Child neglect: What does it have to do with general practice?
Date
2010
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Publisher
British journal of general practice
Abstract
Therefore, early child neglect has major public health implications. Only two professions in the UK have near-universal contact (albeit episodic) with young children: GPs and health visitors. These two professions have extensive but complementary knowledge of families and their problems, although the level of knowledge varies between families. A primary care team with GPs and health visitors working together is therefore ideally placed to identify children at risk of long-term harm and offer appropriate support. General practice can help to prevent the ‘intergenerational cycle of neglect’, in which parents may replicate their own adverse childhood experiences. Many GPs have an intuitive understanding of this familial pattern. GPs and health visitors provide a universal service to these vulnerable families in terms of identification, referral, and non-stigmatising supportive therapeutic relationships. This work receives scant official acknowledgement. For example, the most recent policy document dealing with child protection in Scotland does not mention general practice at all. GPs must become full partners in the planning and delivery of services to neglected children or we shall continue be part of the ‘neglect of the neglected’. (Author Text)
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Keywords
England, Scotland, United Kingdom, International Resources, child abuse, reporting, neglect
Citation
Wilson, P., & Mullin, A. (2010). Child neglect: what does it have to do with general practice?. British journal of general practice, 60(570), 5-7.