One-Stop Centre Best Practices

22-25 July 2014Ilala Crest Lodge

How many children in Malawi suffered violence in the

past year?

• 4.5 million – physical violence

• 2.2 million – emotional violence

• 1.6 million – sexual violence•1 million girls•600,000 boys

Do Malawian children seek help?

Goal of the One Stop Centre Training:

• To use this training as a tool for change.• To increase expertise in diagnosis and treatment of sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse

• To strengthen collaboration between the medical, legal and social service agencies that respond to child maltreatment.

• To create a world with safe, stable, nurturing relationships for all children and families.

Building Regional Alliances to Nurture Child Health www.branchpartners.org

Disclaimer

What should happen:Medical, social, and law enforcement professionals know all the laws and policies and follow them always.

What often happens:Professionals don’t know the laws, or don’t care, or have numerous barriers

to doing the right thing.

Common Practice

Hospital

PoliceSocial Welfare

Prosecutor

One-Stop Centres

One Stop Centre Best Practices

1. MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM

• Social Welfare,

• Police CID & VSU,

• Prosecutor,

• Medical & Mental Health, and

• Community-based organizations.

2. CULTURAL COMPETENCY

Culturally competent services are made available to all survivors seen at the one stop centre.

One Stop Centre Best Practices

3. FORENSIC INTERVIEWS

Forensic interviews are conducted in a manner that is legally sound, of a neutral, fact finding nature and are coordinated to avoid multiple interviews (NCA 2013).

4. LAW ENFORCEMENT

Police and prosecutors who have been trained in helping survivors of violence will work at the OSC and work in the multidisciplinary team to help ensure the short-term safety and long-term safety of survivors and of the community.

One Stop Centre Best Practices

5. MEDICAL & MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

All survivors who are suspected victims physical or sexual abuse should receive a medical evaluation by a health provider who has received training in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Specialized trauma-focused mental health services for survivors and non-offending family members are routinely made available as part of the multidisciplinary team response (NCA 2013).

One Stop Centre Best Practices

6. SOCIAL WELFARE

Social Welfare Assistants and Community Child Protection Workers serve multiple roles, including assessing families, planning for safety, implementing services, providing follow-up, and working with families to create long-term plans to ensure a safe, healthy future.

7. SUPPORT & ADVOCACY STANDARD

Support and advocacy services are routinely made available to all OSC clients and their non-offending family members (NCA 2013).

One Stop Centre Best Practices

8. CASE REVIEW & CASE MANAGEMENT

A formal process in which the multidisciplinary team meets to discuss updates on all the issues ranging from safety and the criminal investigation to provision of services for the survivor and family (NCA 2013).

One stop centres must develop and implement a system for monitoring case progress and tracking case outcomes for all MDT components. Any new case tracking system must harmonize the existing tracking systems in Health, Social Welfare, and Law Enforcement, and not simply add to the list of existing tracking systems.

One Stop Centre Best Practices

9. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

All Ministries involved in the OSC MDT are equal partners in working together to help survivors. The Ministry of Health will be the lead agency in terms of organizing OSC trainings, operations and fiscal issues.

10.SURVIVOR-FOCUSED SETTING

The survivor-focused setting is comfortable, private, and both physically and psychologically safe for diverse populations of survivors and their non-offending family members (NCA 2013).