Double healing: training abandoned dogs to regain the trust of minor victims of sexual violence

• Assistance The Community of Madrid will create the Children's House for victims of sexual abuse

In Icelandic

is Children's House.

For this reason, in 2020 the

of the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat created in

as a pilot project, a center with this name that intended to change the approach of minors who are victims of sexual violence.

Instead of having to go to the various professionals who deal with this type of case, police, judicial, psychological or health, they would all come together in a space to coordinate care for the victim and not have to relive the abuse suffered in each visit.

A whole multidisciplinary paradigm shift aimed at care and prevention that has allowed the Catalan Administration to triple the detection of cases of sexual violence in children and adolescents in the Tarragona area in one year compared to the average for Catalonia.

As part of this process of healing victims of sexual assault and abuse,

Tarragona has started therapy with dogs that aim to reduce the levels of stress and anxiety of the victims, as well as improve their communication with the professionals who care for them. .

For this, dogs rescued from situations of abandonment and abuse are used and that the

has trained to help people in vulnerable situations to recover.

,

and

are the dogs that will work with these minors in Tarragona.

"The dog provides natural and instinctive means for children to express emotions and feelings, since they feel that the dog will never judge them," says the general director of Child and Adolescent Care,

In the sessions with the victims, within the safe environment of Barnahus, the animal is used to work on the recognition of emotions and dynamics of physical and verbal communication.

In these cases, the dog becomes a mirror to reflect experiences and learning of the minor's reality.

In this way, we work to recover interpersonal relationships with communication, the limits in the relationship and the caresses of the dog.

Professionals with dogs at the GENCAT center

"The bond established between the child and the dog is perceived as a security relationship because the animal does not judge. This allows the child to be more open to the intervention of the professionals and, therefore, establishes a much calmer and calmer communication", indicates the head of Therapies of the Affinity Foundation,

about the Huscan project, to attend to the most vulnerable with these dogs.

success model

The DGAIA and the Affinity Foundation have been collaborating with therapy dogs for children protected by the Generalitat and their families for more than eight years, although it is the first time that it has moved to an environment of victims of sexual abuse.

At this time, the bond established between children and animals facilitates the communication of their emotions with their environment and improves personal expression within social relationships.

The director of the Affinity Foundation,

remarks that "the motivation to collaborate with the dog is greater" than other "animal-assisted" therapies to treat "emotional and behavioral aspects".

Precisely, this recovery in a safe environment for the minor who has suffered abuse is one of the priorities of the Tarragona center, to which the professionals go to attend to them, and not the other way around.

"Barnahus is a space that has been created as if it were a house so that boys and girls perceive it as a pleasant place, in which they feel safe and protected, and that is as least traumatic as possible", indicates the coordinator of Barnahus ,

In this way, the child who has suffered sexual abuse (or is suspected) is placed at the center of attention, and its main objective is to group in the same space all the resources that intervene in a case of child sexual abuse.

This allows evaluations and interviews to be reduced thanks to the coordination of multidisciplinary teams and thus avoids the revictimization of children and adolescents, making them only have to explain what has happened to them once.

Children and adolescents (from zero to 18 years old) receive psychological support, accompaniment and professional advice throughout their process.

Thanks to the multidisciplinary and interdepartmental approach with which the unit's team works, the Barnahus project is giving very high care and recovery results, which is why the Generalitat wants to create 13 similar centers throughout Catalonia.

Since its inception, Barnahus Tarragona has cared for 363 children, 60 in the first months of 2022. About 80% are girls and 20% boys, while 52% of cases have occurred in the family environment, compared to 48 % outside the family.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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