Now that you have seen some statistics about child abuse, let’s Look at the effect that it has in our communities.
There are many long term effects that can be caused by child abuse:
- Low self esteem
- Emotional Problems
- Depression and or Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Self Harm
- PTSD (where children can re-experience the traumatic events of abuse time after time)
- Suicidal thoughts
- Problems with physical injuries ,burns, or fractures
- Difficulty forming and maintaining relationships
- Infected with life changing Sexually transmitted diseases.
All of these have negative life long effects on children, also creating a great burden on society as there are significant social and economic costs.
So these are some reasons we have to take the subject of prevention so seriously.
Costs to society can include:
* Medical Treatment for physical or sexual abuse
* The costs of removing children from their homes (when they are unsafe to stay there)
* Finding Foster Carers or places to re home children
* Studies have proved that abused children can have a lower academic achievement level which has a great effect on the community workforce.
I would like to add that not all abused children will be affected by the above, as some go on to have very productive and happy lives – but many do not.
*Children can suffer from Lifelong health and mental problems
* so many of our worldwide prison population have been abused as children
So as you can see Preventing Child Abuse is of the utmost importance as it can have far reaching effects on our communities. We need to all do better to make a Safer World as Every child has the right to health and a life free from violence.