Peer-reviewed article
(In) visibility of notifications of violence against children and adolescents registered in a municipality in southern Brazil
Priscila Arruda da Silva, Valéria Lerch Lunardi, Rodrigo Dalke Meucci, Simone Algeri, Michele Peixoto da Silva et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explores how health, education, and social service professionals in a Brazilian municipality perceive and handle the recording and notification of violence against children and adolescents. Through interviews with ten professionals, the research found that formal notification of violence is not yet a routine practice, despite being mandatory. The study identified that underreporting occurs because professionals encounter violence cases regularly but often fail to formalize them through official notification forms, leading to cases becoming invisible in official records.
Key points
- Recording and notifying violence against children and adolescents is not yet a routine practice among health professionals
- Protecting victims is sometimes prioritized over formal registration and notification
- Underreporting and case invisibility result from handling violence informally without using compulsory notification forms
- Recommended strategies include centralizing notifications in a single service, creating clear notification workflows, establishing advisory teams for violence cases, and ensuring education and social assistance professionals complete mandatory notifications
- Routine attendance to violence situations without formalized notification procedures contributes to the invisibility of cases in official systems
Limitations
This is a qualitative study with only ten professionals in one municipality in southern Brazil, so findings may not be generalizable to other regions or countries. The study captures professional perceptions rather than objective data on actual notification rates or outcomes for child victims.
Abstract
Abstract Objective. To know the perception of health, education and social service professionals about the records and notifications of violence against children and adolescents, carried out in a municipality in the south of Brazil.Methods. This is an exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative approach, specifically developed in places that integrate children and adolescents victims of violence. Ten professionals participated, including three nurses, one doctor, two social workers, two psychologists, one tutor, and one educator. Data collection was performed through a semi-structured interview. The statements were submitted to discursive textual analysis.Results. The analysis showed that the act of recording and reporting violence against children and adolescents is still not a routine practice for health professionals. The registration and formal communication of the information should be considered as a priority; however, the results showed that the protection of the victim seems to overlap with the registry. The study identified important elements in strategies for coping with violence against children and adolescents: centralization of notifications in a single service; creation of a notification flow; existence of an advisory team to deal with cases of violence; and completion of compulsory notification by education and social assistance professionals.Conclusion. For the professionals, the routine attendance of situations involving violence, but not formalized through the notification form, has contributed to the underreporting and invisibility of the cases.Descriptors: nursing; domestic violence; child advocacy; mandatory reporting; registries.How to cite this article: Silva PA, Lunardi VL, Meucci RD, Algeri S, Silva MP, Franciscatto FP. 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