Child and Youth Maltreatment

Child maltreatment paediatrics is a medical field concerned with the study, prevention, identification, evaluation, and management of abuse and neglect in infants, children, and youth. 

Health care providers play essential roles in differentiating child abuse and neglect from medical conditions or other causes of clinical findings. They help address and mitigate the potential impacts of child maltreatment, and provide medical information to child welfare and legal systems as appropriate. 

Medical professionals working in the area of child maltreatment pediatrics are typically involved in some or all of the following activities: 

• clinically assessing and managing patients with a range of manifestations that can be associated with chid maltreatment; 
• documenting, interpreting, and communicating medical information for use in the child welfare and legal systems;
• providing medical advice and information to other clinicians, child protection workers, police and lawyers engaged in child maltreatment cases;
• following and/or contributing to the relevant medical literature on topics related to child maltreatment paediatrics;
• educating students and professionals from the health, law enforcement, child welfare, and legal sectors in child maltreatment paediatrics.

As the only national group in Canada focused on paediatrics and child maltreatment, the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Child and Youth Maltreatment Section plays a leading role in advancing education, clinical practice, and policy in the discipline. 

Section members collaborate with other CPS sections and committees as well as external groups to: 

• develop and disseminate information to help improve the identification, assessment, and management of child maltreatment;
• engage in quality improvement and promote awareness of best practices in the medical and medico-legal aspects of child maltreatment paediatrics;
• promote evidence-based clinical practice;
• stimulate research in the field of child maltreatment paediatrics;
• provide structure and support to the field of child maltreatment pediatrics and the health professionals working within it; and
• advocate for relevant public health policy and regulations.

The section has a number of working groups that maintain and disseminate expertise on topics related to the clinical and professional practice of child maltreatment paediatrics. These groups review relevant literature annually, and develop evidence-based educational programming for an annual symposium. They also develop CPS guidance and foster collaborations in education and research.

Education of health professionals 

A central focus of the section’s work has been to increase the knowledge of Canadian health professionals who may be asked to assess a child or youth for suspected abuse or neglect. To do this, the section develops practice guidance through CPS documents, provides educational sessions aimed at general paediatricians and family physicians, and supports the learning of clinicians with expertise in child maltreatment paediatrics. 

Canadian Symposium on Advanced Practices in Child Maltreatment  

The annual Canadian Symposium on Advanced Practices in Child Maltreatment aims to enhance the expertise of clinicians providing medical evaluation of children for concerns of abuse and neglect. The program is developed by members of the CPS Child and Youth Maltreatment Section and presented by section members and invited experts in related fields (eg., physicians from other fields, legal experts, child welfare leaders).  This conference often includes or is offered alongside additional programming intended for a multidisciplinary audience (such as police, lawyers, child welfare workers, advocates, other health care workers) and programming that is developed for sexual assault nurse examiners. 

Conference programming  

The Child and Youth Maltreatment Section typically contributes programming to the CPS Annual Conference, which is the largest gathering of child and youth health care professionals in Canada. 

The section also collaborates with other groups to provide educational programming for their members. Recent examples include: Canadian Oral Health Roundtable (Canadian Dental Association), and the Family Medicine Forum (College of Family Physicians of Canada).

National Grand Rounds

The Child and Youth Maltreatment Section hosts quarterly educational rounds (virtually) for section members to discuss clinical best practices, research, and other scholarly activities.

Recordings of past National Grand Rounds are available for CPS members and searchable by subspecialty/special interest.

Guidelines for health professionals working with children and youth

The section develops guidance documents to help health professionals assess cases of suspected child maltreatment.

Support for learners 

Emerging Professional in Child Maltreatment Grant

Each year, the Section awards the Emerging Professional in Child Maltreatment Grant to a medical trainee interested in the field of child maltreatment. The grant supports travel and registration to enable the trainee to participate in the Canadian Symposium on Advanced Practices in Child Maltreatment.

Harriet McMillan Award

Each year, the Section awards the Harriet McMillan Award for the best abstract related to child maltreatment submitted to the CPS Annual Conference.  

Contributions to policy 

The section is involved in many national initiatives related to child and youth maltreatment.

• National Guidance and Implementation Committee, VEGA (Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action) Project: The CPS is among 22 national organizations involved in this pan-Canadian project to develop guidance for health care and social service providers on responding safely to family violence. Section members are currently involved in evaluating the impact of this work through project RISE (Researching the Impact of Service Provider Education). 
• Joint Statement on Traumatic Head Injury due to Child Maltreatment: With the Public Health Agency of Canada, the section led roundtables, completed literature reviews and an environmental scan, and completed this new joint statement. 

Advancing the field of child maltreatment paediatrics

The Child and Youth Maltreatment Section applied to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to have child maltreatment pediatrics defined as an accredited area of focused competency.   

The Royal College subsequently approved a definition of the scope and limits of the discipline of child maltreatment paediatrics in 2012, and standards for practice and training. Competency training requirements were published by the Royal College in 2015 and updated in 2019.

Key developments in child maltreatment paediatrics and the CPS Child and Youth Maltreatment Section

Section Executive

President, Kathleen Nolan
Vice President, Shasta Moser 
Past President, Emma Cory
Secretary-Treasurer, Natalie Forbes
Members at Large: Michelle Clarke, Sarah Schwartz, Marlene Thibault and Willliam Weiler
Liaison, AMPEQ, Clara Low Decari
Resident Liaison, Nardin Kirolos