Ibiza takes the lead in the model that seeks to alleviate trauma in child victims of sexual violence

The Government will implement in the Balearic Islands the Barnahaus model, a comprehensive system of care for minors who are victims of sexual violence that will bring together in a single space all judicial, health, educational and social interventions. The Councilor for Families, Social Welfare and Dependency Care, Sandra Fernández, explained that the first Barnahaus of the archipelago “will foreseeably be in Ibiza“, where the Consell insular has been working on this project since the last legislature.

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The initiative, announced after the meeting of the Consell de Govern, pursues a central objective: to prevent minors from having to repeat their story over and over again before different professionals. “We want a single protocol that coordinates all the agents involved, so that the minor is in a single space to which professionals go,” said Fernandez. “We cannot allow them to relive a traumatic event so many times,” he insisted.

The plan aims to prevent situations that have been common until now, such as a case detected in an educational center forcing the victim to go through teachers, health professionals, prosecutors or social workers at different points in the process. With the Barnahaus, the testimony is collected only once, in an adapted, respectful environment designed for the emotional protection of the minor. The councilor stressed that this approach also improves the judicial validity of the account, which loses precision when it has to be repeated.

The intention of the autonomous Executive is that each island has its own center, something especially relevant in Ibiza, where professionals have long been demanding unified protocols and adequate spaces for these cases. The Government is now working on identifying properties that can host the Barnahaus in each territory. “We will take steps without rest, although we may not reach the end of the legislature with all of them open,” admitted Fernandez.

What is the model based on?

The model, whose Icelandic name means “children’s home“, is endorsed by the organic law for the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents and by the recommendations of the Council of Europe. In the Balearic Islands it will be promoted by the Observatory of Childhood and Adolescence, which will form a working group to coordinate the deployment and develop a single protocol for action. The centers will functionally depend on the island councils, under the technical coordination of the Government.

For Ibiza, the project represents a qualitative leap in an area in which the island has historically claimed its own resources. In recent years, La Voz de Ibiza has reported on the challenges of specialized teams, the lack of adapted spaces and the need to reduce the re-victimization of minors, especially in cases detected in educational or family environments. With the Barnahaus, the Government aims to correct these shortcomings and offer a more agile, respectful and safe circuit.