The Community of Madrid is going to announce this Tuesday a new protocol that will be activated from health centers, especially in outpatient clinics, to detect cases of suspected abuse of minors in their family environment.
Either the pediatrician, the nurse, the dentists, the physiotherapists, the psychology specialists or the social workers may activate protocols to reinforce the protection of minors.
These professionals may “officially notify the suspicion of whether there are indications that a pediatric patient suffers physical, emotional, sexual violence on or through social networks, negligence in care, abuse of new technologies, chemical submission, mutilation of female genitalia, trafficking, sexual exploitation or membership in criminal gangs”.
The objective is “early detection in alleged cases of child abuse” to prevent these actions from leaving traces that are difficult to erase in adulthood.
The Community of Madrid is clear that these types of actions can affect children’s school performance and even generate behavioral disorders, addictions or mental health problems in the future. They can even condition their adulthood, both personally and professionally.
The report may detail both mild and more serious cases and will be passed on to the center’s social workers for follow-up. If the situation is very serious, the cases may be taken to the juvenile prosecutor’s office to initiate legal proceedings.
Eva Toledano, head of the primary care social work service, highlights that this new measure will focus on “social workers in the centers” and pursues teamwork in outpatient clinics, as well as “raising awareness among families.”
During the past year there were cases that made the media, such as that of the doctor from Colmenar Viejo, who mistreated and kept his eight children locked up; or some parents who supplied cocaine to their 19-month-old daughter, also in the Community of Madrid. In the face of such flagrant cases, the Ministry of Health aims to detect them in the health environment in order to put a stop to them as soon as possible.
