English Abstracts: Professional training in focus / Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

English Abstracts

Professional training in focus. Horse assisted interventions – an analysis of professional qualifications in Germany

Caroline Sommer, Traudel Simon

Horse assisted interventions have more and more established within the pedagogic, therapeutic and social working sector. Yet the situation is affected by financial difficulties and a huge variety considering the quality of the offered interventions. With growing popularity, the interest in further training increased and the number of training providers grew. A fast overview and comparison is almost not possible. The present study analyses the content of websites of selected training providers within the framework of a qualitative content analysis. Additionally, emails with specific questions were sent to those institutions whose website didn’t provide all the relevant information. The results show that there exists a wide variety in all dimensions of the analysis. The problem of missing transparency has relocated on federation level.
Key words: horse assisted interventions, education, professional training, additional qualifications, quality criteria, institution of further training, quality management.


Child Sexual Abuse
Conversations with children in case of suspicion

Elsa Gewehr, Marie Merschhemke, Simone Pülschen

Due to a relationship of trust, which often develops within therapeutic or pedagogic interventions, professionals may turn into ­important contact persons for children. This applies in ­particular to children who otherwise receive ­little support in their social or family environment. Children may thus turn to a professional in order to report an aversive event, such as a sexual abuse. Likewise, a professional might suspect an incident and initiate a conversation with a child in order to clarify the suspicion. This article aims to motivate the conduction of such conversations, whilst informing about the risks that arise from conducting a conversation biased by one’s own presumptions. We outline the principles of supportive, unbiased and open-ended conversations and discuss the most important legal frameworks for concrete measures of action.
Keywords: Child sexual abuse, sexual violence against children and adolescents, child welfare endangerment, interview techniques