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Thursday March 28, 2024

Psychiatrists, schools urged to work jointly against child abuse

By Muhammad Qasim
February 19, 2017

Rawalpindi

Unluckily, we are ignoring a very unfortunate phenomenon, child sexual abuse that is prevalent in our society as in many other societies and is even more stigmatised as compared to psychiatry, however, it is a fact that beyond the corridors of psychiatry, it is an issue for schools to be aware of as they are the initial line of defence against this menace in helping identify and help the victims.

Head of Institute of Psychiatry and World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Training and Research at Benazir Bhutto Hospital Professor Dr. Fareed A. Minhas expressed this while talking to the audience in an awareness seminar titled ‘“Unkahi” – Child Sexual Abuse’, organised here at the BBH by the institute.

The institute organised the seminar with an aim to bring together mental health professionals, social workers and schools to fight jointly against the menace of child abuse. A docudrama produced by the institute titled “Unkahi” was also screened at the event.

Apart from psychiatrists and psychologists, representatives from St. Ainee's Convent, Siddique Public School, St.

Mary’s School, Beaconhouse School System, Child Protection Bureau and NGOs including Sahil and ROZAN attended the seminar.

Professor Minhas emphasised that fighting against child sexual abuse is a collaborative effort and the Institute of Psychiatry alone is incapable to deal with the magnitude of the problem; thus a partnership with NGOs and schools is inevitable.

Talking to the audienec, the guest speaker Dr. Ambreen Ahmed from ROZAN congratulated the institute for taking the initiative explaining that child sexual abuse is any activity in which an adult, or an older child, uses a younger child in a sexual way.

There is a common misconception that child abuse is only rape; it is a more comprehensive phrase that also includes non-touching activities like showing pornographic material etc., she said.

She shared the prevalence of the problem; 1/5 girls and 1/20 boys in the USA while according to local research, although very preliminary, 1/10 children in Pakistan may be effected. These may be gross underestimates due to underreporting as a consequence of the stigma attached with the menace, she said.

All children are at risk, she vehemently declared. We have an inherent tendency to think that bad things will not happen to our children. Boys as well as girls are at risk at any age. Socioeconomic factors, localities, and nationalities do not make any difference to the demographics, she said.

There are those who are more at risk including girls from 6-12 years of age, boys from 11-15 years of age, children working as domestic help, street children, children in transport industry, in institutions, mentally and physically handicapped children and children in single parent families, she said.

In short, wherever there is a lack of supervision or lack or decrease of emotional care, children are more vulnerable and even children who have supervision and emotional care, can still be at risk, she warned.

Dr. Ambreen said trauma in childhood impacts the structure of the brain. These changes are then associated with lifelong psycho-pathologies.

A very important determinant of how the person is going to recover is the response of the family. The family needs help as it suffers shock, disbelief, anger etc, she said.

We need to believe, despite all of these facts, that child sex abuse is not inevitable; it is preventable. The ownership and participation is at all levels is necessary, said Dr. Ambreen.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Child Psychiatry Unit at Institute of Psychiatry Dr. Ayesha Minhas talked about the institute’s manual on Parent and Teacher Training Programme which is in evolution and is designed according to our culture.

It guides parents about normal child development, strategies for developing social competence, emotional regulation and academic success in children, she said.

She raised the issue of “breaking the conspiracy of silence” about child sex abuse and accepting it as the first step in war against child abuse.

She narrated that it is high time that we all join hands as child abuse exists but it is not addressed and it has long term effects on the victim. She concluded her speech with the aim of strengthening the institute’s campaign of empowering children to recognize and stop abuse.

Dr Manizeh Bano, the executive director of Sahil, an NGO working for the cause of child safety and protection talked about the efforts put in by the organisation and touched upon the statistics gathered by it so far. She highlighted the fact that SAHIL’s message has reached a total of 4.9 million people from all walks of life including parents, law enforcing agencies, teachers, students, media and all the relevant stakeholders. However, all these apparently enormous contributions are a drop in the ocean.

The docudrama ‘Unkahi’ was then played that is based on real facts with fictional characters and names to bring attention of the masses to the grave untold danger, our children face in the form of Child Sex Abuse. The effort was greatly appreciated by the audience.