Milan, 23 June 2017 – Milan was the third stop for the “Stop Child Abuse” campaign, a project launched and supported by Menarini alongside the Italian Society of Paediatricians (SIP) and the Italian Federation of Paediatricians (FIMP).

This project, the first in the world on this scale, aims to create an anti-abuse network to protect children who are victims of abuse and violence. Today, it was Milan's turn to host the training for doctors , launched and supported by Menarini alongside the Italian Society of Paediatricians (SIP) and the Italian Federation of Paediatricians (FIMP).

About 45 paediatricians in Lombardy have received specialised training on the clinical and legal tools to recognise the signs of child abuse and to take action. Each year, many cases of violence and abuse remain in the dark. Minors are at risk of neglect, ill-treatment, and psychological and physical violence, with statistics identifying around 70-80 thousand children and adolescents who are victims of these painful experiences. In 70% of cases, violence and physical, psychological and sexual abuse occurs at home, and in two out of every three cases a parent is involved.

Too often, suffering is veiled in silence, and for this reason Menarini has decided to focus on the creation of a national anti-abuse network with training events for GPs carried out in collaboration with the Italian Society of Paediatrics (SIP) and the Italian Federation of Paediatricians (FIMP). Menarini has invested € 1 million in the project.

Dr Domenico Cipolla, regional secretary SIP for Sicily stated the following: “Scientific literature identifies 9.8% children out of a sample of 1000 in Northern Italy suffer mistreatment (source: Cismai 2015 Report) and this figure is probably underestimated as health centres and schools do not always report suspected cases appropriately. The aim of this project is to create a paediatric network which is informed about the issues involved, allowing raised awareness of the phenomenon, prevention and action against child abuse”.

Paola Miglioranzi Scientific Manager of the FIMP Project had this to say: “Awareness that the events which we are discussing today can be a part of our normal working life is one of the aims of these courses. The more we think about these things and the more we know about them, the easier they will be to see. This is a huge step forward in improving care for our youngest patients. The efforts of family paediatricians is also focused on uncovering the silent cases of abuse, and on collaboration with the competent authorities for the identification of the case, diagnosis and protection of the child going forward. This is a wide reaching effort on our part, and that doesn’t scare us, but give a logic to our responsibility to act in “the best interests of the child” as laid down by the 1989 New York UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: to “grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding”.

During 2017, many other GPs will participate in the courses which will be held in another 15 Italian cities. The initiative will help to generate awareness about these issues: the paediatricians and GPs who follow the courses will become a reference point for their colleagues throughout the country, able to give advice and help in managing cases of suspected abuse and ill-treatment. All this will help to bring to light an increasing number of victims and increase the number of cases being reported.

“The network of paediatricians and GPs to safeguard the child victims of abuse and ill-treatment has now reached Milan. Menarini has developed this project in order to spread medical training across all the regions of Italy, because unfortunately these sad stories we see in the news regard the entire country” – commented Alberto Giovanni and Lucia Aleotti, Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of the Menarini Group – “In this respect, the project is unique and makes Italy an example for all the other countries around the world. We strongly believe in the social value of this network of medical "look-outs". Raising the awareness of GPs around these issues will help to safeguard children's healthy and happy development. This represents our contribution to drastically reducing the number of painful stories that nobody wants to read in the newspapers”.