ABSTRACT
There are several reasons why child psychiatric in-patient units need to be highly attuned to child maltreatment issues. First, a sizeable proportion of their child patients will have been abused or neglected. Second, there will be a strong tendency for staff, who often take over the parental role and commonly feel critical about the quality of parenting which the child has received, to perceive the child's carers as abusive or neglectful. Finally, children may be abused within the unit itself, by other children or by staff. In this chapter we contend that the unit's ethos, its policies and consequently its atmosphere will lead to a setting within which disclosure of any maltreatment will be possible. The atmosphere of safety, containment and respect for children, as persons in their own right will, we believe, inevitably lead to children disclosing sensitive information of many kinds. Existing suspicion may become clarified during the admission or, alternatively, new and surprising information revealed. We first discuss our approach to making the institution as safe as possible before turning to any abuse revealed during the child's stay.
