Le gouvernement japonais propose de nouveaux services d'assistance aux parents pour prevenir la maltraitance d'enfants

[Michael_Voyageur]

Le gouvernement japonais met au point de nouvelles dispositions légales et des services d'aides au parents ayant des difficultés à élever leurs enfants afin de prevenir les cas de maltraitance d'enfants qui sont en hausse importante (d'apres les institutions sanitaires/médicales).

Des conseiller(e)s/assistant(e)s d'education seront envoyé dans les foyers ou il semble y a voir des problemes detectés au niveau de l'ecole ou des hopitaux etc. Il s'agit de depister les cas de maltraitance à enfant au plus tot.

Source : Yomiuri Shimbun

New system to tackle child abuse problem


The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will introduce a system in April in which health workers will visit parents suffering from emotional instability due to difficulties caring for newborns, in the hope of preventing child abuse, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Friday.

The system, created because of an alarming rise in abuse cases, is to be used by municipal governments, hospitals, welfare facilities and related organizations so they can discover the signs of possible child abuse as quickly as possible and act on them swiftly.

The workers dispatched will give parents advice on various issues, including child care and domestic life.

According to the ministry, visits by the workers will take place in two stages.

In the first stage, aides and others with experience raising children will give parents basic advice on child care and nutrition. They will also help the parents with housework to some extent.

In the second stage, health workers and midwives will give parents more expert advice on child development.

Municipal governments will decide which parents need help with child care by observing them when they come to government offices to apply for maternity passbooks and to complete other necessary procedures. In addition, the governments will get information from local health care centers and child consultation centers.

Home inspections will take into consideration such things as children's health, family structure and the parents' ability to handle housework, according to the ministry. Parents who seem unreasonably angry or nervous will be classified as "needing caution."

Information from obstetricians and pediatricians will also be gathered by the municipal governments.

According the ministry, about 24,000 reports of potential child abuse were received by child welfare offices throughout the nation in fiscal 2002--double the figure for fiscal 1999, the last year before a law against child abuse came into force. More than 100 children died as a result of child abuse in the past four years. About 40 percent of the victims were less than 1 year old. Of those, 70 percent were less than six months old.

It is not uncommon for mothers to experience postpartum depression immediately after a baby is born. Lack of experience in child care contributes to the problem. Specialists have been appealing for assistance for these mothers in the early stages of the child's life.
_________________
Michael_Voyageur

Live as if you were to die tomorrow
Learn as if you were to live forever...