prevention, protection, and promotion of children is everyone’s job, so it is important to take action.
“The least we can do in service of something, is to understand.” – José Ortega y Gasset
“A house is strong and indestructible when it is held by these four columns: father brave, wise mother, dutiful son, brother complacent.” – Confucius
“A home is where one is expected.” – Antonio Gala