Research and interventions where children may disclose violence require effective, resourced and context-specific safeguarding response plans.
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Acknowledgements
We thank our colleagues who are researchers, program implementors, social workers, policy makers committed to supporting children and young people. We thank the young people we have worked with, and learned from, along the way. We thank R. Subrahmanian for helpful comments and insights on this piece. We acknowledge and thank A. Akim who we lost too soon and whose efforts to improve safeguarding in violence research will always be remembered. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the affiliated institutions. The COVAC study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MR/R002827/1). A.B. received funding from the Economic and Social Research council (ES/X001792/1).
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The authors disclose employment and consulting activities for organizations that implement programming and undertake advocacy efforts related to child protection and violence response services, including for Raising Voices, the AfriChild Centre, Childline Zimbabwe and UNICEF.
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Bhatia, A., Zinke-Allmang, A., Bangirana, C.A. et al. Putting children’s safety at the heart of violence research. Nat Med 30, 2721–2724 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03291-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03291-1
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