Barnafrid – a national centre for knowledge concerning violence against children
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Barnafrid is a national centre charged with gathering and disseminating knowledge about violence and other abuse in relation to children. This is a government assignment that was awarded to Linköping University in 2015 and the centre is placed under the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Hospital Campus (US), in Linköping.

Barnafrid aims not only at professionals who, as part of their work, meet children and young people who have been subjected to violence, but also at professionals in other fields such as various government agencies. The purposes of the centre are to contribute to improved prevention work and to develop effective measures to protect and support children who are subjected to violence and other forms of abuse. It aims to fulfil these purposes by gathering and disseminating knowledge.
Barnafrid is intended to be a link between research and practice and is responsible for several national vocational networks through which professionals are invited to lectures and seminars with the opportunity of exchanging experiences. The centre is also charged with the annual tasks of identifying areas in which more knowledge is needed, tailoring compiled information for relevant professional groups, and identifying and reporting on areas for development to the government.

Barnafrid is led by the Head of Department, Laura Korhonen, and employs 13 co-workers. Its operations are reported annually to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and are up for review in the course of 2019.
In addition to its fundamental commission, Barnafrid receives other government assignments relating to children who are subject to violence and other abuse. Our current assignments are listed below.

Evaluation of children’s homes

In the course of 2018, we evaluated all of Sweden’s 32 children’s homes. Part of the government assignment was to identify examples of good practice and any shortcomings in operations. The overall purpose was to promote high-quality, equal treatment for children exposed to abuse. 

A question of honour

Here, the government assignment was to implement training in relation to honour-related violence and repression for the country’s children’s homes. The purpose of the task was to strengthen children’s homes’ investigative expertise in cases in which honour-related crime is suspected.  

Trauma on the Map

On behalf of the government, we are to prepare and implement a programme of expertise development for paediatric and adolescent psychiatry staff who come into contact with traumatised children and young people in their work.

The task of digitalising, and thus rendering available, a skills development programme in psychiatric trauma care for children and young people is placed within the framework of the Trauma on the Map assignment.   
 

News
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Has violence against children increased during the pandemic?

Lack of current, reliable statistics makes it difficult to say if violence against children is increasing or decreasing during the Covid-19 pandemic. We risk making the wrong priorities, write Professor Laura Korhonen and psychologist Erica Mattelin.

Make UN Children’s Convention the guiding principle

Crises and emergencies are known risk factors for children’s health and wellbeing. To curb this there must be an impact assessment that clarifies risks and establishes preventive measures from a child’s perspective.

School may be the key to improvement for children in social care

Children in social care have poorer mental health and perform worse in school than other children. But they have trust in the school staff and perform better after individual assessment at school. These are findings in a docoral thesis from LiU.

Selling sex can be a self-injury behaviour among adolescents

Selling sex or putting oneself in other risky sexual situations can be a way for an adolescent to self-injure, comparable to cutting or burning oneself. This is according to a doctoral thesis from Linköping University.

Supporting vulnerable children

Children should be able to grow up without the fear of threats and abuse. The national knowledge centre Barnafrid has its direction clearly defined – but its task is demanding.

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