Bad publicity ‘may reduce funding’

Press, 8 July 1989, Page 3

Bad publicity ‘may reduce funding’

By

SARAH SANDS

Child sexual abuse could become a low priority for funding if negative publicity about health professionals working in the area continues, said the Mental Health Foundation yesterday.

The foundation’s deputy director, Dr Barbara Disley, said “some sections of the media” had continued to denigrate professionals in the child sexual abuse area. The foundation, was concerned about the continuing publicity given to a case in Christchurch, she said. “The Mental Health Foundation is concerned that the negative publicity arising from the case will result in frontline professionals working with children being reluctant to pursue detection procedures where they suspect

abuse has occurred,” said Dr Disley. “In addition, such publicity often has the effect of reducing the priority given an area and thus in turn, the funding levels to the services that have been criticised.” The issue of child sexual abuse evoked strong reactions and while the foundation agreed that errors in detection of abuse could happen, “these should not be sensationalised to the detriment of the major advances that have been made in the detection area,” said Dr Disley. “It must be re- ,

membered that child sexual abuse does occur and that the physical and psychological results for most children are severe and ongoing. "It would, however, be more helpful if our society was prepared to allocate more resources to the area to ensure that professionals working in the prevention, detection and aftermath counselling of sexual abuse were as highly trained and professionally supported as possible,” said Dr Disley. The present situation of detection was adversarial and put professional

health workers and counsellors in an unenviable position, she said. “It does little to ensure the ongoing mental health of the child, the abuser, or the family.” Recently gains had been made in setting up child sexual abuse teams, and supportive structures for victims, abusers, and families were beginning to emerge, said Dr Disley. “Such initiatives must continue so that future services can become more prevention orientated, less confrontational, and more supportive of all involved,” she said.