SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON THE FUNCTION OF THE CHILD WELFARE COUNCIL REGARDING CASES OF CHILD ABUSE IN MIE PREFECTURE

Abstract

The revised Child Welfare Law, which came into effect in April 1998, appended an advisory/consultant function to the duties of the Child Welfare Council, to advise child guidance centers in cases that were difficult to determine, and in those requiring expert advice (medicine, law, etc.). Each municipality responded to the amendment through establishment and operation of a subcommittee under the Council to undertake this role. The author has been involved with the Subcommittee in Mie Prefecture throughout the 18 years since its inception. Its history and activities are recorded from the standpoint of a child psychiatrist, and presented alongside the issues and challenges facing child welfare today, made visible through transition in the function of the Subcommittee to date.