Assessments carried out by a child abuse and neglect team in an Amsterdam teaching hospital led to interventions in most of the reported cases

Aim: This study described cases of child abuse and neglect (CAN) that were reported to the multiagency CAN team at the Emma Children's Hospital in Amsterdam and the resulting interventions. Methods: We carried out a retrospective review of all cases that were reported to the CAN team from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. Results: There were 27 prenatal cases, 92 referrals based on parental characteristics and 523 children. Overall, 1.2% of the children visiting the emergency department of our hospital, attending the outpatients department or being admitted were reported to the team. More than half of the referrals (55.1%) were confirmed as CAN. The most common diagnoses were as follows: witnessing intimate partner violence, physical neglect and emotional abuse. If CAN was confirmed an intervention was offered in 98.3% of cases. If a CAN diagnosis was undetermined or rejected, the figures were still 83.5% and 64.2%, respectively. Conclusion: Our results showed that CAN affected more than one in every 100 children visiting our hospital, and the expertise of our hospital-based CAN Team led to an intervention in the majority of the reported cases. The broad scope of problems that were encountered underlined the importance of a multidisciplinary CAN team.