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The following is issued on behalf of the Review Panel of the Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review:
The Review Panel of the Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review today (January 25) published its final report on the prevention of child death. The report, including critical analysis of child death cases that occurred from 2006 to 2007, contained 65 recommendations as well as the responses and improvement measures given and implemented by various government departments.
The Chairman of the Review Panel, Professor Leung Nai-kong, said, "The pilot review has given us a good chance to identify good practice, gaps and deficiencies in related service systems, to suggest improvements in the direction of formulating preventive strategies, and to promote inter-disciplinary and inter-agency cooperation to prevent re-occurrence of fatal incidents causing the painful loss of our children."
"The loss of children is always sad and painful but we very much hope that this review can help prevent similar incidents in the future. Of course, we will share the good practice and lessons learnt from the review with interested parties," he added.
The review covered the deaths of 209 children, aged below 18, who died in 2006 or 2007 of both natural (121) and non-natural (88) causes. They were all reported to the Coroner's Court except one case which was included as much public concern had been aroused.
Most of the children who died of non-natural causes were killed in accidents (32), followed by suicides (24).
Eighteen children died in traffic incidents and seven fell from height accidentally. Five of the fall cases happened at home and four of the deceased children were left unattended. The Review Panel made four recommendations on the prevention of such accidents, including public education to remind parents of the possible fatal risk of leaving children unattended and the importance of home safety measures and devices when small children are present; to seek assistance from reliable child carers; and to give clear instructions to child carers to ensure child safety.
Among the 24 children suicide cases, 22 jumped from height to their death. The youngest one was 11 years old. A total of 16 recommendations were made in the report on the prevention of child suicide, including thorough risk assessment and follow-up services for children with suicidal thoughts, and educating the public to encourage people with suicidal intent, their friends and relatives to seek help from professionals instead of covering up such intent in front of helping parties.
Eleven children were assaulted and lost their lives as a result. The perpetrators in nine of these cases were the parents of the deceased children. A total of 13 recommendations were made to prevent such tragedies, including ways to provide effective intervention and public education to help children learn to protect themselves and build up their resilience towards domestic violence.
Professor Leung expressed heartfelt thanks to all the frontline workers, professionals and managerial personnel of service organisations, professional bodies, and government departments, who had facilitated and participated in the review and its evaluation.
During the course of the review, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and other government departments and service organisations concerned gave responses and sought to improve the services concerned.
To prevent child fatality due to accidentally falling while left unattended, the SWD has implemented more flexible child care services. The three-year pilot Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project, which was launched in 2008 to provide flexible child care services to needy families in addition to regular child care services, will be regularised as long term services and extended to all the 18 districts in 2010-11. The SWD is also continuing its publicity work on the themes of "not leaving children unattended" and "taking proper care of children". The messages of "neglect once, regret forever" and "child neglect is a criminal offence", have been put on regular television and radio broadcast since November 2009 to warn families of the serious possible consequences of leaving children unattended.
The SWD has also allotted resources for publicising anti-suicidal messages, promoting positive life values and encouraging persons with suicidal intent to seek professional help. Since 2007, the theme of suicide prevention has been widely publicised through different channels of the mass media. The SWD has also joined hands with the Education Bureau and five universities to support non-governmental organisations rendering school social work service to implement the "Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes to Adulthood: A Jockey Club Youth Enhancement Scheme" with a view to promoting students' positive values and enhancing their resilience and ability to cope with adversity and stress. Additional resources have also been provided to the Suicide Crisis Intervention Centre of the Samaritan Befrienders of Hong Kong to provide services for suicide survivors and search for the suicide messages of bloggers since November 2009. Further funding has been provided to the Centre for a new web-engagement programme launched in August 2010.
The responses from different parties to the recommendations of the Review Panel have been included in the report which has been uploaded onto the SWD homepage at www.swd.gov.hk.
The Review Panel, an independent body appointed by the Director of Social Welfare, was tasked to carry out the Pilot Project launched in February 2008. Its 14 members and four co-opted members are from various fields, including medical, social welfare, psychological, legal, education, business, academia and parents. The final report released today came after the first report in January 2010. It concluded the work of the Review Panel over the past two years.
After receiving the final and evaluation report of the Review Panel, the Assistant Director of Social Welfare (Family and Child Welfare), Mrs Anna Mak, said, "We appreciate very much the efforts of the Review Panel and acknowledge the value of the child fatality review to facilitate the improvement and enhancement of the current child protection and child welfare service systems. The Administration accepts the recommendations of the Review Panel and will map out the way forward accordingly, including the setting up of a standing mechanism for the review of child death cases."
Ends/Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:46
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