WUNRN
Saudi Arabia - Awareness for Health
Workers on Domestic Violence & Child Abuse
New
Body to Monitor Domestic Violence in Saudi Arabia
Arab News - 06 September, 2008
The Committee of Social Protection — a new organization consisting of various
government departments acting in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and
the Ministry of Social Affairs — has launched a drive to create awareness among
health workers about domestic violence and child abuse.
As part of the awareness campaign, health professionals working in private and
governmental health facilities in Jeddah are being trained to look for signs of
physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and child negligence.
“We are not just focusing on abuse but child negligence as well. For example,
there was a child who was admitted to hospital three to four times with the
same injuries. It was obvious that there was negligence,” said Dr. Nawaf
Al-Herthy, who is chairman of the committee’s Jeddah branch and director of the
Jeddah Psychiatric Hospital.
“We are working together with the police, the Ministry of Education, the
Ministry of Justice and various other government bodies. We have sent a team to
every health care facility in Jeddah to train health professionals and create
awareness among the general public,” said Dr. Al-Herthy.
“One of the members from each team has direct contact with us who can
immediately report cases,” Al-Herthy said. He said alleged cases of abuse were
sometimes found to be baseless. “For example, there was a woman who wanted
something from her family. When they didn’t listen to her she threatened to
report that they were abusing her when in fact there was no abuse,” he said.
“That’s why we thoroughly investigate cases, which include psychological
assessment by psychiatrists and psychologists at the Jeddah Psychiatric
Hospital. We don’t want the organization to be used for any reason other than
protecting victims. For example in child custody cases, a parent may falsely
accuse the other parent of abusing the child,” he added.
Al-Herthy said the organization is in contact with the head of the government
department of each city where the organization has a presence to provide help
in even the most complicated cases.
“Presently, there are no statistics about the number of cases of family abuse,
because of an absence of proper documentation and because most victims, such as
wives and daughters, are too afraid to report abuse. But now they have a place
to go for help,” he said.
He added that women and girls who are abused by relatives keep it secret and do
not ask for help openly. He said that in such cases, doctors are trained to
identify cases of abuse and read body language.
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