Stress, not ethnicity, leads people to violence, says the country's senior social worker.
Mike Doolan, chief social worker for Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), says he knows of no evidence that shows one ethnic group to be more predisposed to violence than another.
Mr Doolan told a family violence conference in Timaru yesterday that his 40 years of child protection experience led him to the conclusion that child abuse was often about adults acting out of stress, a state made worse by social disadvantage of any sort.
His remarks came as the child abuse issue was picked up by Plunket and teachers. Plunket nurses may soon ask mothers they visit about family violence and teachers are debating mandatory reporting of abuse.
Mr Doolan told the conference that everyone needed to take responsibility for domestic violence and child abuse.
"We know Maori are over-represented among poorer New Zealanders. Being poor can never be an excuse for abusing your children, but we have to recognise that it does add to stress levels in adults.
"I have been extremely impressed by the recent groundswell of public opinion against child abuse. We need to acknowledge that partner abuse and child abuse is everybody's problem.
"It is more common than we think and affects every type of home, family, religion, race and culture. We, as a country, need to energetically look for solutions to the problem."
A United States study suggested that in up to 53 per cent of families where women were being beaten, children were also physically abused by the same perpetrator.
An English study showed that in 91 per cent of families where spousal abuse was considered severe, the children were abused by one or both caregivers.
Mr Doolan said CYFS dealt with more than 25,000 notifications a year, while social workers made 15,000 placement decisions within the same period.
State agencies could do only so much, regardless of how many resources they had, and everyone had to take responsibility for ending violence and reducing the pressures, such as poverty, that could contribute to abuse.
The move by Plunket to consider asking new mothers about abuse comes after doctors reacted angrily last week to suggestions revealed in Ministry of Health papers that they should ask all women patients if they were being abused.
Plunket's nursing adviser, Angela Baldwin, said nurses visited 90 per cent of all newborn babies in the first few weeks of their life and had access to 50,000 families a year.
Because the visits occurred primarily in homes, the nurses were in a unique position to help.
"Sometimes, women who are in a violent situation have trouble accessing help for themselves," she said. "You would just ask very simple questions - 'Is there anybody here who has hurt you?' or, 'Are you frightened of someone in this household?'
"All you are doing is flagging to them that 'if you want help then there could be help for you'."
Ms Baldwin said the policy was still in the discussion stages, but was already working well in the public health sector in Britain.
Meanwhile, New Plymouth principal Micheal King has called for mandatory reporting by schools of suspected child abuse.
The Maori educator told the NZ Educational Institute conference in Wellington that schools had to set up safety nets for abused children and help to spread the message that abuse would not be tolerated.
"I don't think child abuse is solely schools' responsibility but I don't think we can get away from the fact that schools have children for a large percentage of the day and we have a big part to play in the prevention of child abuse," he said.
"And at three o'clock when the kid walks out the door, you know where they're going and where they're going to. That child has no one else to stand up for them."
Mr King, deputy principal of Marfell Community School, said he believed most teachers would report suspected abuse to their principals, who would then alert agencies.
But that practice did not always work, as had been highlighted recently by child abuse tragedies.
Some schools were also reluctant to report abuse if, for example, it concerned whanau or Maori and other cultures reporting against their own people.
He suggested setting up a 24-hour phoneline for people, including principals and teachers, to report suspected abuse.
- NZPA
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