Developing assessments for child exposure to intimate partner violence in Switzerland – A study of medico-legal reports in clinical settings

Purpose: Evidence to inform assessment of needs of children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) in health settings is limited. A Swiss hospital-based medico-legal consultation for adult victims of violence also detects children’s exposure to IPV and refers cases to the Pediatrics Child Abuse and Neglect Team. Based on a conceptual ecological framework, this study examined the nature and circumstances of children’s exposure to IPV described in accounts collected by nurses in consultations with adult IPV victims. Methods: From 2011-2014, 438 parents (88% female) of 668 children aged 0 to 18 sought medico-legal care from the Violence Medical Unit in Lausanne Switzerland, following assaults by intimate partners (85% male). As part of the consultation, nurses completed a semi-structured questionnaire with victimized parents, recording their answers in the patient file. Victims’ statements about the abuse, their personal, family and social contexts, and their children’s exposure to IPV were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and qualitative thematic content analyses were conducted to identify, from the victimized parents’ accounts, elements useful to understand the nature and circumstances of children’s exposure and involvement during violent events. Results: Parent statements on specific violent events described children being present in 75% of the cases. Children were said to be exposed to, and responded to, severe physical violence, serious threats and insults, in the context of repeated assaults and coercive control. Families, especially mothers, were often coping with additional socio-economic vulnerabilities. Conclusions: Implications for further developing assessments of children living with IPV, especially in health settings were identified

Application of the planning support system URBio

The planning support system URBio is demonstrated via two case studies. Both case studies are located in the canton of Geneva. The first case study is a greenfield planning project, where the goal is to build a new district on former agricultural land. The project responds to the urgent, global challenges of urbanization, and climate change by developing a relatively dense, ecofriendly district. The second case study focuses on a brownfield planning project, that is, the redevelopment of an existing neighborhood. Consequently, the planning support system was adapted to address the challenges and measures specific to urban redevelopment. Through both case studies, the reader will be walked through a typical application process of URBio, illustrating how it is used interactively to explore and narrow the search space, how new questions might come up during this process, and how URBio enables to find further answers. The first case study will illustrate with practical examples the trade-offs between common planning targets such as energy, density, and social aspects (e.g., share of parks). The second case study provides a more in-depth analysis of the current state of the energy system, the limits in achievable densities, and emission saving potentials by replacement of conversion systems and thermal building refurbishments