seksuelle overgreb mod børn og unge - Statens Institut for ...

In relation to preschool-aged children, the University Clinic at the
University of Copenhagen has for many years offered therapy to families
with young children who have been sexually abused. In her article, Ingrid
Leth from the University Clinic describes experiences and findings from
these therapy sessions, which are developed to provide support to the entire
family. The combination of studying and treating the children, providing
guidance and counselling (in the form of psycho-education) to the parents
about their own and the children’s situations and utilising an interdisciplinary
approach in relation to the children, for instance in day-care and at
school, appear to be crucial elements in terms of helping the children.
For several of the initiatives represented in this anthology, there is a
common thread in the form of a focus on including the entire family in the
support and treatment of the child who has been sexually abused. Anette
Baadsgaard and Pia Rathje, both from the Team for Sexually Abused
Children at CUH, describe in their article how the entire family is shocked
and affected when they find out that their child has been sexually abused.
A targeted effort geared towards the parents is therefore often considered a
key requirement for the parents to be able to support their child in the best
possible way during this difficult situation.
Perspectives
The overall conclusion of many of these articles is that we do not know
enough about the phenomenon of sexual abuse, such as which signals to
be aware of, the effect it has on the child’s development and how we
should react when we discover that a child has been sexually abused.
There is also a lack of action plans for what to do if a child or young
person is sexually abused. These are sorely needed because the professionals
are often uncertain about what to do when they discover that a
child has been sexually abused.
Several articles emphasise that it is very important, both for discovering
the sexual abuse and for the subsequent response, that the response
takes place in close collaboration with the local social authorities and that
the professionals who work with children and young people are educated
properly about sexual abuse.
There are several studies indicating that the staff at children’s institutions
and schools is not sufficiently prepared to uncover and deal with
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