It’s such a sad event when a child or young person is being mistreated within the family and there are no consequences for the people who are responsible. The child is then silenced further as they have not been provided the help that they deserve.
This has proven to be the case for one individual: “Even after I got help from being suicidal, after being severely emotionally abused at home, the emotional abuse carried on and no one came back to check, to see if I was okay.”
The question we ask ourselves is how can young people be better protected and how can the system improve? “Under section 47 CA 1989: the local authority may become involved where they recently have received a referral whether it might be from the police or other parties e.g. teacher, school nurse or a health specialist. In this situation the local authority would need to act quickly and take immediate steps to protect the child from further injuries or to stop any injuries which may occur.”
This proves that there are legislations in place already and the child protection system has to follow certain steps so again we ask ourselves, why are young people still being neglected even though legal steps have been taken by professionals?
The hard part for us all is knowing that neglect to a young person will not stop. In a way you wouldn’t be able to change some people’s mentality and actions no matter how hard you try.
Many people believe that the severe number of crimes and the way they are happening in the world are not true, such as using young people for witchcraft or sexual abuse. Is it because they have not been informed about it or do they just want to disbelieve it because they wish to live in denial?
We cannot blame young people for thinking in such a way as who wants the fear in their mind of “Oh this could happen to me!” We need to make young people aware of their human rights and also teach young people and their families about what is happening in the world and why? This way they can protect themselves and their loved ones from being neglected or mistreated.