The Emotionally Abused and Neglected Child Identification, Assessment and Intervention: A Practice Handbook

Emotional abuse and neglect are at the core of all types of child maltreatment, and have the most harmful effects on the physical and psychological development and well-being of children. Yet they are considered to be the most difficult to deal with by those who have the responsibility to protect and intervene in effective ways. In this book the author explores the concept of a damaged child, and asks what are the different types of injury, ranging from active to passive, physical to emotional, that stop children from reaching their full potential psychologically and physically? The author questions whether emotional damage to a child can be repaired and answers questions such as: Is some injury irreversible? What therapeutic techniques are available to deal with emotional abuse? Can the abusers as well as the abused be helped to change? Case studies are provided to illustrate the features of emotional abuse, and chapters are devoted to the assessment and prediction of emotional abuse, effects of emotional abuse as the child grows up, intervention and treatment and working with the family as a whole.

Dorota Iwaniec is Emeritus Professor of Social Work and former Director of the Institute of Child Care Research at Queen’s University Belfast (she retired in 2005). Professor Iwaniec is well-known for her extensive research and writing in the areas of emotional abuse and neglect and failure to thrive in children. She is the author of nearly a hundred scientific and practice papers and many chapters in edited books. She has written several books on the subject of child care and child protection and some books have been translated into different languages. Her writing is influenced by continuous practice and empirical evidence.