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3rd BECAN Managerial Meeting & 2nd Training Workshop

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April 13rd 2010
 
Press release
 
Subject: Second Managerial Meeting of Balkan Epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect (BECAN) – Train the Trainers Workshop
 
Source: Institute of Child Health. Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare – Centre for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Head G. Nikolaidis.)
 
The second Managerial Meeting of Balkan Epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect (BECAN), the largest epidemiological study on the subject ever conducted in the Balkan region will take place on 17th-18th April, in Tirana, Albania.
 
BECAN is a co-funded project byEuropean Commission’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and participating organizations. The research involves applying I-CAST questionnaires (created by the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect with the support of UNICEF)to a representative sample of the general population of children, aged 11,13 and 16 years old and their parents in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYROM, and Turkey. At the same time there will be a study on the reported or detected Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) cases from existing data bases in the same 9 Balkan countries.
 
After 5 months of preparatory work, which among others included sampling, adapting and translating research tools, research planning and network building, the BECAN consortium representatives from 9 Balkan countries, will gather for the second time, since the Kick off meeting in Athens, in order to discuss:
·         their progress in planning the field as well as the data base research
·         activities and initiations taken at national level in order to promote BECAN project and to establish mechanisms (i.e. networks, website and forum, etc) that will help the implementation of the research and the sustainability of its results
·         conclusions and suggestions from Focus Groups implementation to control research tools in each country
·         problems up until now faced in the development of the project
·         ways and methods they have been used in order to work out any difficulties or barriers
 
In the margins of the managerial meeting there will also be held bilateral meetings with representatives of the Albanian government as well as professionals and experts that work on the CAN study and prevention field.
 
Two days prior to 2nd Managerial Meeting the Coordinator of the project (ICH-MHSW, Greece) along with the Scientific Supervisor (Kevin Browne, an international expert on the CAN field, who actually participated in the process of creating ICAST tools), will undertake the training of partner countries’ representatives, in a two-day closed session, called Train-the-Trainers” Workshop. During the Workshop detailed instructions and specific guidelines on overall methodology of both the questionnaires and interviews based research and the reported/detected case based surveillance will be given, opting for a harmonized implementation of the survey. Conducting research with unanimously trained researchers and harmonized tools will help so that in the future CAN problem will be measured in a unified manner, which will produce reliable and comparable data.
 

BECAN collaboration network provides news and information on child abuse and neglect research and prevention via www.becan.eu website.







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December 3rd, 2009

Press Release

 

Subject: Kick-off meeting of Balkan Epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect (BECAN)

 

Source: Institute of Child Health. Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare – Centre for the Study and prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Head G. Nikolaidis.)

The largest epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) ever conducted in the Balkan region in terms of sample, exceeding 30.000 children and parents, begins with the Kick-off Meeting of Research Centers and Organizations’ representatives that participate in the European Project titled BECAN, taking place in Athens, on Monday 7/12/2009.

This ambitious project is one of the largest studies in sample size globally. The importance of its anticipated results as well as its innovative character is in virtue of the fact that, until now, there are no data available on the general population prevalence of CAN not only for the totality of the Balkans, but also at national level of individual countries. Coordinator of the project is the Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare – Centre for the Study and prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect of Institute of Child Health in Greece.

BECAN, co-funded by European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and participating organizations, aims at:

  • mapping incidence and prevalence of CAN in the general population of 11 to 16-year old children that attend and those that have dropped out of school in nine (9) Balkan countries [Greece, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Turkey, Romania] and
  • identifying the number of reported/detected cases of CAN recorded in the same nine (9) Balkan countries

BECAN’s kick-off meeting will last 3 days; apart from project’s partners, experts and scientists from top rated Academic and Research institutions of the Balkan area with documented experience and action on CAN research, EU representatives and representatives from Institute degli Innocenti in Florence (Italy) will also participate in the meeting.

During the meeting current CAN situation at national level of each country will be discussed, along with relevant ethical and methodological issues of the research to be conducted. Partners will also work to harmonize research tools so that comparable results will come up and will agree on a 5-month plan of activities, by the end of which, the second managerial meeting of the project will take place.

BECAN collaboration network that will be created will provide news and information on a regular basis along with data that will come up as the program evolves, among others via www.becan.eu website. A regular Press Office will also be working on the coordinator’s behalf, to provide the general public, with information and data on CAN-related issues, in national and Balkan level.

BECAN scientific coordinator

 George Nikolaidis

 Psychiatrist

        For more information please contact also:

 Anna Salvanou

Press Office

 Institute of Child Health- Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare – Centre for the Study and prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

7, Fokidos str.

 Tel.+30 210 77 15 791 – Φαξ: .+30210 77 93 648

 E-mail:  [email protected]

BECAN Consortium

 

Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania-Albania

Fakultet Politickih Nauka, Univerzitet U Sarajevo-Bosnia and Herzegovina

Department of MedicalSocialSciencesSouth-WestUniversity “Neofit Rilski"-Bulgaria

Department of Social Work , Faculty of Law-University of Zagreb-Croatia

University Clinic οf Psychiatry-F.Y.R. of Macedonia

Institute of Child Health, Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare - Centre for the Study & Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect-Greece

Istituto degli Innocenti di Firenze-Italy

Social Work Department, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work-Romania

Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade-Serbia

Ambulance and Emergency Physicians Association-Turkey

Institute of Work, Health & Organisations, University of Nottingham-UK