’At least 600 child-abuse cases a year'

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 13

’At least 600 child-abuse cases a year'

PA Hamilton; At least 600 cases a year; of serious child abuse were dealt with by the Social) Welfare Department but the! true incidence of the prob-j lem in New Zealand was still unmeasured. Professor James Ritchie told a “Child I at Risk” seminar in Hamilton.

The dean of social science and professor of psychology at Waikato University. Professor Ritchie is an international authority on child abuse.

He said that attention fo-| cased on the problem in! 1962 when research had found that children at hospital emergency and accident departments with non-acci-dental injuries had frequently shown evidence of earlier injury. The nonaccidental injuries included bruising, fractures, and bums.

Abused children were i often malnourished, with-1 drawn or angry, and devel-! opmentally retarded. More recently it had been realised that physicallyabused children were usually emotionally abused as well and that sexual abuse was far more common than pre-’ viously realised. Four features were charac-1 teristically present: — The adult responsible; Fad been abused as a child. | — The birth had often’ been difficult, the baby ■ might have been injured at; birth, and the child was; often “cranky” and difficult’ •nd failed to thrive. — The adult was subject to a stress build-up. — A crisis caused final loss of control. Frequently the responsible adult had a desperate need for help but was hampered by fear or guilt. "Often a repeated cry for

help is not recognised,” said Professor Ritchie. “The mother may say, ‘I was changing him yesterday and the pin slipped: it didn’t just prick him, it went right in.’ if you hear that, watch out.”

Professor Ritchie said child abuse was commonly associated with young parents and unplanned marriages.

“There is also heavy association with poverty. Grinding poverty can be” a prime stress factor. Corso tried to tell us that. Not only was nobody listening, but someone acted savagely as a result.”

Professor Ritchie said that in many cases the pregnancy had been unwelcome and the child unwanted. Often there was lack of help or advice on parent behaviour. Often the family was in a constant state of uproar against a background of poverty, infidelity, and alcohol.

Some who stumbled into child abuse set high standards for and had high ambitions for the child.

Sometimes the offending adult was starved of love and expected the child to fill that need. Professor Ritchie voiced concern about the present inability to introduce aid to people at risk in such a way that stress was not in-

creased. “We must be careful how we try to help. We could be seen as just another busybody poking into a situation which is already pretty terrible.

“We need good crisis intervention. It could be from a professional source or from a voluntary organisation. We need to be able to recognise a cry for help: it could come from a child, from a parent, or from someone else close to the problem.”