Ten years of the Child Protection Clinic at the University of Munich

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For ten years now, the Bavarian Child Protection Clinic at the University of Munich has been open around the clock. The only facility of its kind in Bavaria, whenever there is a suspicion that a child or young person may have been a victim of physical or sexual violence the clinic offers advice to victims and relatives, documents injuries, secures evidence and makes appropriate diagnoses.

Professorin Elisabeth Mützel, the head of the Child Protection Clinic, looks back on the last decade with a sense of satisfaction. “We have established ourselves as the contact point for child protection and are recording a steady increase in the number of cases reported to us,” says the doctor. She explains that this is not necessarily due to an increase in the actual number of cases but to the fact that, historically, a large number of such cases go unreported.

Funding secured for the next four years

Speaking at a press conference, Bavaria’s Family Minister Carolina Trautner honored the work of the team at the LMU’s Institute of Forensic Medicine and presented them with a grant worth 2.4 million euros for the next four years. “I am impressed by what they do there every day!" said Minister Trautner. “With the Bavarian Child Protection Clinic, we have a statewide center that has been a nationwide role model since 2011.”

Thanks to the funding obtained, the continued operation of the Child Protection Clinic is secured for what is now the fourth funding period until the end of 2025. “I am delighted that we can continue our work here,” says Mützel. “In the upcoming project phase, we will bring many new experts on board, especially so that we can have psychological violence and neglect assessed by experts in this field.”

The Bavarian Child Protection Clinic was founded on April 11, 2011. Since then, it has been the point of contact for doctors, parents and guardians and the victims themselves, as well as youth welfare officers, when it comes to recognizing violence against children and young people. “The last few years have shown that we are on the right track with our project and are making a contribution to child protection,” says LMU Professor Mützel. “Not least thanks to the commitment and support of the Ministry for Family Affairs.”