[Study of reports to the departmental home of disabled children placed in social assistance to children in the Bouches-du-Rhône].

Introduction: By the end of 2011, 275,000 children in France were included in the Aide sociale à l'enfance (ASE, Child Welfare System). Half of these children were entrusted to public care. There is limited data on these children. The MDPH (Maison départementale des personnes handicapées) is an administrative body assisting in the care of disabled children, through material, financial, and human means. Analyzing MDPH medical records can provide medical information about these children. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of children left to the ASE with a record at MDPH in Bouches-du-Rhône.
Methods: We extracted administrative data from two registers, the ASE register and the MDPH register. The MDPH medical files of each patient were analyzed and their medical information was coded: gestational age, deficiencies, and pathologies.
Results: In Bouches-du-Rhône, 2965 children were entrusted, 506 (17%) of whom were known by the MDPH: 30.6% of the entrusted children known by MDPH were taken into foster care and 48% were in residential group homes. Half of the MDPH notifications concerned a referral to a school or medico-social institution. By analyzing the medical data, we observed an average of 2.1 deficiencies per child. The types of deficiencies were distributed as follows: 35.9% were psychological deficiencies, 26.4% were speech deficiencies, and 21.6% were intellectual cognitive deficiencies. The most common pathology was mental and behavioral disorder (71% of diagnoses).
Discussion: The MDPH notification rate in children entrusted to public care was seven times higher than in the general population. Overall, explaining the relation between child abuse and neglect and disability is difficult. The psychopathology of these children is complex. These results show the importance of specific medical monitoring for these children.
(Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier SAS.)