Starvation today. The functioning (and failure) of child protection services system

Abstract

The case of a 17-month baby starved to death has made the whole town questioning about the existing prevention systems and about the real functioning of a service net defined, by different documents, as one of the principal instruments to face with social problems. How is it possible to let people starve to death today? Starting from this question, the case of this young victim has been constantly studied: a baby who has been exposed to physical and psychological mistreatments for months and months, losing her dignity as a “person” and living an existence on the borderline between “visible and invisible”. The authors have delved deeper into the matter, analysing what has been done and what should have been done. An analysis of the context in which facts occurred, paying attention to the institutional contradictions that were the real background in the baby’s life events. After an introduction to the international, national and regional laws about childhood protection, the authors focused their attention on the activities carried out by local services, analysing the importance of Pediatricians’ role, Social Welfare Services and people. The analysis about interventions and strategies aimed to protect the childhood world has pointed out how difficult it is to switch from an initial planning to the definitive realization of practical interventions about health and social services. These difficulties are partially due to a series of legislative and bureaucratic steps that strongly slow down the projects realization. This young baby’s death was a strong emotional shock for the entire city that started to call into question health and social services systems already existing over the territory. Nevertheless this case was also a way to reflect about people’s attitude to feel as part of a community but without doing anything to play their roles as active citizens. Through the analysis of the actual situation in Bari, the authors have found important changes in policy towards children and families.