IMPACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION FOR ABUSED CHILDREN WITH LEGAL PROCESS

Abstract

Children need to receive multidisciplinary interventions to recover from traumatic experiences. Along with the trauma, children are involved in the legal system to pursue criminal cases against their perpetrators. This is another challenge as these children face alleged perpetrators, relive traumatic experiences and be under scrutiny in testifying during case proceedings. However, children with legal proceedings usually receive biases and little consistency in the treatment of abuse. Despite the significance of psychological intervention in helping prepare child witnesses, dealing with trauma and healing process, not all abused children with on-going court measures are referred to receive it. This study focused on referred abused children and assessed the impact of psychological intervention in going through the case proceedings. The in-depth interviews provided details, status of the case and interventions received to establish the profile of the abused children. The emotional competence of the abused children who received and did not receive any form of psychological intervention was established through results of BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version. The impact of the psychological intervention was established through the expressed changes after the received forms of psychological intervention. A focus group discussion with multidisciplinary intervention teams validated the findings of the study, confirmed the need to strengthen the psychological interventions in the local government unit and the agreement of implementing the proposed psychological intervention program “TASK(Tabang Asin Pagmamakulog Sa Kaakian): Psychological Wellness Modules to help more abused children and protect them.