Experiences and responses of child protection professionals during COVID-19: Lessons learned from professionals around the globe

Background: COVID-19 significantly worsened already challenging circumstances for children and their families and globally increased the likelihood of child maltreatment. This risk heightened the urgency of child protection professionals in preventing child maltreatment and defending children's rights. The vast and growing body of research on protecting children from child maltreatment during COVID-19 has emphasized practitioners' tremendous difficulty in this arena. Objective: The current international study sought to identify the experiences and responses of child protection professionals to child maltreatment during COVID-19. Participants and setting: Five real-time, virtual focus groups were conducted among professionals who work with children from countries around the globe. Method: Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the focus group transcripts. Results: The participants identified their experiences and challenges in performing their role of protecting children. Additionally, they shared context-adapted and innovative responses to child maltreatment, while emphasizing self-care and their mental health. Conclusions: The results highlighted that child protection was significantly more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they underlined the importance of establishing practices and policies for child protection in crisis times as well as ensuring both children's and professionals' well-being and mental health.