Your rights are what you may do and what those who are responsible for you must do so that you can be happy, healthy and safe. You also have responsibilities towards other children and adults so that they have their rights granted..
The aim of the Child protection center of Zagreb is to
provide effective and systematic help to traumatized children and families
(abused and neglected children, families affected by war etc.).
Child abuse and neglect is now marked as a growing problem
in Croatia and the need for the education of professionals dealing with the
problem is highlighted. Several research studies showed that the incidence
rates of child abuse and neglect in Croatia are very similar to the USA and Europe. For example, in one of the studies, the analysis showed the
incidence of emotional abuse to be between 27% and 28% and the incidence of
psysical abuse between 16% and 25%. Between 11% and 17.5% of participants
experienced different forms of child neglect.
Some form of sexually abusive behavior was experienced by
25% of females and about 16% of males.
Unfortunately, many of the cases remain unresolved and
dismissed without a proper treatment, because there are not enough
professionals who could work with abused children and give these cases priority. At present , there are 23 psychologists and 34
psychiatrists working with children and adolescents within the health system,
while there are 1,200,000 children in Croatia.
Given the insufficiently prepared system and high incidence of
precipitating factors of abuse and neglect in Croatia (socio-economic
instability, poverty, social isolation, high stress, growing rate of divorce,
alcohol and drug abuse, post war circumstances) there is a strong need to systematically work
on the issue of child abuse and also on the development of a model of case
proceeding and forming multidisciplinary teams of trained professionals.
The Centre intends to offer some of its services
to the countries in the region according to their needs. This would also
include monitoring of the progress and situation in the field of child abuse
and neglect in the region.
The following activities are planned:
* facilitating cross country collaboration
* facilitating NGO and GO co-ordination and co-operation in
the countries
* developing models of prevention and intervention in cases
of child abuse and neglect applicable to respective countries
* facilitating exchange of experience
* enabling adequate education of experts
* enabling implementation of different preventive
projects
* organisation of conferences
A parent places a child in the middle when the child is asked to be a carrier of adult messages, asked to keep secrets, or asked to serve as a spy in the other household. When a parent trashes the other parent to the child, half of that child is being trashed also. Such issues take their toll on a child's self-esteem and sense of well-being. Any movement along the continuum from conflict to cooperation, no matter how small, is a move to benefit the child.
Baris, M. A., Coates, C. A., Duvall, B. B., Garrity, C. B.,Johnson,
E. T. i LaCrosse, E. R. (2001.): Working with high-conflict families
of divorce, Jason Aronson Inc., New Jersey, London
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A parent places a child in the middle when the child is asked to be a carrier of adult messages, asked to keep secrets, or asked to serve as a spy in the other household. When a parent trashes the other parent to the child, half of that child is being trashed also. Such issues take their toll on a child's self-esteem and sense of well-being. Any movement along the continuum from conflict to cooperation, no matter how small, is a move to benefit the child.
