Child abuse measures a good start, say experts

Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A largely uncosted package of measures to tackle New Zealand's high rate of child abuse is being welcomed by social agencies, though it falls well short of what some had requested.

The only figures available yesterday for the seven-point plan unveiled by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett were $300,000 for advocates to visit when domestic violence is reported in families in Auckland City with infants under 2, and $280,000 for a two-year trial asking midwives or nurses to talk to all new parents about the dangers of shaking babies.

The $280,000 is little more than a quarter of the $1 million which the Auckland District Health Board had requested to run a three-year trial across the whole Auckland region, and means that interventions will be limited to the Auckland City area.

But Dr Patrick Kelly of Starship Hospital's child abuse unit Te Puaruruhau said he was pleased that Ms Bennett had picked up initiatives that he had been advocating for years.

"This is only a start, but I actually think that although each of these things are only small things, they are all pretty useful things to do," he said.

The package was announced a day after a major OECD report on Doing Better for Children found that public spending on the average preschool child in New Zealand was less than half the OECD average.

Although the report did not focus on child abuse, it found that New Zealand's overall rate of child deaths was above the OECD average, and NZ suicide rates for youths aged 15 to 19 were the highest in the 30-nation group.

Dr Kelly said admissions to Auckland hospitals for non-accidental head injuries in infants under 2 had risen from 39 in the decade 1988-98 to 88 in the latest decade to the end of last year.

"The rate has doubled from four a year to almost nine a year," he said.

He is still investigating the extent to which this is due to population growth and changes in referrals to Starship from the rest of the country, but he said that at the very least the figures showed the problem was not improving - and was probably getting worse.

He said the $280,000 from Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) for informing parents about the dangers of shaking babies would be enough to go ahead, even though the health system was not paying anything.

"The $1 million was for a Rolls-Royce programme for the whole Auckland region. We have had to cut our coat to fit our cloth," he said.

"Wherever the money comes from, I'm grateful. At least it will enable us to run this as a pilot and if successful we may be able to get some funds out of the health system as well, because really we are talking about the professional practice of health professionals."

He said a midwife had already produced two pamphlets, one on the dangers of shaking babies and one on how to respond to babies crying.

"She has tried them on a single postnatal ward for a year. Now we'll use them in more locations," he said.

Jill Proudfoot of the anti-violence agency Shine said the $300,000 for intervention in family violence cases would enable her agency to visit most families in Auckland City where violence was reported and infants under 2 were present. "At the moment we are only contracted to respond to arrests," she said.

A spokeswoman for Ms Bennett said the multimedia campaign on the dangers of shaking babies would be the first since 1993, but would be much smaller than the "It's not okay" campaign against family violence. The package includes plans to be agreed between CYF and other agencies for all abused children and young people leaving hospital.

CYF will station liaison social workers in hospitals in Counties-Manukau, Waikato, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, adding to the one who has been based at Starship for the past decade.

Dr Kelly said the Paediatric Society made a submission against CYF's decision just two months ago to disband its team of 18 community liaison social workers as part of budget cuts, and was glad to see that they were being resurrected in hospitals.

Dr Kelly, Children's Commissioner John Angus and Christchurch health researcher David Fergusson are the only three people named so far to a proposed "expert forum" that will meet in October to discuss further measures to tackle child abuse.

Ms Bennett's spokeswoman said the group would be asked to report within months.

CHILD ABUSE PACKAGE

* Multimedia campaign on "never shake a baby" (uncosted).
* Midwives/nurses to talk to all new parents in Auckland City about dangers of shaking babies ($140,000 a year for two years).
* Advocates to visit when domestic violence reported in families with infants under 2 in Auckland City ($300,000).
* CYF, police, health and social agencies to make plans for all abused children leaving hospital (uncosted).
* CYF social workers in five more hospitals (uncosted).
* More consistent data on child abuse (uncosted).
* Expert forum to discuss further measures in October (uncosted).