**Author details**

132 Child Abuse and Neglect – A Multidimensional Approach

Authors [22] indicate that one should work with the team as a whole in order to reduce the disparity of knowledge of health professionals from the same institution. We could see that

Another point observed was the influence of health professionals own personal history of abuse as in the example of one team staff who said that: "*the last meeting (*about different types of violence*) made me reflect on the way I was raised, always with slaps and screams and that this was not necessary*" (PA12). Another participant disclosed to the team that when she was young, the aunt who raised her used to bang her head against the wall, if the child did not do house chores properly, and in addition, her cousins had attempted to rape her. It was agreed that these disclosures reflected confidence in the group as a team, and should remain confidential. A third participant disclosed privately to the researcher that she had been sexually abused as a child by and uncle, and a fourth professional told the researcher privately about what it was like to grow in a home with domestic violence, and how much

Yoshihama and Mills [37] examined the personal history of professionals and their influence on the professional responses to allegations of family violence. They found that about half of professionals (n = 303) reported having suffered physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner; one-third of respondents reported physical abuse in their childhood, and 22% had suffered sexual abuse as a child. Professionals who had an abuse history identified more with abused cases encountered, and offered greater support to victims, making more protective decisions. This aspect was not explored in the present questionnaires, but participants' accounts in each group with a history of corporal punishment, sexual and psychological violence indicate that there were indeed previous abuse histories. In future research it would be interesting to investigate this variable and match them to their

The emphasis given to the need of a training program rather than a single lecture [22] seems to be valid. The training in the present study lasted five months, enabling reflection among participants and a change of verbalizations, beliefs and attitudes about child abuse, which would have been difficult to observe in a shorter period of time. In addition, the inclusion of the training course in the work routine encouraged discussion of several potential or real

Lane and Dubowitz [27] stated that clinical experience is essential for the development of skills and comfort level regarding assessments of child abuse Thus, a brief training may not be suitable to create the knowledge needed to assess and treat children suspected of abuse. Additionally, Lane and Dubowitz [27] verified the need for expert assistance, which is also relevant to this study, as after the training, the team pointed out that an interdisciplinary

Another possibility of course expansion would be to include in-depth encounters for each type of violence, as was proposal by the second author [25] after giving a specific training course on sexual sexual abuse, as each violence modality leads to specific demands. The

group would be ideal in terms of assessment of child sexual abuse and neglect cases.

this was indeed possible and that it strengthened the bonds amongst teams.

she strived to provide a different environment to her children.

respective opinions about the role of health professionals.

child abuse cases.

Thais H. Bannwar *Federal University of São Carlos, Department of Psychology, LAPREV (The Laboratory of Violence Analysis and Prevention), São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil* 

Lúcia C.A. Williams *Federal University of São Carlos, Department of Psychology, LAPREV (The Laboratory of Violence Analysis and Prevention).São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil* 
