Ernesto Caffo

He is currently a board member of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), Coordinator of the Global Health Coalition, Missing Children Europe. He is also President of Children First Foundation, ERICE (Empowerment and Resilience in Children Everywhere), the Commission on Child Adversities within the Mental Health Coalition at Harvard University led by Prof. Ron Kessler. Since 2005, he is an honorary member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

Moreover, in 2003 he has been visiting Professor at the Child Study Center at Yale. During this period, he furthered his studies and research on trauma and abuse in subjects in childhood, externalizing behaviours in adolescence, autism and related disorders. He is currently also a member of an international research consortium coordinated by Prof.J. Goodyear at the University of Cambridge on the subject of depression in children and adolescents that includes the University of Marburg (Prof. Prof.H Remschmidt), Utrecht (Prof.H. Van Engeland), Athens (Prof. S. Tsiantis).

Since 2001, he is Full Professor in child neuropsychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In 2002, he has been nominated Director of the Advanced Master "assessment and intervention in situation of child abuse and pedophilia" from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Since 2003, he is Medical Director at the Hospital of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia by taking care of the department of Pediatrics. Under this role, he also gave birth to the Program called "Development of Child Neuropsychiatry". From 2008 to 2009 he was Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Faculty of Psychology of the Sapienza, University of Rome.

From 2001, he actively followed the activities of the international consortium promoted by IACAPAP (International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions) in the areas of developmental disorders, particularly on autism, pervasive developmental and mood disorders.

He has been appointed as member of the National Observatory on Childhood andAdolescence within the Italian Minister of Welfare from 2001 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2014.

In 2000, he established the International Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Seminar, an annual training and panel discussion that brings together junior researchers and experts to exchange scientific knowledge in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Seminar has built up a renowned reputation in training researchers and triggering the scientific debate over the genetic and environmental aspects of childhood psychiatric disorders. As of 2015, the Seminar is at its 11th edition.

In 1998 he founded Foundation Child, which he chairs. Its aim is to promote a child-centered culture through a close examination of the causes and treatments of physical and mental diseases. It was established by the contribution of "SOS Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus- National Helpline for the Prevention of Child Abuse". The Foundation Child supports research initiatives such as conferences and trainings in order to expand and promote research in the field of children and adolescent's mental health. The Foundation's main projects are the following:

Telefono Azzurro was set up in Bologna (Italy) in 1987. By Italian Presidential Decree of 18 December 1990, Telefono Azzurro gained recognition as a non-profit organization as a result of the important work it was carrying out to defend children's rights.

In 1990, the first toll-free telephone hotline for children (1.96.96 – which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) was set up. It currently also takes calls from adults who want to report on missing or exploited children. The association's foundation was a concrete response to the International Convention on the Right of the Child that was signed by the United Nations in 1989. Telefono Azzurro has contributed to the international debate concerning the rights of the child by promoting and sharing knowledge concerning the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted signed in 1989 by the United Nations and ratified by Italy in 1991, and the European Convention of Strasburg that was signed in 1996. Following the agreement between the Ministers for Communication, Equal Opportunities, Work and Social Policies, in February 2003, Telefono Azzurro was entrusted to manage the pilot phase of the 114 Childhood Emergency Hotline.

In 1988 he was one of the founders of the International Forum for Child Welfare, the organization which unites the most important world associations dealing with the problems of children. He was President of that organization from 1994–96. Since 2003, he has been involved in the Global Program on Child and Mental Health, sponsored by the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), as well as in numerous international research consortia promoted by International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) in the field of mental disorders in children, particularly autism, pervasive developmental disorders and mood disorders. Throughout the years, he actively engaged at an academic level to train researchers and trigger the scientific debate over the genetic and environmental aspects of childhood psychiatric disorders. He also organized several research and training seminars on the treatment of victims of traumatic events in childhood, offering an introduction to the most important evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapies for the treatment of children and adolescents victims of trauma and disaster. The last of these meetings was on the Trauma Focused CBT - a model developed by Anthony Mannarino and Judith Cohen in the US, who led the panel in Modena in 2013.

Moreover, from 1984 to 1998 he was Director of the journal Bambino Incompiuto and Member of the Editorial Board of several international journals dealing with child psychiatry such as Child Abuse & Neglect International Journal, European Journal of Child Psychiatry, Imago, Psichiatria dell'infanzia e dell'adolescenza.

In 1983, he also obtained a residency certification in Systemic Family Therapy from the Centre for the Study of the Family in Milan and a residency certification in Psychiatry at the University of Modena. Throughout the years, his research and major academic contribution focused on trauma, autism, child abuse and violence and in particular on treatment evaluation in child and adolescent psychiatry.

In 1975, he took a residency program in Medicine from the University of Bologna and joined the Order of Physicians and Surgeons of Bologna. In 1980, he obtained a residency certification in Child Neuropsychiatry from the University of Modena.

Between 1975 and 1998 he spent time delivering professional training in the United States in prestigious universities such as Harvard University (M. Belfer, B. Brazelton), Columbia (D.Schaffer, A.Green, R.Klin,), New York University (G. Jung, D. Koplewitz), University of Denver (H.Kempe, F.Coppolillo), San Francisco (H.Philips).

Ernesto Caffo (born 16 May 1950, Modena) is the founder and President of SOS Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus and Fondazione Child. He is a Chair Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, full-time Director of the Department of Paediatrics for the Hospital of University of Modena, and Director of the 6th edition of the Master Assessment and Intervention in situations of child abuse and pedophilia at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.