OBJECTIVE: to describe the profile and the conduct of public sector, philanthropic, and private phonoaudiologists contracted by the public health authorities in the city of Recife, in the Brazilian State of Pernambuco, with regard to suspected and/orconfirmed cases of domestic violence against children and adolescents between August and October 2008. METHODS: a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out with phonoaudiologists from the Brazilian public health service with more than one year of work experience following graduation. The study variables included socio-demographic characteristics, area of work, academic profile and suspected and/or confirmed cases of abuse reported by them and were obtained using a structured questionnaire, subsequently analyzed statistically using the chisquare and Fisher's Exact test. RESULTS: of the 89 phonoaudiologists, 43.8% (39)had attended cases of suspected and/or confirmed abuse, with physical abuse being the most frequent kind (35%). Of the 70 cases reported, 2.9% (2) were referred to the appropriate authorities. Most referred the cases to social services or psychologists (34.3%). Around 50% of such patients abandoned treatment. CONCLUSION: the reporting of cases was found to be very low, due, possibility, to lack of information on the part of phonoaudiologists as to the measures to be taken. This suggests that there is a need for professional training to improve the identification of cases of violence and teach phonoaudiologists how to deal with them.
Child; Adolescent; Speech, language and hearing sciences; Domestic violence
