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Prevalence of confirmed child abuse and the use of resources in child psychiatric out-patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Barry Wright*
Affiliation:
Limetrees, Child and Family Unit, 31 Shipton Road, York YO3
Gillian Tagg
Affiliation:
Academic, Unit Child Mental Health, 12A Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9NN
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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This paper explores the extent of known child sexual and physical abuse in child psychiatric out-patient services in Leeds. We surveyed a one-month period, looking at all out-patient contacts, and found that at least 17.9% of patients had been physically or sexually abused and these patients took up 25.8% of out-patient time. When the 70 abused children were compared to a group matched for age group, clinical team and diagnosis It was found that they were more likely to be followed-up for longer and they received more therapeutic time over a given period than non-abused children. The implications for resources are discussed.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996

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