The Fortunate Country

As Australians we have the good fortune of living in a land of opportunity also known as ‘The Lucky Country'. As a relatively small nation of 20 million we have achieved some amazing feats. Our sporting prowess is world famous as is our ingenuity. We have a world class cricket team, an international airline known as the safest in the world,our military are respected the world over and finally we contribute to research by supplying some of the finest minds in the world. Our ingenuity is in a class of its own and it is with this in mind that I will outline a current epidemic facing our nation. A matter of public health concern that must be addressed by all if we expect to create a healthy future community. This matter is outlined as follows.

Imagine a childhood disease that affects one in five girls and one in seven boys before they reach 18 : a disease that can cause dramatic mood swings, erratic behavior, and even severe conduct disorders among those exposed; a disease that breeds distrust of adults and undermines the possibility of experiencing normal sexual relationships; a disease that can have profound implications for an individual's future health by increasing the risk of problems such as substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicidal behavior ; a disease that replicates itself by causing some of its victims to expose future generations to its debilitating effects.
Imagine what we, as a society, would do if such a disease existed. We would spare no expense. We would invest heavily in basic and applied research. We would devise systems to identify those affected and provide services to treat them. We would develop and broadly implement prevention campaigns to protect our children. Wouldn't we?

Such a disease does exist—it's called child sexual abuse. Our response, however, has been to keep it far from the mainsteam press reserved for traditional diseases or health concerns of equal or even lesser magnitude. Perhaps the perception of sexual abuse as a law enforcement problem or our discomfort in confronting sexual issues contributes to our complacency. Whatever the reason, we have severely underestimated the effects of this problem on our children's health and quality of life.

‘But it's all too hard' I expect most would say. Allow me to ask a hypothetical what if question.What if nothing were impossible? What if something was so critical that it just had to be achieved for the very survival of the human species? What if for reasons of national crisis need we set aside our agendas collaborating on creating the society to support the nurturing growth and development of children? Would you believe we as a society could achieve something worthwhile and lasting then?

But there are costs to helping, there are risks, there is danger, there are time and energy investments all worthy reasons that we could use to put this off to another day. But it will only appear at a later time in the lives of adults as chronic illnesses. One dollar spent on intervention today will save four dollars on already overburdened health services provision in the future.

Currently in Australia we deal with child sexual abuse in two main areas (a)medically and (b) law enforcement. What this article is proposing is that we begin to tackle this matter in another way. Let's tackle Child Sexual Abuse as a public health issue.

Michael Mormina

Child Protection Advocate