Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Toni Codina on 21 February 2024

A pioneering integrated unit in Catalonia and Spain, made up of a specialised multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to avoid the re-victimisation of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse and to provide all the necessary care in a single space.

Barnahus (children’s house in icelandic) is a project to help children and young people –from 0 to 18 years of age– who have suffered sexual abuse and to prevent aggression against minors. It puts the victim of sexual abuse at the centre, working in a single space with all the care services they need and minimising the traumatic experience of reliving the aggression. This avoids victims having to go through courts, police stations, hospitals and children’s services. It is promoted by Save the Children and is supported by five Catalan government departments, mainly the Social Rights department, but in coordination with the Health, Education, Justice and Interior departments.

Barnahus has a welcoming and friendly appearance to provide security, comfort and confidence to children and their families. There are separate rooms to preserve privacy, a kitchen-dining room, offices and a medical examination room. The psychosocial team –consisting of psychologists and social workers with a coordinator– works full time, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and also offers translation services.

Catalonia already has centers in Tarragona, Manresa, and Lleida. In 2024, Intress, a partner entity of the iSocial Foundation, has promoted the opening of a Barnahus facility in Terrassa and in La Seu d’Urgell. On February 27th, the Idea Foundation, also a member of iSocial, will inaugurate a center in Granollers.

Characteristics of innovation

Publications, Adolescence and youth, Childhood, Cross-cutting intervention, Families and upbringing, Integrated care, Mental health, New service, Personalization of the service, Proximity care

Localization

Catalonia

Partners / Funders

Catalan Government

Genesis

Barnahus began as a pilot project –a pioneer in Spain– in 2020 in the Tarragona Educational Complex, following the European model -the Barnahus emerged in 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland- and with the aim of extending throughout the country. In addition, a comprehensive strategy has been developed to address sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence in Catalonia, including preventive policies and specific training.

Level of implementation

The Barnahus service, in operation since mid-2020 in Tarragona as a pilot test, has enabled the detection of 803 cases of sexual abuse of minors and adolescents in this period in Catalonia. Thus, it has been postulated as a successful model and for this reason the Department of Social Rights of the Government of Catalonia wants to implement and promote the service in other Catalan towns such as Barcelona, Girona, Tortosa and Vilanova i la Geltrú.

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Self-care and stress management in social service teams

Toni Codina on 25 July 2023

Action training program for social service professionals from public institutions and third sector entities.

More information

“There is nothing that can give you peace except yourself.” Ralph Waldo

Stress and burn-out situations are common in the social services sector. The causes can be very diverse: individually the lack of stimuli, expecting to meet expectations that are too high, routine tasks, not having the equipment or knowledge necessary to execute certain tasks; In the case of work teams, the misuse of time, misunderstanding between collaborators, little empathy, lack of organization or poorly channeled differences of opinion. Furthermore, burnout syndrome develops when the worker perceives a great distance between his own ideals and the reality of his work life.

It is important that social services professionals incorporate strategies to face potentially stressful situations, inherent to professional practice, and methods of care and self-care to be able to grow, act and relate in a healthy and quality work environment.

Objectives

Improve the skills to manage stressful situations inherent in the tasks of the Social Services teams
Offer physical, emotional and cognitive self-care strategies in order to achieve a more harmonious attitude towards tensions

Recipients

This course is aimed at professionals who do social intervention in the basic social intervention teams of the Social Services of City Councils and County Councils or third sector entities, and who are concerned about personal or general stress situations the team of professionals.

Coordination

Guy Giménez, diploma in Business Management, Human Resources and Consulting and Graduated in “Integral Organizational Leadership”. Professional and researcher in the development of individual skills and collective intelligence, and change management in organizations, leadership and coaching.

Format and duration

The course lasts 16 hours, divided into 8 2-hour workshops, spread over 3 days, and can be done face-to-face or online:

Workshops:

Concept of stress and burn-out
Stress factors in social services
Self-leadership in the face of stress: What reality do we build? Identification of limiting beliefs; Internal emotional fluidity
Mindfulness practice
Energy blockages and stress: bioenergetic practice
Relational management as a balancing factor
The mission and values as a factor of team cohesion
Knowing how to set limits

Teaching team

Team of 2 specialists in human resources management in the field of social services with a long history of training and advice to local administrations and third sector entities. Consult the names and CVs of the teachers in the course brochure, by pressing the “More information” button.

Price and registration

Open editions: €280 per professional (40% discount for iSocial member entities)

Registration procedure:
1. Fill in and send the form you will find at the end of this page.
2.Subsequently, to make the registration for the course effective, you must send an email to formacio@isocial.cat with the PDF or image of the proof of payment for the course (€280). Payment must be made by transfer or deposit to the Caixabank account ES20 2100 0963 6102 0029 3169, in the name of the iSocial Foundation, indicating the name of the person registering and the course.
From the sending of the form, the place will be reserved for one week. If after this period we have not received the payment documentation, the availability of places will not be guaranteed.
The iSocial Foundation does not guarantee the completion of this training activity if a minimum number of students is not reached. Once registration has been formalized, the amount will not be refunded unless the organization cancels the training activity.
For commissioned editions, hiring the full course costs €2,295 and allows the participation of teams of up to 25 professionals.

This training is bonusable.

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Case Compass, social services case management toolkit

Toni Codina on 25 July 2023

A set of tools that the World Bank makes available to social service practitioners in any country with the aim of facilitating their work, promoting the social protection actions of governments and improving case management services.

Case management is a social protection strategy that meets the needs of a wide range of populations. It is a goal-based and highly user-centred process, requiring assessment of the needs of the user. In the case of social services, the most frequent targets are low-income families, unemployed or jobseekers, children and the elderly. Social workers are responsible for supporting these people in solving individual or family problems, facilitating their access to services through an agreed action plan.

To facilitate case management, the Case Compass tools include catalogues of available programmes, forms for assessment and design of intervention plans with families, manuals to support each phase of the intervention cycle, protocols and referral mechanisms, and support material for daily social work practice. In this way, the World Bank aims to support local social service operators and provide them with the possibility to adapt the tools to their specific context.

Case Compass also offers a prototype –the Case Management Information System (CMIS)– which provides information on beneficiaries and collects and details the progress of any intervention or referral in internal or third party services. Finally, Case Compass offers personalised advice to social services teams to set up and run the platform’s tools.