Media Release 19 June 2006

Stop Child Abuse Before It Happens

Calls to treat reported abuse more seriously are being questioned by one Christchurch child support agency.

Family Help Trust Chairperson, Sally Thompson, says anything to help reduce our woeful child abuse record is welcome however prevention is the absolute key to saving the lives of our children.

"What is the point of having an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff? We must focus on stopping this abuse before it happens. Dealing with it once it happens may be too late," she says.

The Trust's intensive child abuse prevention services put in place as early as possible, are long-term and home based. The programmes are effective and showing real success for the hundreds of families who have been supported by the Trust's social workers over the last decade.

"It's about teaching parents things they may never have known, teaching them a better way so that their children stay safe and in some cases stay alive," says Sally Thompson.

Mrs Thompson says throwing our hands up in horror each time another of our vulnerable, innocent children is killed at the hands of a violent adult is not good enough.

"Then it all goes quiet. Until the next one," she says.

www.familyhelptrust.org.nz

ENDS

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