Notificação de violência contra criança: conhecimento e comportamento dos profissionais de saúde

Introduction: The violence against children and teenagers severely damages physical health and psychological development of their victims. Health professionals are in a strategic position to detect cases of assault and legally obliged to report such cases, even suspected. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the knowledge of health professionals who work in the National Health System (SUS) on reporting of violence against children and adolescents. Methods: We conducted interviews with 54 primary care team of four cities from the region of São José do Rio Preto. Results: Through the study could be seen that 92.6% of respondents suspected or witnessed violence against children exercising their profession in the SUS. About Order 1968/2001, 75.5% of practitioners claim ignoring it. 96.2% were not informed about completing the notification form of violence. 88.9% do not know about the existence of the same workplace. The association between obtaining information on work and the act of notification was significant (p = 0.0276). Conclusion: The professionals are still unaware of the legal issues related to notification. It is suggested that the training of them to deal with the bureaucratic side of the issue, once notify contributes to the delineation of the epidemiology of violence and consequent development of public policies