Analysis of Child Sexual Abuse in Healthcare Settings

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INTRODUCTION
The proficiency of the young descendants of any country determines its future
development and growth. This brings us to the importance of careful and diligent
handling of the children by their parents, guardians, or caretakers’ (Langley et al.,
2010). In today’s world of modernization and hyped lifestyles, it is essential to keep the
children’s innocence and childhood unharmed and safe. With growing instances of child
abuse all across the country, in terms of negligence, deprived basic amenities, physical
violence, sexual offences, child labour, emotional exhaustion, the Child Safety and
Abuse Prevention Measures pose as the current need of the hour for not only the
parents but also for the government and health care delivery systems (Gilbert, Parton,
and Skivenes., 2011) . Amongst all the ill treatments reported and encountered the
episodes of child sexual abuse are found to leave the most toxic and irreversible
damage on the child’s personality, which also reflects into the kind of adult they bloom
into (Lalor, and McElvaney, 2010). The country has an astonishing record of one
amongst every group of twenty children been misused and exploited sexually
(Creighton, S.J., 2004). The healthcare providers addressing to such instances of child
sexual abuse ensures a precisely delicate and compassionate code of conduct. The
especially trained and organized nursing care professionals in the various pediatric
wards are responsible for the rehabilitation of such children. Special care is to be
required with regard to the psychosocial impact of the sexual insult.

LO2
The healthcare delivery systems have been addressing the child victims of sexual
offences with extreme caution and tenderheartedness. The prime objective of the
service provision with regard to the sexually maltreated child is to erase the impact and
whereabouts of the sinful episode. For this, a thorough sequential history of the
incidents that has led to the injury or trauma should be recorded, with special focus on
the mode of abuse and the suspect. In every third case of sexual insult towards a child,
an involvement of a peer is verified. Amongst the children, those who are nearing
puberty or the ones who are elder are supposed to be vulnerable for such instances. In
all the sexual abuse cases, the girls have outnumbered the boys. And almost ninety
percent of the offences were enacted by people familiar to them (Creighton, S.J.,
2004) . Not all the child abuse cases are reported to the emergency departments, some
of them remain masked and hidden under the various altered behavior of the child. Any
sort of recurrent infection that transmits sexually, sudden mood changes, unexplained
wounds, impulsive attitude, are the preliminary indication of some sort of sexual offence
which is been made to the child (Rogstad et al., 2013). The parents of such children
should immediately seek for special streamlined medical health aimed and depicting
and further treating the child’s holistic well-being. The service provision aims at the
complete rehabilitation of the child with regard to the physical injuries, any potent
neurological damage, infective diseases and psychosocial crises (Greenbaum,
Crawford-Jakubiak, and Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, 2015). The health care
delivery systems precisely evaluate the child’s chronological age, the general status at
the time of presentation, any other coexisting disease to devise a service provision plan.
The major goal is to provide a holistic and palliative care to the child. Either for the
younger victims of the sexual maltreatment the healthcare delivery ranges between the
therapy, which involves their family, or addresses as a group or more precisely aimed to
the individual. The children elder in age and more cognitively skilled are found to furnish
several other health challenges such as the personality chaos, drug abuse, eating
disorders and several other intrapersonal impairments. The service provision in such
instances then slides from the typical sexual trauma rehabilitation to the management of

its aftermath in the form of clinical depression, mental illness and personality
deflections. Various advanced measure have been introduced in this context, one of
which is the EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The healthcare
professionals such as the general physicians and nursing staff are supposed to report
the incidents of child sexual abuse to the authorities as they form the first line of
interaction with the victim of such abuses. The service provision for the victims of child
abuse is found to be revolving around the efficacy of the nursing staff that specializes in
safeguarding such child victims. The nursing care for child sexual offences, involves a
very precisely devised holistic care, which involves the physical trauma care, child’s
vulnerability assessment, re victimization prevention, dietary monitoring, healthy societal
interaction, community-based intervention, provision of preliminary sexual education for
preventing any future instance of abuse. In addition to the nurses recruited under the
hospital and healthcare delivery systems, the School Nurses too play an essential role
in identifying the cases of sexual maltreatment against children. Every child is entitled to
protection against all forms of maltreatments and violence. Every child must have a
caretaker. Every child must be inspired to attain the best. Every child must be well
responded to, there should be no bias amongst children, the care and protection of
children is a responsibility of every citizen; these values, were enumerated by the
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Jones et al., 2017). It is put
forward in agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The
National Crime Agency has appointed a special operatory - Child Exploitation and
Online Protection Command, to investigate and raid the offenders who sexually abuse
the children online (Davidson, and Gottschalk., 2010). The National Health Service, UK
has put forward the potential signs indicative of child sexual abuse. It has also specified
the regulations for reporting of an incident of child sexual exploitation via email to the
NSPCC or via telephonic conversation to the helpline no 0808 800 5000. The NSPCC
emphasizes the role of professional and public awareness against the child sexual
exploitation, the importance of sexual education, which brings into light the harmonious
relationships, the easily accessible ways to report, and the strict judicial trial against the
predator. In addition, there should be a Special Ward in every health care system for
exclusive service provision to the young survivors of sexual abuse.

REFERENCES
Creighton, S.J., 2004. Prevalence and incidence of child abuse: international
comparisons. National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Davidson, J. and Gottschalk, P. eds., 2010. Internet child abuse: Current research and
policy. Routledge.
Gilbert, N., Parton, N. and Skivenes, M. eds., 2011. Child protection systems:
International trends and orientations. OUP USA.
Greenbaum, J., Crawford-Jakubiak, J.E. and Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect,
2015. Child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation: health care needs of
victims. Pediatrics, 135(3), pp.566-574.
Jones, C., Taylor, J., MacKay, K., Soliman, F., Clayton, E., Gadda, A.M., Anderson, A.
and Jones, D., 2017. The landscape of UK child protection research 2010 to 2014: a
mapping review of substantive topics, maltreatment types and research designs. Child
abuse review, 26(1), pp.8-18.
Lalor, K. and McElvaney, R., 2010. Child sexual abuse, links to later sexual
exploitation/high-risk sexual behavior, and prevention/treatment programs. Trauma,
Violence, & Abuse, 11(4), pp.159-177.
Langley, K., Fowler, T., Ford, T., Thapar, A.K., Van Den Bree, M., Harold, G., Owen,
M.J., O'donovan, M.C. and Thapar, A., 2010. Adolescent clinical outcomes for young
people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry,
196(3), pp.235-240.
Rogstad, K., Thomas, A., Williams, O., Foster, G., Munday, P., Robinson, A., Rooney,
G., Sherrard, J. and Tenant, M., 2013. United Kingdom National Guideline on the
management of sexually transmitted infections and related conditions in children and
young people. See http://www. bashh. org/documents/2674 (last accessed 1 February
2012).