Safeguarding Flashcards
What are the main types of child maltreatment?
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse (inc. sexual exploitation)
- Neglect
- Fabricated/induced illness
- Witnessing domestic violence
- Female genital mutilation
What is physical abuse?
Causing physical harm to a child
(e.g. hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, drowning, suffocating)
What is emotional abuse?
Persistent emotional maltreatment of a child resulting in severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. Includes:
- Conveying to child they are unloved/worthless/inadequate/conditionally-valued
- Developmentally inappropriate expectations & interactions
- Overprotection
- Abnormal social interaction
- Witness the ill treatment of others
- Serious bullying
- Corruption/exploitation of children
What is sexual abuse?
Forcing/enticing a young person to take part in sexual activities (inc. prostitution), whether or not the child is aware of what is happening.
Includes:
- Physical contact
- Non-physical contact (e.g. encouraging sexually inappropriate behaviour)
What is neglect?
Persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical/psychological needs, likely resulting in serious impairment of the child’s health/development.
Includes parent/carer failing to provide:
- Adequate food & clothing
- Shelter
- Protection from physical and emotional harm/danger
- Adequate supervision
- Access to appropriate medical care / treatment
- Emotional support/responsiveness
What is fabricated/induced illness?
A group of harmful behaviours by parent/carer.
May consist of:
- Verbal fabrication (telling false story of child illness to get healthcare)
- Induction of illness (via suffocation, poisoning, overdosing on meds, etc.)
When do you suspect fabricated/induced illness?
When a child has frequent unexplained illness & multiple hospital admissions with symptoms that only occur in caregiver’s presence and are not substantiated by clinical findings.
What is female genital mutilation?
All procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons
What are the different types of FGM?
What are the risk factors for child maltreatment?
- Inability to meet parent’s expectations
- Child born as a result of forced, coercive, or commercial sex
- Parental mental health problems
- Parental indifference/intolerance/anxiousness
- Parental alcohol/drug abuse
- Step-parents
- Domestic violence
- Multiple/closely spaced births
- Social isolation/lack of social support
- Young parental age
- Poverty & poor housing
How may child abuse present?
- Physical symptoms/signs
- Psychological symptoms/signs
- Concerning interaction observed between child & parent/carer
- Child may tell someone about the abuse
- Abuse may be observed
What do you need to consider in the presentation of a physical injury?
- Child’s age and developmental stage
- History given by the child
- Plausibility of the explanation of the injury
- Any background of previous injury/concerns
- Delay in reporting the injury
- Inconsistent histories from caregivers
- Innapropriate reaction from caregivers (e.g. vague, evasive, unconcerned, excessively distressed/aggressive)
When is a fracture more likely to be inflicted?
- When seen in a non-mobile child (without fragile bones)
- Rib fracture
- Multiple fractures (Increased likelihood if # are different ages)
When is bruising most likely to be inflicted?
- Shape of a hand
- On the neck (strangulation)
- On the wrists/ankles (ligature marks)
- On the buttocks (esp if < 2 yo or no reasonable explanation)
When are burns most likely inflicted?
- Immobile child
- In the shape of an implement (e.g. cigarette, iron)
- ‘Glove or stocking’ burn consistent with forced immersion
