Psychological maltreatment of children: Why and how youth centers should deal with it in every day practice
It is only since last july, since the enforcement of Bill 125 modifying the current Québec Youth Protection Act, that child psychological abuse is specifically recognized as an acceptable reporting motive. However, for the last decades, researchers and clinicians in that field, in Québec and across North America, are concerned with this issue. This delay is in part due to the numerous controversies that surrounded this concept, which have made the development of the knowledge more complex, and, of course, because of the nature of the psychological abuse, certainly more difficult to detect than other forms of child abuse. This screening is all the more difficult as the negative impacts of abuse are not always obvious in the short term. The present article reviews the mentioned controversies and the emerging consensus, the scope of the phenomenon in Québec and in Canada, and its known impacts. Will follow the presentation of the Guide de soutien à l'évaluation du risque de mauvais traitements psychologiques envers les enfants (Malo et Gagné, 2003) recently drawn up by the IRDS, as well as the presentation of the associated training. To conclude, the article will examine the obstacles relating to the distribution of this tool and the development prospects.