Child murder fuels uptake of electronic records
The murder of a twelve year girl is accelerating the adoption of electronic child health and social records across the Netherlands.
The death of “Gessica” – known as the “Maas girl” after her body was discovered in the River Maas – has underlined the importance of the Netherlands’ new child electronic records: the EKD.
Police used the new electronic records to confirm the identity of the victim.
But for health and social workers, the real importance of the EKD is to ensure that the “Maas girl” case is never repeated. The EKD system creates a unified child record, bringing together educational, social welfare and health records. Signs of neglect or abuse should be far easier to detect, and the new system allows rapid scanning of cases to identify children at risk.
In the first half of 2007, the records of 150,000 children were specially screened. 28,000 were found to require further attention.
Maasmeisje is nog dagelijks ons voorbeeld in jeugdhulpverlening
