Project report
Building capacity for Barnahus Ireland: Development of trauma-informed care, child advocacy and participation training for professionals
Maria Lotty, Blathnaid McCabe, Rosaleen McElvaney, Eimear Lacey ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001Barnahus Ireland is a multidisciplinary initiative that brings together child protection, criminal justice, medical and therapeutic services in one location to support children who may have experienced sexual abuse. The project developed two levels of training programmes in trauma-informed care for professionals working in and alongside Barnahus services, integrating principles of child advocacy, children's rights and participation. The training was designed based on identified needs and includes knowledge of child sexual abuse impacts and Barnahus Quality Standards for Europe. The paper describes the development process and initial pilot evaluation findings.
Key points
- Barnahus Ireland operates across three sites providing integrated child protection, criminal justice, medical and therapeutic services
- Two training programmes were developed: foundation level and advanced level
- Training integrates trauma-informed care with principles of child advocacy, children's rights and participation
- The initiative is supported by the European Commission and Council of Europe
- An initial pilot evaluation was conducted to assess the training programmes
Limitations
The document describes the development and design of training programmes but does not provide detailed findings from the pilot evaluation or outcome data on the effectiveness of the training in changing professional practice or improving outcomes for children. Long-term impact on service provision and child outcomes is not reported.
Abstract
Barnahus Ireland (BI), a multidisciplinary interagency initiative, supported by the European Commission and the Council of Europe (CoE), and implemented by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCED), is currently being established across three sites in Ireland. BI aims to provide child protection, criminal justice, medical and therapeutic interventions for children where there is a concern of sexual abuse, in a single geographical location. In Ireland, a recent training needs analysis identified the need for training in trauma - informed care for professionals working within a Barnahus service and those working alongside a Barnahus service. This paper describes the development of a bespoke training programme in trauma -informed care that integrates principles of child advocacy, children’s rights and participation, an in-depth knowledge of child sexual abuse and its impact, and an understanding of the Barnahus Quality Standards for Europe, for staff working in and alongside Barnahus services in Ireland. The paper describes the context, the methodology and process used in developing two training programmes, a foundation level and an advanced level programme, and key learnings from the experience of developing these programmes and conducting an initial pilot evaluation.