Child Maltreatment : “Awareness” and “Denial” in daily medical practice

Abstract

 Because the word abuse is too intense, often parents are not aware of their abusive act to their child, and the child also fails to recognize his/her own condition as unjust. Thus, the medical physician’s objective evaluation and proactive response to the famiy is crucial. However, such participation involves many risks, and this causes denial and trivialization to the person involved in. But denial and trivialization do not happen without awareness to the issue. It is said that 2% of the children require active support to implove their maltreatment condition. In allergic practice, most physicians would deal with the steroid phobia for atopic dermatitis. However, 80 percent of this problem can be resolved through patient education by medical personnel. On the other hand, when the parent’s prejudice is too rigid to be amended, it becomes difficult for medical personnel to handle the case alone. Experience is important in cases of patients with serious condition. Such experience can be accumulated by dealing thoroughly with familial problems in daily clinical practice. On the other hand, powerful factors that encourages notification of child abuse from the doctor are “enrichment of education for medical students” and “acknowledgement of child protection team within the hospital.” I’d like to emphasize the importance of systematic approach to this issue.