Multidisciplinary training and education to meet the psychological needs of children who experienced abuse

The nature of abuse is traumatic therefore quality and timely interventions and rehabilitative programmes are needed to help children cope with the trauma of abuse. This exploratory sought to describe the experience of health... [ view full abstract ]

The nature of abuse is traumatic therefore quality and timely interventions and rehabilitative programmes are needed to help children cope with the trauma of abuse. This exploratory sought to describe the experience of health care professionals working with children who experienced abuse. Since the population of professionals is very small, managers and caregivers of children’s homes and key stakeholders were included in the study. Purposive sampling was utilized to obtain 24 key respondents and face-to-face interviews were used to collect data.

The results show that the children’s officers from the Child Development Agency (CDA) have very high caseloads and therefore find it difficult to prepare the individualized care plans for these children who enter the system for care and protection. These care plans are important for operationalizing the therapeutic interventions these children need to support rehabilitation. The data also show a disconnection among the CDA, the therapeutic health care professionals and the children’s homes in providing care for these children when they enter the system. This has the potential for gaps in the provision of care and support for these children’s rehabilitation. Furthermore, at present, there is a significant number of children who experienced abuse and a small number of therapeutic health care professionals to meet their psychological needs. This disproportion leads to a number of children not able to receive the care they need and thus not being able to achieve optimal levels of social development.

Therefore, it is recommended that appropriate levels of training in psychotherapy be provided for teachers, guidance counsellors, caregivers of children’s homes and social workers. This will supplement the limited number of health care professionals working with children who experience abuse. Also, recommendations are made for improving multi-disciplinary/agency strategies for working with these children for developmental enhancement.