MARGAO: The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) has taken a significant step towards fostering a more robust ecosystem to provide essential psychosocial support to child victims of abuse and other crimes. On Friday, the GSCPCR inaugurated a two-day training on ‘Trauma- Informed Care for Child Protection System’ in Panjim.
The training, which will continue on Saturday, is being attended by 50 stakeholders, from the child protection system – the police, NGOs, child welfare committee and juvenile justice board.
The programme was inaugurated by Omvir Singh, Inspector General of Police (IGP). Singh stressed that these types of training will help in providing emotional support and improve the individual’s coping strategies to deal with immediate crises.
The programme is being facilitated by Kile D’Souza from the International Justice Mission, Mumbai
Speaking at the launch, Peter F. Borges, GSCPCR Chairperson said, “The need to address trauma is an important component of effective service delivery in the child protection system.”
“The impact of trauma is experienced by children, families, caregivers, and the social service providers who serve them. Hence, the Commission desires to develop a cadre and expertise of the child protection system to offer trauma-informed care to child victims of crimes in Goa,” he added.
Borges further said that most of the caregivers at the institutions have not been formally trained in responding to the trauma symptoms such as anxiety, panic, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a victim, and on how this may affect the caregivers. “This brings obstacles in the caregiver’s ability to provide effective responses and care to the victims,” he added.
“This training will build the capacities of caregivers that work with children experiencing trauma. It will also give an understanding to the caregivers and all staff who interact with the survivors on the basics of trauma, its symptoms, coping with these symptoms and how to address these symptoms with the care and responses that it requires,” Borges added.
