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Every child has the right to live and thrive in a safe and caring family environment free from all forms of violence, exploitation, neglect, and abuse. The immense vulnerability to child abuse within our community imperatively led to the initiation of the Child Protection Program (CPP) at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The Child Protection Program, a program that depends on evidence-based practices to assess and treat potentially abused children, was launched in a vast ceremony on Saturday, November 7, 2015.
The Child Protection Program at AUBMC was started as an initiative in April 2010 with the establishment of the Child Protection Committee (CPC). Today, and after the program has become comprehensive, it aims at providing a more sustainable and larger scope of action. The CPP is the fruit of collaboration between the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Pediatrics, and the Salim El Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program, and it has been incepted under the patronage of Executive VP for Medical Affairs and Global Strategy and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh and Chief of Staff, Dr. Hassan El Solh. The program will provide specialized and comprehensive care and management for children who are victims of child abuse. Acting as a resource for victims of child abuse whether in social connections or referrals to the legal system, the Child Protection Program strengthens the advocacy for child protection, minimizes fear and repercussions of reporting, raises awareness, and advocates the importance of recognizing and reporting neglect, maltreatment, or abuse.
The Child Protection Program at AUBMC is a leap forward in the child protection system in Lebanon that will provide direct clinical care, education, and training. The scope of the program is based on the three pillars of prevention, specialized interventions, and policy making. The ceremony was attended by Chief of Staff, Director of Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute (NKBCI) and Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL), Dr. Hassan El Solh, Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Dr. Salah Zeineldine, Director of the AUBMC Child Protection Program, Dr. Layla Akoury Dirani, members of the Child Protection Program, members of AUBMC community and a number of dignitaries.
On behalf of Executive VP/ Dean Mohamed H. Sayegh, Dr. Solh welcomed the attendees and praised the Child Protection Program team for their persistence and perseverance in realizing this program. “Our core values in the AUBMC 2020 Vision are at the heart of supporting the community including all initiatives that focus on the needs of patients, and children constitute a very important component of our patient population; they, in fact, are the most vulnerable members of the society in our country and the region,” he explained. “We all know that the program will face many challenges and go through several difficult battles to protect the rights of children.”
Dr. Dirani thanked AUBMC leadership for their support in making this program a reality. She said, “The Child Protection Program intervenes when there is suspicion of child maltreatment encountered by any healthcare professional at AUBMC, and it offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary consultation, assessment, treatment, and referral services for children and adolescents who may have been physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected.”
The Child Protection Program at the Department of Psychiatry consists of a multidisciplinary team made up of a family medicine physician, two pediatricians, a social worker, a pediatric nurse, a child psychologist, a child psychiatrist, a risk management officer and a bioethicist specialist. It serves to provide the highest standards of care to children who may have experienced or are suspected of experiencing abuse or neglect and helps to equip all clinicians who care for children with the basic skills and knowledge necessary to render the full range of appropriate support and service to children and their families.
