Vall d’Hebron trains family doctors to further refine the detection of violence in childhood

He Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, led by the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), will carry out throughout the morning of this Tuesday the first course on violence against children and adolescents. The objective is train professionals of primary care and mental and youth health to detect possible cases.

Vall d’Hebron, the largest hospital in Catalonia, has the Unit for Attention to Violence against Children and Adolescents (the Emma Team), pioneer in public health and at the forefront of which is the pediatrician Anna Fàbregas. This event, which is held at the Espai Francesca Bonnemaison in Barcelona, ​​will be attended by more than a hundred toilets, according to the ICS. It is closed to journalists and other professional groups.

He 58% of cases those who join Team Emma from Vall d’Hebron do so derived from health professionals. Of this 58%, the vast majority (a 40%) have been detected in the primary care. The objective of this course is to identify Even better cases of physical and sexual violence against children and adolescents, so Emma’s professionals will be the ones to will provide this training, in which the Secretary of Public Health will also participate, Carmen Cabezas, and the general director of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA), Ester Cabanes.

Undetected cases

“Detection is fundamental. The specialized teams see the tip of the iceberg, but there are many more cases that have not been detected,” says Anna Fàbregas, who is also the coordinator of the Emma team. “For this reason, it is important to training and sensitization of all professionals who work with children and adolescents. Primary care plays a key role in this detection capability,” Add.

This training will address key themes, like the consequences in child and youth health from suffering some type of violence, aftermath in mental health, risk and protective factors and the Protocol of action in cases of violence surrounding childhood and adolescence. Additionally, they will be given tools for professionals, based on clinical cases, so that they are clear about how to act.

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“In primary care we have a very direct relationship with patients and their families, and that is an opportunity to get to know your environment and establish a relationship that allows both the patient and the families trust us”, he says for his part Anna Castello, pediatrician at the CAP Pare Claret in Barcelona and training assistant. The warning signs to identify possible children who are victims of sexual violence, continues, they vary depending on age. In the smallest ones, some alerts would be behavior changes (nightmares, fears, rejection of foods that did not exist before) or evolutionary delay. In the elderly or already adolescents, the sudden changes in behavior he poor academic performance, he isolation, Aggression or substance abuse could be other signs.

The patient profile

He 87% of the victims that the EMMA Team treated during 2022 were girls or adolescents and the most common patient profile is that of a 13 year old girl. Between November 2021 and November 2022, the Team attended to 341 patients (307 in the same period of the previous year). The majority (79%) were victims of sexual violence. In about half of the cases, this violence occurs within the family and in up to 83% of cases the aggressor is a acquaintance of the boy, girl or adolescent. 96% of aggressors are men and a increase in violence between equals, especially through technologies.