Abuse victims: Dept admits partly to blame

Published on: Thursday, May 10, 2012

Kota Kinabalu: Poor communication among agencies is making it difficult for abuse victims to find help promptly.

Deputy State Health Director (Medical) Dr. Adlan Suhaimi Ahmad who raised this problem here Wednesday cited the case of a four-year-old who was raped over a period of four months to illustrate his point.

"It took about two days for the matter to finally reach our attention after the victim was sent from one place to another, imagine what the victim had to go through and what is saddening is that even on our side we do not respond soon enough," he said.

Dr. Adlan said this at the launching of a three-day seminar organised by the State Health Department in collaboration with the Women and Children's Hospital titled 'Handling of Violence Cases (One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC)) at the Federal Administrative Complex here.

"When a victim comes to OSCC for help, we are in crisis because we don't speak the same language due to lack of coordination within our facility, what more with other agencies and this is not what we want.

"It is therefore our role to establish communication with our local partners, namely the police, village chief, Welfare Department and non-governmental agencies in our respective area to make sure that the victims are swiftly sent to the main centre where there are specialists," he said.

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