The relationship between child abuse and neglect awareness and childhood trauma in health care professionals

Introduction and Aim: Child abuse and neglect (CAN); It is a serious public health problem with its legal, human rights and social aspects. Children who are abused or neglected are adversely affected mentally and physically; they would also have long-term developmental, cognitive and sociological problems. In our study, it was aimed to investigate whether the level of knowledge and awareness of health professionals, who play an important role in the prevention, detection and treatment of child abuse and neglect, is related to mental traumas experienced in childhood or not. Material and Metod: This study wasc onducted with 297 health care professionals, including 216 assistant doctors and 81 nurses, working in Dicle University Hospitals for a period of approximately 1 year, after the approval of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Dicle University Faculty of Medicine and the necessary permissions. They were asked to fill in the data form consisting of three parts. In the first part, a sociodemographic data form, in the second part "The Scale for the Identification of Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect (SISRCAN), and finally the "childhood mental trauma scale" wer eapplied. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 24.0 program was used to perform th estatistical analysis of the data. Results: A total of 297 health professionals participated in our study and 72.7% of them were doctors. The rate of those who stated that they would notify the event when they encountered the phenomenon of CAN were 95.3%. The rate of those who received training on child abuse and neglect before graduation was 42.1%, and the rate of those who received training after graduation was 21.1%. While the rate of those who stated that there was no procedure in their institution were 71%, 90.6% of the participants stated that they needed to be informed. There was no significant relationship between the childhood mental trauma scale and the SISRCAN general scores. Physicians' knowledge and awareness levels about CAN were found to be significantly higher than nurses. While receiving post-graduate education did not make a significant difference in SISRCAN scores, the knowledge and awareness of those who received pre-graduate education on CAN was higher. It has been determined that the participants who had children recognize the physicalsigns of abuse better, and those who stated that they would report when they encountered the phenomenon of CAN beter know the behavioral signs of abuse. It was observed that those who previously suspected a case of CAN were beter acquainted with the characteristics of parents prone to abuse and neglect, and those who stated that they needed to be informed about CAN had higher SIRSCAN general scores. It was observed that those who were exposed to sexual abuse in childhood got higher scores on SIRSCAN. It is also among the results that female participants were more exposed to sexual abuse in childhood. Conclusion: It has been determined that the health professionals participating in our study have a certain level of knowledge about CAN, but this is not enough, and it has also been seen that the participants need information.The presence of a procedure to be followed in case of CAN in the institutions studied is an other factor that can facilitate reporting. It was observed that traumatic events in childhood did not make a significant difference in awareness of CAN, but people who were exposed to sexual abuse scored higher on the SIRSCAN form. Keywords: Childhood traumas, child abuse and neglect, health care professionals, awareness.