(Jamaica Observer) The Child Development Agency (CDA) is attributing the spike in the number of reported cases of abuse to the fact that more Jamaicans are taking their legal responsibility to report seriously, than to an increase in the incidents of child abuse.
According to figures from the Office of the Children’s Registry, since January this year there were more than 5,000 reported cases of abuse, while for 2009 there were 6,100, over 4,000 in 2008 and just over 400 in 2007 when that agency came into being.
“The number of reports have increased, but what we found out is that it’s not necessarily that the incidents have increased but that persons are now recognising their legal responsibility to report,” Carla Francis Edie, chief executive officer of the CDA, told the weekly Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s headquarters on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston yesterday.
She however pointed out that the CDA, which has a responsibility to investigate the cases referred to it by the Office of the Children’s Registry, has its hands full dealing with all the cases that come to its attention.
“For Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon we have four investigating officers, so they are responsible for investigating the cases from those parishes,” said Francis Edie.
“It’s a whole lot of cases, you are looking at one officer having like 200 cases. What they have had to do is prioritise the cases, so as a case comes in they will red flag it to say we need to do something about this right now,” she explained.
The CDA head said the entity has had to employ creative means of meeting the needs within the context of strained human and financial resources.
“What we have decided to do for the behavioural problems, instead of dealing with them on an individual basis where we find that the reports of children with behavioural problems all come from a particular community, [is] …to go in and work with the parents in the community rather than dealing with the children individually,” she said.
“Another thing we have done to deal with the problems and stem the number of children that are placed in State care [is] …establish the Child and Family Support Unit in the South East which covers Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St Thomas,” said Francis Edie.
According to the CDA boss, whenever a case comes before the social workers the investigator does an assessment and if it does not warrant going to court the social worker will go in and work with the family.
