Health Promotion Strategy of Child Maltreatment in Kuwait

Introduction

Child abuse and Maltreatment has for a long time been experienced for a long time in history. Maltreatment cases include; mutilation of infants, infanticide, abandonment of children by their parents or guardians and other forms of mistreatment and violence against minors.

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In most countries of the world for a long time now, there has been charitable organizations as well as non-governmental organizations that have constantly advocated for the protection of minors from harm and mistreatment. However, the issues have never been addressed comprehensively to deal with the matter decisively and end it altogether.

Currently, the issue of childhood maltreatment has escalated to appalling heights in different parts of the world including Kuwait. The situation is so dire that it has become a global menace. It, therefore, calls for a well thought out strategy to curb the vice. Child maltreatment occurs in a range of forms and is deeply grounded in economic, cultural and social practices. Coming up with a solution to this problem requires a deep understanding of why it occurs in a variety of settings, as well as the consequences in these settings.

Surprisingly, even though the menace of child mistreatment is universally proclaimed as a threat to child welfare, too little has been done to curb the issue. In Kuwait particularly, only several children rights activists and champions exist while the few that exist have not made any notable achievement. Therefore, prevention of Child abuse In Kuwait should be prioritized as an important social policy. Some attempt to end the menace has been made in Kuwait such as home visitation by stakeholders to affected homes. Still, many more interventions on this matter need additional evaluation. It should be noted that most of the programs aiming to put an end to child maltreatment focus on perpetrators or the victims of the mistreatment. The number of these programs that actually focus on basic prevention methods aimed at preventing child abuse is negligible.

Additional methods that should be incorporated by the Kuwait government, charitable organizations as well as non-governmental organizations of Kuwait include:

Family Support Approaches

These include

Offering Parenting Training. This is aimed at improving parenting practices by training parents on how to handle their children and avoid extremities when disciplining them.

Visiting homes and offering other family support programs. This method has been earmarked as one of the most promising in enhancing the functioning of the family in question.

Offering intensive family preservation services. This is a kind of service aimed at keeping the affected family together mostly to prevent children in that family from being placed under substitute care.

Therapeutic Approaches

Offering services for Victims. The services to be offered under this umbrella include counseling services to help the victims get over the trauma. Actual health care to help the victims recover physically should also be provided (Fantuzo, et al 127).

Training specialized Health Care professionals. Under this approach, health care professionals are trained to help treat victims of the maltreatment who may have had endured physical abuse.

Legal and Related Remedies

Enactment of child protection laws. Kuwait should enact child protection rules to protect children from maltreatment. These rules and regulations will also put in place stringent measures to ensure that justice is served to the victims through prosecution of the perpetrators.

Formation of a Child Protection Body

The Kuwait government should come up with a child protection body mandated with investigating cases of child abuse and maltreatment.

Conclusion

Child Maltreatment has become a critical global health issue and not in Kuwait alone. It is evident that there is much more to be done in a bid to curb this problem. In Kuwait, there is minimal recognition of this vice, a factor that has led to little or no attention to child maltreatment, this has allowed the vice to thrive. The government of Kuwait together with all other stakeholders should strive to increase awareness among the people as a way of curbing this problem. There is a dire need for a concerted and coordinated efforts of all the sectors to bring to an end this injustice against children.

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