I read an interesting article yesterday. Just published last week in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, it was titled "The Economic Burden of Child Maltreatment in the United States." It was an eye-opener. Abusing children costs us money! This might just wake up those faceless technocrats who work out of the Ministry of Finance and routinely turn down requests from the various "helping" ministries, Health, Education, Social Services, yet seemed unable to prevent Udecott from spending billions on useless "tall, tall" concrete monstrosities, still under-furnished and underused years after some of them were completed and handed over to a man now lying down in a poor, third class hospital and asking for money to go away. What a shameful state of affairs but what an opportunity was then wasted to develop our health facilities. I am reminded of one of the first things Fidel Castro did when he took over the Government of Cuba. He converted the brand new building built by the previous dictatorship for their Central Bank into a brand new hospital and equipped it fully. It still stands tall in the centre of Havana for all to see what his priorities were at the time, misplaced since, but a powerful symbol of the revolution.
Our symbols are an empty "International Financial Centre" and a former Prime Minister asking for money for medical treatment abroad. The authors of the study work for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta and reported that the lifetime costs, including health care, lost productivity and criminal justice costs, of all the children abused in the US over a single year, 2008, amounts to US$124 billion. The figure is based on an estimated lifetime cost of $210,012 for each nonfatal case and nearly $1.3 million for each fatal case and as such the estimated burden of child abuse on an individual basis is comparable to such public health problems as stroke and type 2 diabetes, where figures suggest lifetime costs of $159,846 and $181,000 respectively. The study found on average that, for nonfatal child abuse cases, healthcare costs an extra $32,648, and adult medical care an extra $10,530. The abuse resulted in lost productivity over the years of $144,360. Child welfare costs were $6,747, and special education costs were $7,999 per child. For fatal cases of child abuse, they estimated medical costs and lost productivity. And the average cost for each fatal case was $14,100 in medical expenses and $1.26 million in productivity losses. Long-term consequences of child abuse, especially economic, may come as a surprise to most people, who seem to think that, well, once you get your lash or cuff or head wash or whatever, well, if you survive, you in pain for a while and then, if you have a support system, which in our context usually means a grandmother, you move on. I mean to say, how many of our upright, outstanding citizens- principals, doctors, economists, UWI lecturers and so on-were beaten as children and look where we reach. Right?
Unfortunately, child abuse, including physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, as well as simple neglect, has lifelong health, social, and economic consequences, some of which are: 1) increased medical needs due to poor health and mental health conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder; 2) poor social adjustment and violent behaviour as well as a higher risk of becoming involved in crime; and 3) a greater need for special education and consequently lower earnings. In T&T, the first two would be relevant but since our governments do not see the need for special education, the second, a life of crime, should be more important for our abused children. There are a couple of even more alarming points made in the article. Figures are based on what are likely to be underestimates of the number of cases since, as we all know, no one likes to get involved in "family" matters. As well, broader definitions of abuse (see below) would result in higher costs. They were also not able to measure the cost of some of the consequences of abuse, including such trivial things as reduced life expectancy or lower quality of life. The analysis also did not take into account the severity of abuse, and they were unable to estimate continuing costs for adults over 65, which should add another several billion well to costs. Any way you look at it, the cost of child abuse is high.
Forms of child abuse include:
Physical assault, including excessive corporal punishment and waterboarding.
Sexual abuse or exploitation.
Close confinement, such as tying the hands or feet or locking in a closet.
Threats of assault, threats of abandonment, or other extreme verbal abuse.
Abandonment or expulsion from home.
Permitting or encouraging behaviours such as skipping school, prostitution, or drug abuse.
Refusing to allow treatment for professionally diagnosed physical, educational, emotional, or behavioural problems.
Failure to seek or unwarranted delay in seeking competent medical care.
Consistent inattention to the child's physical or emotional needs.
Failure to enroll the child in school.
