Prosecute parents
Published:Monday | March 21, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Social workers at Bustamante Hospital say abusive parents should face court
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Head of the social work department at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Andrene Gordon Peck, is pushing for the prosecution of abusive parents as one means of dealing with Jamaica's child-abuse problem.
Gordon Peck is also calling for a public-education campaign to prevent some of the injuries children have to be treated for at the health institution.
She has been working at the Bustamante Hospital for some 17 years and does not recall any case of a parent being prosecuted for a child who sustained a broken bone.
The cases that usually face the courts, she said, are those that involve multiple injuries to a child, especially head injuries.
"We need more prosecutions ... more people need to get charged instead of a lot of talking," said Gordon Peck.
She added: "We need to step up public education and step up the charges and bring more parents to the courts."
Gordon Peck pledged to be more forthright in the push to hold parents accountable.
Nurse Laurrain Spence, acting medical social worker at the Bustamante Hospital, argued that the history of hidden abuse would continue if more parents were not imprisoned for physical assault and negligence.
"They need to make more public examples of some of these cases. We should have more public education reinforcing safety tips," said Spence.
She, too, believes public education is also of paramount importance.
Gordon Peck and Spence agreed that child abuse was a significant problem in Jamaica.
"Based on what we see, it's often poor supervision and rough play. Children are sometimes left unattended or with people who are not suitable," said Gordon Peck.
The medical social workers told The Gleaner that parents are often reluctant to tell the truth.
Parents reluctant
"Sometimes, it is way down you get the truth," said Gordon Peck, who revealed that many parents are reluctant because they think the job of the social worker is to take away their child.
The health professionals said their investigations into many of the cases have unearthed that some of the injuries occurred when parents were administering some sort of corporal punishment. Other injuries are caused by negligence.
Some parents, Gordon Peck revealed, do not have cribs or play pens and that is often the root cause of their injuries.
"We have to be insisting that they go get a crib and not let them sleep on the bed. I encourage some of the parents to use pallets and make a crib and I'll get the sponge for you," said an impassioned Gordon Peck.
She pointed out that an overwhelming majority of the cases are found in families on the lower rung of the economic strata.
She gave an example of a three-month-old baby who broke both femurs after the father said he was running to turn off the stove, his foot was caught in a silky sheet that was on the bed, and the baby was pulled off the bed on to the floor.
"These are the stories we hear ... sometimes it is a fall and they don't want to tell us. We have had cases when things do not add up. When things are not consistent, we refer them to the (Office of) the Children's Registry or we call CISOCA (Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse)," she explained.