Protection Against Violence and Abuse in Medical Institutions - Reasons, Prevalence and Implications for Practice

Abstract

Protection Against Violence and Abuse in Medical Institutions - Reasons, Prevalence and Implications for Practice Reported cases of (sexual) abuse in institutions as well as the results of surveys show that violence against children and adolescents, but also against adults, occurs also in medical institutions. There are still few studies on the frequency of these cases. However, the cases that have come to public attention show that medical institutions bear systemic risk factors for such assaults. On the other hand, medical institutions also play an important role in child protection, since many children and adolescents affected by maltreatment including sexual abuse come into contact with the medical system. It is necessary that medical institutions deal with this problem and develop respective institutional protection concepts. A protection concept is a system of measures that ensure better protection against assaults within an organisation. Important steps are analysis of risk factors, structural changes, the creation of plan of procedures and the development of an institutional attitude that assaults are not tolerated. Although the development of protection concepts takes time and resources, it has many advantages for institutions, such as an increased sense of security for professionals, because they know how to proceed in such situation. Now that the obligation to draw up protection concepts is anchored in the quality management guideline of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), all hospitals and practices must set out to develop appropriate concepts.