A new team for the care of children in danger has just been set up at the Narbonne hospital, in conjunction with the legal services.
If the hospital’s emergency, pediatric and psychiatric teams have been working together for years, one link was missing: that of the judiciary. This has been done since Tuesday, February 28 with the signing of a protocol establishing a specialized unit for children in danger: the UAPED. The unit improves the reception and care of minors who are victims of abuse and other offences. It supports young victims in two ways, by providing them with medical and child psychiatric care while coordinating the legal process in a peaceful and reassuring atmosphere.
Behind the glass of the “Mélanie” audition room.
An audition room…just for the kids
Within the pediatric department, a hearing room is dedicated to them, the room Melanie, where professionals welcome and listen to child victims. At the back of the room, an office separated by a tinted window makes it possible to follow the sessions and make recordings. It has a safe for seals for the exclusive use of investigators.
The multidisciplinary team, made up of specialists at the children’s bedside, is responsible for identifying minor victims, reporting disturbing information, and taking care of the children by delivering first aid somatic and child psychiatry. Coordination of all the players is thus ensured.
The inauguration of the UAPED.
“We have been working for several years with paediatricians, explains Dr Belkacem, a child psychiatrist with a university degree in victimology, and having a single unit of place makes it easier”.
“For this, we have had four beds in pediatrics for two years and the support of the DMA, a mobile unit for adolescents, which links the care provided in the hospital and the medical-psycho-educational centers in exit, explains Dr. Darras, head of the pediatrics department. This unit will really help us. Because the Covid has revealed many failures“.
Éric Camous, the prosecutor, stressed for his part that this project, the culmination of long substantive work carried out with many partners, was only a step towards the future center of forensic medicine.
The signature.
Eight specialized units for child victims in Occitanie
The Pediatric Medico-Judicial Reception Units were created within the framework of the Guigou law in 1998. Now called UAPED, the Pediatric Reception Units for Children in Danger, they are part of the plan to fight against violence against children. for children launched in 2020 by Secretary of State Adrien Taquet. They contribute to collecting the words of the child or adolescent victim in a protective and safe place. There are 8 of them in Occitania, a number still deemed to be clearly insufficient in relation to needs. The protocol was signed this Tuesday, February 28 by the ARS, the hospital, the court, the departmental council, the departmental directorate of public security, the national gendarmerie, the associations La Voix de l’enfant, Aid to victims ANAV AJ 11 and France Victimes 11. The ARS brought an envelope of €160,000 to the hospital.
