According to latest Government figures*, in the year 2014-15 there were 42,457 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in Australia an increase of more than 1600 from the year prior.
The number of abused and neglected kids across Australia is now greater than the entire population of Tamworth in NSW (41,810 pop. in 2014), but the real figure is much, much higher, said Dr Katrina Lines, Executive Director Services, Act for Kids.
Sadly, these statistics only tell us about the traumatic stories of children who told someone what was happening, or where an adult spoke up about what was happening to a child, said Dr Lines.
Many more children are living in situations where they are harmed and exploited by adults and no one notices or does anything to help.
Act for Kids is an organisation which does just that we act to keep children safe and to ensure they have safe, happy childhoods. We provide early educational experiences for young children to help prevent harm from occurring and specialised integrated therapy services for children who have experienced abuse and neglect.
The government report found nationally, the most common forms of abuse were emotional abuse (43%) and neglect (26%). Emotional abuse and neglect are also most likely to co-occur with other types of abuse. Emotional abuse co-occurred in 52% of substantiations where physical abuse was the primary type of abuse and in 29% of substantiations where sexual abuse was the primary type.
Neglect co-occurred in 32% of cases where emotional abuse was the primary type of substantiated abuse and in 27% of substantiations where physical abuse was the primary type of abuse.
For more information about Act for Kids please visit www.actforkids.com.au
*Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child protection Australia 2014-15.