PERDANA HOTEL KOTA BHARU

Memorandum

TO: Mrs Haslinda binti Yaacob

FROM: Mohammad Firdaus bin Musa
DATE: 6 April 2007
SUBJECT: Report on Child Abuse in Malaysia over 10 year (1996-2006)

INTRODUCTION
The above conference was organized by Human development, Information Ministry in
Kota Bharu and had attracted many parents around Malaysia.
The aim of this report is to highlight the strategic planning issues discussed during the
conference. Some recommendation which are in helping abused or neglected children is
learning to recognize the signs of child abuse and neglect.

FINDINGS

1. What is Child Abused

Many definition have be offered.

Child abuse consists of any act, or failure to act, that endangers a child's physical or
emotional health and development. Someone is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the
child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child. The four major types of
child abuse are Physical abuse, Sexual abuse, Emotional abuse and Neglect.

2. Type of Abused

2.1 Physical child abuse is an injury resulting from physical aggression. Even if the injury
was not intended, the act is considered physical abuse.
The injury from physical child abuse may be the result of:

• Beating, slapping, or hitting.

 • Pushing, shaking, kicking, or throwing.
• Pinching, biting, choking, or hair-pulling.
• Burning with cigarettes, scalding water, or other hot objects.
• Severe physical punishment.

2.2 Sexual abuse of a child is any sexual act between an adult and a child, including
penetration, intercourse, incest, rape, oral sex, and sodomy. Other examples include:

• Fondling – Touching or kissing a child's genitals, making a child fondle an adult's

genitals.
• Violations of bodily privacy – Forcing a child to undress, spying on a child in the
bathroom or bedroom.
• Exposing children to adult sexuality – Performing sexual acts in front of a child,
exposing genitals, telling "dirty" stories, showing pornography to a child.
• Commercial exploitation – Sexual exploitation through child prostitution or child
pornography.

2.3 Emotional child abuse is any attitude, behavior, or failure to act that interferes with a
child's mental health or social development. It can range from a simple verbal insult to an
extreme form of punishment. Emotional abuse is almost always present when another
form of abuse is found. Surprisingly, emotional abuse can have more long-lasting
negative psychiatric effects than either physical abuse or sexual abuse.

2.4 Neglect is a very common type of child abuse. According to Child Welfare
Information Gateway, more children suffer from neglect than from physical and sexual
abuse combined. Yet victims are not often identified, primarily because neglect is a type
of child abuse that is an act of omission — of not doing something.

3. Primary Prevention Strategies

3.1 Social Interventions
Primary prevention strategies based on risk factors that have a low predictive value are
not as likely to be effective as more broadly based social programs. In addition, programs
focused on a societal level rather than on the individual level prevent the stigmatization
of a group or an individual.

Social strategies for preventing child abuse that are proposed but unproven
include increasing the value society places on children, increasing the economic self-
sufficiency of families, enhancing communities and their resources, discouraging
excessive use of corporal punishment and other forms of violence, making health care
more accessible and affordable, expanding and improving coordination of social services,
improving treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, improving the identification and
treatment of mental health problems, increasing the availability of affordable child care
and preventing the births of unwanted children through sex education, family planning,
abortion, anonymous delivery and adoption.

3.2 Families
Strategies targeted at the individual can also be considered strategies for helping the
family. Common Features of Successful Child Abuse Prevention Programs:

• Strengthen family and community connections and support.

• Treat parents as vital contributors to their children's growth and development.
• Create opportunities for parents to feel empowered to act on their own behalf.
• Respect the integrity of the family.
• Enhance parents' capability to foster the optimal development of their children
and themselves.
• Establish links with community support systems.
• Provide settings where parents and children can gather, interact, support and
learn from each other.
• Enhance coordination and integration of services needed by families.
 • Enhance community awareness of the importance of healthy parenting
practices.
• Provide emergency support for parents 24 hours a day.

The recommendations in this conference the concept of supporting parents in their role of
parenting. Until parents' basic needs are met, they may find it difficult to meet the needs
of their children. The first thing parents need is assistance in meeting their basic
requirements for food, shelter, clothing, safety and medical care. Only when these needs
are met can higher needs be addressed.

The next step should be to identify and treat parents who abuse alcohol or drugs, and
identify and counsel parents who suffer from spousal abuse. Identifying and treating
parents with psychologic problems is also important. Other issues that need attention
include financial concerns, and employment and legal problems. Providing an empathetic
ear and being a source of referral for help with these issues may take physicians a long
way toward nurturing needy parents.

The next higher level of need includes education about time management and budgeting
skills, stress management, coping and parenting skills such as appropriate discipline,
knowledge of child development, nutrition and feeding problems, and safety issues.

3.3 Delivery of Services

In the Malaysia, some of the specific methods of delivering services to families include
long-term home visitation, short-term home visitation, early and extended postpartum
mother/child contact, rooming in, intensive physician contact, drop-in centers, child
classroom education, parent training and free access to health care.

Of these methods, only long-term home visitation (up to two years) has been found to be
effective in reducing the incidence of child abuse as measured by hospital admissions,
emergency department visits and reports to child protective services. Indeed, many
organizations are now embracing the concept of home visitation, as a method of
preventing child abuse by identifying family needs and providing the appropriate
services. Results of one study on home visitation showed benefits or improvements in
several areas: parents' attitudes toward their children, interactions between parents and
children, and reduction in the incidence of child abuse. However, without an
infrastructure of support services such as health care, social services and child care, home
visitors will be unable to deliver needed services.

4. Conclusion

Although child abuse is a pervasive and complex problem with many causes, we should
not take a defeatist attitude toward its prevention. Despite the absence of strong evidence
to guide our preventive efforts, physicians can do many things to try to prevent abuse. At
the very least, showing increased concern for the parents or caregivers and increasing our
attempts to enhance their skills as parents or caregivers may help save our most
vulnerable patients from the nightmare of abuse and neglect.