Training and education in the Barnahus model: State of the art
Date
2021
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Publisher
European Commission
Abstract
In the mid-1980s, a group of services called Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC) were
created in the United States with the aim of reducing what was termed revictimization
– that is, victimization arising from the person's contact with the system of assessment
and notification, which is not always well adapted to the needs of children and
adolescents. The CACs proposed an alternative model designed to provide an adequate
response to the needs of child victims of violence. The US model was soon adopted in
Europe, with the creation of the first Barnahus (Icelandic for “children's home”) in
Reykjavik in 1998. In the following years, other Nordic countries implemented their own
Barnahus systems, creating a network of centres which shared a series of common
characteristics and objectives but always respected the legal, social and cultural reality
of each particular context. This is how the Barnahus model came into being. The
inspiration of this model is the desire to act at all times in the best interests of the minor,
to reduce revictimization, and to create an environment in which the child receives
comprehensive care from a multidisciplinary team of coordinated expert professionals
(Johansson et al., 2017). Currently, there are more than 50 Barnahus throughout
Europe; as of December 2020 (see Promise webiste), the Barnahus Network has 22
member countries and is active in 39 different national contexts.
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Keywords
Barnahus, multidisciplinary response, Europe, overview, International Resources, child abuse
Citation
Pereda, N. (Coord.). (2021). Training and education in the Barnahus model: State of the art. STEPS Project, European Commission.