Focusing on prevention of child abuse

The widespread occurrence of childhood sexual abuse and its immediate and long-term consequences necessitates a broad medical and public health response.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 17, 2004.

Washington -- Physicians have a role to play in developing both better treatment responses to child sexual abuse and an agenda for preventing such abuse, noted advocates for child abuse prevention at an April 23 Capitol Hill briefing.

AMA Trustee J. Edward Hill, MD, joined with representatives from the American Public Health Assn., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Stop It Now, an international child sexual abuse prevention organization, to update Congress about the need for a public health analysis of and response to child sexual abuse.

The child protective and criminal justice systems have historically responded to such abuse only after it occurs. But there are ways to prevent such abuse, said briefing participants.

Physicians can encourage patients to talk openly about sexuality and sexual abuse. They also can provide parents with information on child development and the demands of parenting, and make parents aware of their responsibility to protect their children from abuse.

Additionally, physicians can serve on hospital child protection teams or in community programs aimed at prevention.

One in five girls and one in seven boys are sexually abused by the age of 18. The health consequences of the abuse are both immediate and long-lasting and affect both families and communities.