This week is Child Protection Week and Hamilton City began the week with an estimated 100 family violence incidents from the previous week - just on 50% of these incidents involved children.
Supervisor of the Hamilton Family Safety Team, Sergeant Alan McGlade says there is a myth surrounding children and family violence that if the children are not the direct recipients of family violence then they are ok.
"Unfortunately for children being raised in abusive environments whether they are the target of the abuse or the silent witnesses hiding in a bedroom under their bed the effects of the abuse damages them for life," he says.
Family violence has resulted in the death of many children throughout the country. The long term exposure to family violence on children should they survive may result in children developing a multitude of dysfunctional and self destructive problems such as the development of anti social behaviours and criminal offending.
"They may have problems communicating and they may become bullies with younger siblings, animals and in schools. They may develop sexualised behaviours if they have or are being sexually abused. They will have learning difficulties, and ultimately they may become the perpetrators of family violence themselves."
"The risk of children developing into perpetrators of family violence is greatly heightened when families refuse to engage with appropriate services for help," says Sergeant McGlade.
"These families are normally at a very high risk of family violence and with extremely complex needs, for example families who are gang affiliated, or affected by mental health issues, or with highly dysfunctional relationship issues. These are the types of families that grab the attention of the Hamilton Family Safety Team."
"The safety team focuses on proactive engagement as the way forward. It is essential to build rapport and trust with these families and assess their needs and then implement strategic and appropriate interventions that fit the family rather than trying to make the family fit the intervention".
"Child Protection Week is an opportunity to reflect on the valuable role our children have to play in our future and our responsibilities in nurturing them in safe, protected environments that empower them to become positive, well-balanced and productive members of their families and society as a whole."
“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and till the end of the world there will not be, another child like him”
Pablo Casals
ENDS
Sergeant Alan McGlade
Supervisor Hamilton Family Safety Team
027 214 7873