Fabricated or Induced Illness

Course Outline:

Fabricated or induced illness is a form of child abuse. It occurs when a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in a child. It is often caused by a mental health disorder in the parent or the carer. The mother is responsible in most cases and the more severe cases are likely to occur in children aged under five.

Fabricated and induced illness covers a whole range of behaviours involving parents seeking healthcare for their child. This could include extreme neglect, deliberately injuring a child, falsifying diagnosis, presenting evidence of a supposed illness or induced illness. The parent/carer then continues to present their child as being sick or injured, informing others of that condition and their own suffering as the care giver.

The risks to a child as a result of FII could be permanent injury, disability or death caused directly by the carer’s actions or omissions. Alongside physical harm the child could suffer significant emotional and psychological harm and neglect. It can also lead to some children suffering from extreme isolation i.e. kept at home, kept bed bound, placed in a wheelchair, not allowed to attend school, not allowed to play sport.

Cases involving suspected FII are notoriously difficult to prove evidentially. They require very careful consideration and a well-crafted evidential chronology which lists all of the occasions that a child has been presented to health professionals, what was found in the child’s presentation and what was the response by health professionals i.e. were the health concerns and symptoms expressed by the mother actually found in the child.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• Define fabricated or induced illness
• Identify the signs of FII in a child
• Identify FII behaviour in parents/ carers
• Clarify the risks of FII to the child 
• Describe the categories of abuse
• Explain correct procedure if FII is suspected 
• Apply correct case management