Prevalence of confirmed child abuse and the use of resources in child psychiatric out-patients

Abstract

This paper explores the extent of known child sexual and physical abuse in child psychiatric out-patient services in Leeds. We surveyed a one-month period, looking at all out-patient contacts, and found that at least 17.9% of patients had been physically or sexually abused and these patients took up 25.8% of cut-patient time. When the 70 abused children were compared to a group matched for age group, clinical team and diagnosis it was found that they were more likely to be followed-up for longer and they received more therapeutic time over a given period than non-abused children. The implications for resources are discussed.