Blaine

Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

An alarm is being raised about the number of children being physically abused. Hospital reports last year show that at least 1,241 children, aged zero to nine, in total were treated for physical injury caused by blunt instruments in accident and emergency units.

In 2004, the figure was lower with 986 injured children coming through the doors of accident and emergency units of the island's public hospitals. In 2003 there were 1,466.

While a significant number of these children are injured by their peers, the Ministry of Health says approximately 60 per cent of the injuries are perpetrated by adults, most of them caregivers. Another large percentage of them are abused by relatives in whose care they are left, while many others are injured by peers in school, at home or on the street. In total, 91 per cent of the injuries were done by people whom they know.

Many of the children had injuries to the face, head, and neck, reports show. At the Bustamante Hospital for Children, an overall 61 per cent of the children had injuries to these areas including 48 eye injuries.

Founder of the children's advocacy Hear the Children Cry, Betty-Anne Blaine, says the high incidence of physical abuse of children is frightening and more attention needs to be given to the issue.

"Who are the persons perpetrating these kinds of crimes against children? Where are the children after they have been discharged from hospital? I am just curious to know how the system is working," she stated. Blaine says the perpetrators ought to be arrested and prosecuted.

Beaten by father

In 2003, a nine-year-old boy showed up to school at Tavern Primary in St. Andrew, with blood-shot eyes and injuries all over his body. He told a teacher he was beaten by his father. He was taken to the Bustamante Hospital for Children where he was admitted for five days for severe damage to his eyes and skull. His father was arrested and prosecuted.

Blaine blames the high level of crime and violence in the country for the high incidence of child abuse annually.

"It also has to be seen in the absence of protection of these children. What I know is that you have thousands of children in this country who are completely left to the elements of the communities in which they live," she says.

Project Coordinator of the Child Abuse Mitigation Project at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (CAMP Bustamante), Rose Robinson-Hall, says violence is endemic in Jamaica and so in order to combat the issue, certain changes need to be made at the national and community level.

She says while there are laws and agencies to protect children, parents need to be better educated about issues of child abuse.

"Say, for example you and your partner enjoy adult movies, it becomes abuse if you allow your child to watch it or see it, expose them to it," she says. Robinson-Hall notes that because some parents and caregivers are not aware of some of the ways they can abuse their children, example has to be set at the highest level through laws and intervention.

She adds that parents need to find more suitable ways of disciplining children rather than extending corporal punishment. She says there are different degrees of punishment that are applied at the different stages of the child's life, but there are not many parents who understand this because punishment is seen in Jamaica within a cultural context.

National dialogue needed

"I remember there was once a mother who beat her two-year-old for pulling some pots from the cupboard. That is normal for a child her age to want to pull things out of places ... you shouldn't punish children for something that is normal," she says.

"At the macro level we need to have national dialogue on what is acceptable and defining in our context what is good enough parenting," she adds.

Director of Disease Prevention in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Elizabeth Ward, also says there is reason to be concerned about the high levels of physical abuse meted out against children. She says as a country we need to use the data available to create appropriate intervention measures at the community level, involving all institutions.