The impact of fatal child abuse cases on staff: lessons for trainers and managers

Abstract

Based on a series of interviews with staff, this paper examined responses to cases of fatal child abuse made by individual workers and organizations, and considers how these responses must be born in mind when planning and delivering training. A number of professionals in different settings describe feeling guilty, useless and worthless immediately after the death. Most workers drew parallels with responses to major disasters. The impact of fatal child abuse cases on learning may be long term. All the workers described an inability to forget their experiences. Flashbacks in similar situations were common. This should be considered by trainers before any child protection training course. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)