Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

19Company SpotlightOctober 2013United Kingdom Edition 19SpecialOctober 2013United Kingdom Edition O n the fifth day of Stu- art Hazell’s trial in May of this year he pleaded guilty for murdering 12-year- old Tia Sharp. He is someone who never had any record as a paedophile. A huge amount of people have said that she was better off leaving this world as it was a dysfunctional fam- ily. They lived with this person day in, day out and this was the mother and the grandmother. The law expects us, the profes- sionals, to protect children, we have a huge responsibility; a moral obligation. I wonder how we do this when most cases of child abuse and neglect do not come to the notice of profes- sionals. The above case is a classic example, which means that children like Tia (and more recently, four-year-old Daniel Pelka) continue to be harmed. Key Position Members of the healthcare sec- tor, especially dental teams, are in a key position to observe po- tential signs of mistreatment; like everyone, they have a re- sponsibility to report any con- cerns. We have a duty of care. All of us share the responsibility to follow practice procedure, lo- cal procedure and the national procedure for child protection. We may observe, feel, or hear something that causes us to suspect that a child is at risk of neglect or abuse. It is our up- most responsibility to take ac- tion and make the whole team aware and follow the proce- dures. Sharing information and sharing concerns is the key. As a civilised country we la- ment and screech about child soldiers in Syria and child la- bour in Bangladesh. Jimmy Savile has left us a memoir; his malicious activities were shielded by his niche success and charity efforts, now it has been exposed by his death. It is sad he is not alive to witness his shame and it is a shame on the people and authorities who turned a blind eye to all this - or should I say the system failed these children. Four Types of Abuse There are four types of abuse - Physical, Emotional, Sexual and Neglect. It is of paramount im- portance we do not ignore the vital signs of any abuse. Chil- dren may have physical marks on their body or they can por- trait emotions or behavioural changes, which may be worth further scrutiny. We should speak about these topics in our staff meetings and enlighten the whole team. We should not let the innocent childhood be taken away from children at risk or let them die before they have even lived their life. This is the ex- treme end of child abuse. In American paediatric dentistry circles ‘wilful failure of parent or guardian to seek and follow through with treat- ment as necessary to ensure a level of oral health essential Child Protection – a huge responsibility, a moral obligation Dilhani Silva discusses spotting abuse of children in a dental setting page 20DTà