Abuse Victims need to be treated promptly.

Poor communication among agencies is making it difficult for abuse victims to find help promptly. Deputy State Health Director (Medical) Dr. Adlan Suhaimi Ahmad who raised this problem here Wednesday cited the case of a four-year-old who was raped over a period of four months to illustrate his point. "It took about two days for the matter to finally reach our attention after the victim was sent from one place to another, imagine what the victim had to go through and what is saddening is that even on our side we do not respond soon enough," he said.

Dr. Adlan said this at the launching of a three-day seminar organised by the State Health Department in collaboration with the Women and Children's Hospital titled 'Handling of Violence Cases (One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC)) at the Federal Administrative Complex here. "When a victim comes to OSCC for help, we are in crisis because we don't speak the same language due to lack of coordination within our facility, what more with other agencies and this is not what we want.

"It is therefore our role to establish communication with our local partners, namely the police, village chief, Welfare Department and non-governmental agencies in our respective area to make sure that the victims are swiftly sent to the main centre where there are specialists," he said. "For us in the hospital setting, apart from communication, what is most important is for us to get the evidence that is needed, hence, having kits for handling rape cases is essential because the evidence collected is actually the life saver of the victim," he said. In 2011, the OSCC recorded a total of 469 reported cases Statewide involving adults out of which 407 involved physical abuses and 52 were sexual abuse cases.

For children and teenagers up to 19 years of age, a total of 284 cases were recorded in the State, out of which a majority were sexual abuse cases followed by physical abuse. The number of cases reported by the Suspected Child Abuse (SCAN) team for 2011 was 289, out of which a majority were rape cases, followed by molest, sodomy and physical abuse. Meanwhile, Public Health Specialist Dr. Nilmar Kaur said abuse cases in Malaysia were on the rise, hence, society must work together to detect and report such cases to the nearest hospital or relevant agencies for further action. Also present was Kuala Lumpur Pediatric Specialist Dr Irene Cheah who was among the invited panel speakers.

Sources: Daily Express