This annual report - Taranaki District Health Board

Stream Indicator New Zealand Distribution and Trends Midland DHBs Distribution and TrendsSafety and FamilyViolenceChild Youth andFamilyNotificationsPolice FamilyViolenceInvestigationsDuring the 2011 financial year, 150,747 care andprotection notifications were received by Child Youth andFamily (CYF), with 38.4% being thought to requirefurther assessment. While this reflects an increase since2004, when 40,939 notifications were received, theproportion requiring further assessment declined (86.3%required further assessment in 2004). The number ofnotifications requiring further assessment howevercontinued to increase, from 35,350 in 2004 to 57,949 in2011, an increase of 63.9% over this periodOf those notifications which were assessed furtherduring 2004–2011, a large proportion resulted in noabuse being found. Where abuse was found however,physical and emotional abuse, and neglect wereprominent, while behavioural and relationship difficultieswere the most frequent non-abuse findings.Of the 86,704 Police family violence investigationsoccurring during 2011, children were reported as beingpresent, or usually residing with the victim in 54.0%.There were 35,536 Police family violence investigationswhere an offence occurred during 2011 and where therelationship between the offender and thevictim/complainant was recorded. In 40.6% of cases thevictim/complainant was the spouse or partner of theoffender, with a further 24.4% having been eitherpreviously married or in a relationship. In 20.3% of casesthe relationship was that of parent and child.During 2011, injuries were reported in 16.3% of Policefamily violence investigations. While the most commoninjuries reported were bruising and cuts, in 893 cases ahospital attendance was required, and in 20 cases theincident resulted in a death.Police family violence investigations during 2011resulted in 39,935 offences being disclosed, with a veryhigh proportion of these offences relating to assaults.Property damage, breach of violence orders, andthreatening behaviour also made a significantcontribution.During the 2011 financial year, CYF offices in the MidlandRegion received 40,198 care and protection notifications, with33.0% being thought to require further assessment. While thenumber of notifications had increased from 9,415 in 2004, theproportion requiring further assessment declined (84.9%required further assessment in 2004). Nevertheless, thenumber of notifications requiring further assessmentincreased, from 7,997 in 2004 to 13,268 in 2011, an increaseof 65.9% over this period.During 2011, a large number of family violence investigationsoccurred in the 11 Police Areas which most overlapped theMidland Region catchment. While these figures cannot beused to comment on trends in the prevalence of familyviolence during this period, they suggest that a large numberof family violence incidents are occurring in the MidlandRegion each year, and that (based on NZ level figures)children are likely to be present at a large proportion of these.Introduction and Overview - 41