Residencias Dirigentes – Habitación #

were broadly good (n=2)

One young woman in this category disclosed sexual abuse by a family friend to her mother, but her mother was also a perpetrator of physical and emotional abuse. Although she took protective action by calling the police, her mother provided little emotional support and the physical and emotional abuse did not subside. The linked disclosure to the police was, however, satisfactory and the perpetrator was arrested and jailed.

The other young woman in this category disclosed to her family, whom she described as “close-knit”. She had been anxious because the perpetrator was her mother’s brother. Her initial disclosure to her parents and sister was heard and believed, but her parents did not take formal protective action immediately, which she would have liked. Instead, they kept the perpetrator away from her, believing they could protect her. It was only after her sister disclosed additional abuse that they knew they had to report the perpetrator to the police. The follow-on disclosures to professionals were satisfactory and the perpetrator was jailed and placed on the sex offender register.

Young people had mixed experiences with

both initial and linked disclosures (n=13)

A significant proportion of young people had variable experiences all the way through their disclosure journeys. Mixed views on initial disclosures were characterised by: 1) having at least one supportive person even if others were not; or 2) the person who received the disclosure taking protective action but not providing emotional support; or 3) initial disclosures going unheard but later disclosures being acknowledged and acted upon.

Mixed experiences with linked disclosures were characterised by an overall process that included the arrest of the perpetrator, investigations and some level of support from social care or counsellors. However, some of these were still seen as problematic by some of the young people. Some felt they did not receive adequate support during the formal process of reporting and going to court, for example. Others felt uninformed and treated as children. Others were unhappy with the sentencing of the perpetrator or because the perpetrator had not been jailed.

5.3 Broadly negative

disclosure journeys

Forty per cent of the young people (n=19),

unfortunately, had poor experiences across the entire disclosure journey. Eight of these young people had no linked disclosures because their abuse was never formally reported to the police or social services. Young people in this group often reported feeling isolated and alone. In most cases, both parents were perpetrating abuse or one was the abuser and the other had some knowledge of the abuse but enabled, facilitated or ignored it. There was also evidence of parental mental health and substance abuse problems in some of these accounts. Most had few sources of support in their extended family and felt isolated generally from others. Responses to initial disclosures were usually poor and include the following features: disclosures went unheard, or were ignored;

disclosures were poorly handled by professionals; the young people were accused of lying or attention- seeking; the recipient of disclosures was also being abused and could not help.

Follow-on linked disclosures often were unsatisfactory for this group of young people who felt that

professionals did not do enough; that professionals treated them as children; that they did not like the way professionals communicated with them; that they were uninformed about what would happen next; and that some professionals merely believed the young person’s own problems were the issue. Sometimes cases were dropped and disclosures were not

properly followed up. Many young people in this group retain particularly negative views of professionals because of their experiences, which highlights the importance of handling disclosures sensitively and responding to children’s needs and anxieties.

55 No one noticed, no one heard

Chapter 6: Conclusion

This report has described the experiences of help- seeking through disclosure of 60 young men and women who experienced abuse and violence in childhood and adolescence. These young people reported high levels of family and community violence, many reporting different and overlapping forms, making them very different from the general population in the United Kingdom. Many of the young people who disclosed abuse did so within the last 10 years, making the findings of this report highly relevant to contemporary practice. The conclusions here can be framed around three key themes: 1. information

2. communication

3. being noticed, asked and heard.

Information

Woven throughout this report is the theme of needing information. Young people need information about healthy relationships at an early age. This is not only to allow young people to develop their own healthy relationships, but also to enable them to contextualise and gauge whether something that is happening to them is abuse. Many of the young people turned to their friends for help and support, but these friends also need to know how best to provide that support. The experiences of disclosure to professionals highlighted the importance young people placed on being informed. Both negative and positive

experiences of disclosure emphasised the importance of informing children and young people about what will happen to their disclosures and how they will be protected. Young people said they were worried about what would happen next and that they felt overwhelmed after disclosure. Some young people felt that professionals had not informed them well, leaving them frightened and anxious about the investigative process.

In document APLICACIÓN DE DISEÑO INTERIOR EN LAS RESIDENCIAS DEPORTIVAS DEL CENTRO DE ALTO REMEDIO (COAR) BAJO PARÁMETROS ECO EFICIENTE, ERGONÓMICOS, FUNCIONALES Y ESTÉTICOS (página 127-134)