Over the next few days the Herald will be running a series of articles on child abuse and highlighting charities working to end it. See the bottom of this page for today's charity.
KEY POINTS:
Children under the age of one are at most risk of being abused in New Zealand, which has one of the highest rates of child maltreatment deaths in the developed world.
Research shows that the younger the child, the more likely they are to die. It also shows that:
Maori children die at twice the rate of non-Maori.
Children living in homes with an adult who is not related to them are almost 50 times more like to die from an inflicted injury than children in homes with two biological parents.
In the 10 years to 2003, two thirds of all New Zealand children killed by abuse were under the age of five. One third were under the age of one.
Those dealing with abuse on a daily basis say there are a mix of reasons why infants are so at risk. Many are obvious.
New, often young, parents don't have the skills or support to deal with crying babies and snap. They shake or lash out in a moment of weakness or impatience and the baby is too young to do anything but take the abuse.
Defenceless infants are unable to protect themselves or tell anyone or ask for help.
Unless there are a ongoing physical signs that a friend, relative or neighbour can see, the abuse can often continued undetected for some time. In too many cases that time only ends when the child is rushed to hospital in a life-threatening condition.
In New Zealand 36 children died in the five years to 2003.
At Starship hospital, where many of the most seriously injured children end up, 86 children were treated between 2001 and 2007 for non-accidental head injuries. Another 59 children suffered other kinds of non-accidental injuries.
Doctors treated a further 68 children who had suffered injuries that were possibly non-accidental.
Of those children treated at Starship, 17 died from their injuries.
Between 2001 and 2005, 17 Maori children under the age of 15 died as a result of an assault. That's 1.5 per 100,000 children which, while down on the previous five years, is still much higher than 0.6 for non-Maori children.
* Make a donation to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Visit www.raisinggrandchildren.org.nz
Or deposit money into their bank account:
06-0115-0203334-00
