Teeuw Arianne H, Sieswerda-Hoogendoorn Tessa, Aaftink Daniel, Burgers Ilsa A V, Vrolijk-Bosschaart Thekla F, Brilleslijper-Kater Sonja N, Heymans Hugo S A, van Rijn Rick R
Department of Social Paediatrics, Emma Children's Hospital - Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Faculty of Medicine, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Acta Paediatr. 2017 Jul;106(7):1118-1127. doi: 10.1111/apa.13735. Epub 2017 Jan 30.
This study described cases of child abuse and neglect (CAN) that were reported to the multiagency CAN team at the Emma Children's Hospital in Amsterdam and the resulting interventions.
We carried out a retrospective review of all cases that were reported to the CAN team from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012.
There were 27 prenatal cases, 92 referrals based on parental characteristics and 523 children. Overall, 1.2% of the children visiting the emergency department of our hospital, attending the outpatients department or being admitted were reported to the team. More than half of the referrals (55.1%) were confirmed as CAN. The most common diagnoses were as follows: witnessing intimate partner violence, physical neglect and emotional abuse. If CAN was confirmed an intervention was offered in 98.3% of cases. If a CAN diagnosis was undetermined or rejected, the figures were still 83.5% and 64.2%, respectively.
Our results showed that CAN affected more than one in every 100 children visiting our hospital, and the expertise of our hospital-based CAN Team led to an intervention in the majority of the reported cases. The broad scope of problems that were encountered underlined the importance of a multidisciplinary CAN team.
