Psychological Support for Children and Young People Victims of Domestic Violence

By Joel Balsinha,Lisbon

A contest, which, in view of the reinforcement of psychological and psychotherapeutic support for children and young victims of domestic violence treated and / or received in the National Support Network for Victims of Domestic Violence (RNAVVD), was launched this January by the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality in Portugal.The proposal, which comes under the Operational Social Inclusion and Employment Program, takes on an allocation of 2.78 million euros and aims, as stated in a statement by Rosa Monteiro’s secretary’s office, to “address the need for specialized support services , privileging psychotherapeutic approaches focused on trauma, and which assume the designation of RAP – Responses of Psychological Support for children and young people killed from domestic violence.

To guarantee the robustness and suspension of this intervention, the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality and the Portuguese Psychologists Order (OPP) signed a collaboration protocol. About this, we can add that Rosa Monteiro intends to “ensure the training and supervision of psychologists / as a recruiter for a national network, through the definition of specific recommendations and standards, promoting a paradigm shift in the intervention with children and young people victims of domestic violence and, especially, the creation of a critical mass of professionals in this area, namely through a scholarship of specialists”.

The recruitment of professionals for a scholarship of psychologists and supervision and training of these elements will be a responsibility of the Portuguese Psychologists Association.According to the Government note “the impact of domestic violence against children and young people takes on an expression that requires a more attentive intervention, namely in RNAVVD. Between 2015 and 2019, they were welcomed in shelters and in the emergency response of the RNAVVD, with their mothers, a total of 7414 children and young people”.At the beginning of this year, our interactive website learned that Casa Abrigo de Abraveses- Differential Reception for women caused domestic violence with mental illness, located in the parish of Abraveses, in the district of Viseu, was presented last December with a offer, by the Motard Nucleus of the Culture and Sport Center of Crédito Agrícola, of “eleven televisions and fourteen heaters”, according to a note issued because it is a theme that makes them very sensitive. The equipment raised allowed to equip the fourteen rooms of this IPSS founded in 1935.

This was one of the two solidarity deliveries made by the biker group, after which it donated about “two tons of food and basic necessities, which will be distributed to local families. needy “.The government data obtained from the shelters and in the emergency response responses from RNAVVD, here advanced, lead to this need to create “a new Psychological Support Response for children and young victims of domestic violence (RAP) and signature of protocol with the Order of Portuguese Psychologists.

It is therefore urgent to promote specialized support responses for these victims of domestic violence, taking into account their vulnerability and specific need. For this reason, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality decided to move forward with this answer.Until February 17th, they can apply as public or private entities that manage RNAVVD’s service structures, as they must guarantee the provision of support to children and young people who are cared for and received in the territory of the respective Intermunicipal Community”.

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