Plunket welcomes bill

Press, 29 December 1986, Page 6

Plunket welcomes bill

PA Wellington The Plunket Society has welcomed provisions in the Children and Young Persons Bill which will tackle child abuse and neglect The national president Mrs Jenny Cox, said Plunket had been actively campaigning for several years for the wide introduction of child protection teams and a multi-

disciplinary approach to dealing with cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children. “The previously fragmented responsibilities of those agencies concerned with the problem has frustrated attempts to produce constructive ways of handling child abuse. “The bill promotes the concept of a team which combines the service of

the relevant professional and community groups like Plunket to deliberate each case individually.”

Mrs Cox said that while the concept could put extra pressure on already over-burdened Plunket nurses, there was the realisation that the service provided would be a vast improvement on present methods of dealing with the ill-treatment of children.