title: Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems.
  
  
  METHODS
  Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.
authors.affiliation: Children's Mental Health Alliance, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sargent
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chaffin
authors.forename: William N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cantor
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sumner Coffey
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Villani
authors.forename: Philip R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Beard
authors.forename: Mary Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Clifft
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greenspun
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services; D009938:Organizations; D016730:Program Development