Child neglect wave
Just over 4,530 cases of child neglect were filed with the National Children’s Registry (NCR) between July 2021 and March this year, the highest number in a raft of incidents of child abuse reported for that period.
Additional statistics from the NCR showed 3,600 incidents of behavioural problems, while 3,081 cases of children in need of care and protection were reported.
In addition, the NCR received 2,524 reports of physical abuse, 2,078 cases of sexual abuse, 1,072 cases of emotional abuse, 24 alleged incidents of child trafficking, and 333 cases of child labour. There were 23 alleged incidents of bullying, which the NCR only started tracking in January.
“It is concerning, especially when it comes on to that of neglect. We still see the high number of allegations of neglect coming up. Neglect is always the highest as we have received more than 600 allegations of neglect most months. The lowest that we have seen since January is 522 [and] that was in April,” acting deputy registrar at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency Lesia Vassell told the Jamaica Observer.
According to Vassell, the numbers show that more parents need to make an effort to improve the relationship they have with their children.
“It’s just to remind the parents that they need to pay special attention, especially when it comes on to supervision. We note that parents or guardians are still leaving children unsupervised or with inappropriate supervision. That is something that we want the public to pay attention to,” declared Vassell.
Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison says the data provided by the NCR give cause for concern.
“What it tells us is that we have persistence in the seriousness of the issues that impact our children and I think it really calls for an all hands on deck approach which is a very timely reminder to all Jamaicans,” she said.
“Not just usual stakeholders, but everybody in their community, everybody in their respective spheres — whether it’s school or church or otherwise — to come up with strategies and assist in the dialogue of how we can protect those children whom we are interacting with,” Gordon Harrison told the Observer.
She said it is important that priority be given to immediate psychological support and counselling services for children.
Gordon Harrison pointed out that her office operates a SafeSpot National Child and Teen 24-hour helpline which is designed to assist individuals experiencing challenges, or who may be feeling overwhelmed adapting to changes caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Of course, if we are having children who are in distress and having concerning situations impact them, as the reporting line number shows, it means that there is a corresponding need for those children to be getting immediate counselling support and other relief,” said Gordon Harrison.
She said it was not shocking for neglect to top the list of alleged incidents reported.
According to Gordon Harrison, data tracked from 2017 show that child neglect and lack of care and protection for children have consistently been the two highest categories of child abuse.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising. What it tells us is that we have to pay attention to what’s happening in the homes and supporting parents, so that they understand their responsibility. We have to pay attention to making homes a safe space for children because it means that if those are the two categories that continue to be in the lead we have to look at the underlying triggers and try to fix those,” said Gordon Harrison.
Identifying several ways in which children could have been neglected, child and family therapist Dr Beverly Scott pointed to lack of health care and other basic needs.
“It could be that the child’s health is neglected, so the child has a cold or flu and he or she is not taken to the doctor. Or the child is not looked after in terms of hygiene so the child would not be given a bath regularly, the child would not wear clean clothes and all that kind of thing,” Scott explained.
“The child would also be ignored if hungry and told that, ‘I don’t have anything to give you to eat and you’re just going to have to stay hungry’. With neglect at the top of the list, it seems to me that parents are abdicating their responsibilities for their children and it could be as a result of what they themselves are experiencing,” she added.
Scott told the Observer that the economic and emotional stress fuelled by the effects of the pandemic might have contributed to the neglect of children.
“Some parents have lost their jobs, some parents are frustrated by having their children at home during the pandemic and feel burdened to take care of them. Many of these parents also have to be online with these children so they can access the work that is given at school. There is something wrong with how parents are taking care of them, and so we need to look at what’s happening with parents at this time,” she said.
Commenting on the issue of behavioural problems, Scott said, “They’re opposing their parents and authorities and that’s where we have behavioural problems. Sometimes parents have to go out and work and no one is there to discipline them. They are on their own and develop their own behaviours; they aren’t being supervised properly.”
Scott added that the same response for behavioural problems might be linked to the lack of care and protection issue.