training

i've found that on the whole, when i attend training courses for work, i basically come out of there after a rehash of things i already knew. customer service focus blah blah that sort of thing.
today was different.

working, as i do, with the community and in particular children, i had to undertake mandatory notification training, what to look out for, and what to do if you believe that a child is suffering abuse at the hands of anyone. this covers all kinds of abuse, mental, physical, sexual and emotional.

again, this was a rehash of things i already knew, but instead of walking out and thinking 'gee, people are gonna do that for about 5 seconds before reverting back to the way they've always done it', i thought to myself

'there are 1500 people working in south australia, to take phone calls and investigate reports of abuse.

and there are 80 000 calls each year'

what the hell kind of statistic is that? its a bullshit kind of statistic, thats what. how can there only be that many people? how can 1500 people be expected to help all those kids?

when a call goes through to the child abuse report line (CARL), the information is taken down and the case is given a priority, tier 1, 2 or 3. in the case of tier 1, there is immediate action particularly if the abuse is of a sexual nature. tier 2, cases are looked at within 48 hours. tier 3, a letter is sent with an invitation to come in and talk.
ok, thats all fair enough, not every report is going to be as serious as the next one. (we were told of a phone call from a grandmother upset that the other grandmother didnt give the kids afternoon tea). but the sad fact is that as more and more reports are made, with the amount of people there to take care of them, cases are pushed backwards, left another day, another week...
abuse isnt going to stop, so there isnt going to be a reduction in cases. people are more aware, so there wont be a reduction in calls. what is needed is more people to field the calls, to go out and see whats going on and to help these kids.
to do that they'll need money, and i imagine the government would say that they've given as much as they can to things like this, that there are more important things like security against terrorism.
if the money isnt spent to help these kids, there wont be anyone here in australia to protect.

and the money is there. perhaps there would need to be some shuffling done, but its there.

how about, for every packet of cigarettes purchased, $5 goes towards helping the kids
or every lottery ticket, every carton of beer, every block of chocolate.

what if for one week, companies decided that they made enough money to give back into the community. not with competitions that require you to buy more and you might win, but by giving away their profits to charity. not 10 cents, or 30 cents, but actual money.
how about channel 10, australian idol and big brother combine their profits from sms lines and give it all away

cos it shouldnt have to be this way