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Emotional abuse and neglect: a time for reappraisal
Author(s) -
Stevenson Olive
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2206.1996.tb00003.x
Subject(s) - neglect , psychological abuse , context (archaeology) , intervention (counseling) , perspective (graphical) , sexual abuse , psychology , child neglect , social work , child abuse , developmental psychology , social psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , psychiatry , medicine , political science , medical emergency , paleontology , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , biology
This paper explores, from a UK perspective, issues surrounding policy and practice in cases of neglect, which inevitably involves emotional abuse. It does not address cases of emotional abuse in which neglect does not occur. The paper argues that there is a sufficient body of knowledge on the necessary conditions for healthy child development and factors associated with psychological/ emotional disorders in childhood for social workers to be more proactive in work with such cases. There is, however, a need for this evidence to be assembled and organized in ways which will be useful to social workers. Nonetheless, intervention in such cases is unlikely to become more effective unless some of the reasons for the‘neglect of neglecf are better understood and addressed. In the second part of the paper, a range of factors influencing such work is considered, related to the professional, organizational and legal context within which social workers in the UK operate. The paper draws on an ESRC funded project, which ended in 1995, of social workers’ judgements in cases of child sexual abuse and neglect