Project description
Effective support for maltreated children
Child maltreatment remains a widespread and underreported issue across Europe with devastating impacts on victims and society. Despite existing health and social care services, many children continue to face barriers to accessing timely and effective support. The long-term effects of maltreatment, including physical and mental health issues, often worsen due to poor detection and inadequate care pathways. Furthermore, the societal and financial burden of child maltreatment remains high. The EU-funded SERENA project aims to improve access to services across Europe. Through assessments of current barriers to access, SERENA will identify key actions to improve maltreatment detection and management, and reduce long-term consequences. The project will generate recommendations to influence policy and practice.
Objective
SERENA will accelerate efforts to improve access to health and social care (HSC) for child victims of maltreatment (physical, sexual, psychological abuse and neglect) throughout Europe. The major ambition of SERENA is to identify and promote the means of improving the detection of child maltreatment (CM), of limiting its consequences (recurrence, severe conditions), and reducing the induced burden for victims, families, and society.
This ambition will be supported by assessments of current care pathways (HSC services), the barriers and inequalities when accessing these services (before and after the recognition of CM, including children's physical and mental health conditions), as well as the financial burden on a societal level. Our assessments will rely on a mixed-method approach combining qualitative analyses in 3 EU countries (interviews with adult survivors of CM (ASCM) and HSC professionals) and quantitative analyses (longitudinal cohort study based on HSC administrative data in 7 countries, but also aggregated CPS data in 26 countries). An interdisciplinary participatory synthesis of the findings (with stakeholders and ASCM) will deliver a co-constructed assessment of the situation and the definition of priority actions. Finally, we will design and promote, through the consortium's extensive network, operationally and economically viable recommendations with potential for transposability across the EU for policy makers and HSC services.
The SERENA recommendations will encourage changes in policies in all EU member states so that HSC daily practice can i) be assessed in terms of validity and availability of the services in all areas, ii) identify necessary evolutions to be encouraged through legislative measures (data collection and exchange between HSC services), and iii) provide an awaited shift in CM management. The resulting effects of these changes will include improved detection of CM cases and HSC access, improved management and reduced overall costs.
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
75654 Paris
France
See on map
Participants (20)
89081 Ulm
See on map
3400 Hillerod
See on map
1472 COPENHAGEN
See on map
8000 Aarhus C
See on map
21000 Dijon
See on map
21078 Dijon Cedex
See on map
21000 DIJON
See on map
75015 PARIS
See on map
115 27 ATHINA
See on map
Dublin
See on map
D07 EWV4 Dublin
See on map
1749-024 LISBOA
See on map
WC1E 6BT London
See on map
SA2 8PP Swansea
See on map
CF24 0DE Cardiff
See on map
1090 Wien
See on map
10691 Stockholm
See on map
3062 PA Rotterdam
See on map
400084 Cluj Napoca
See on map
78670 MEDAN
See on map
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partners (1)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
8401 Winterthur
See on map