The increasing problem with violent crime and drug addiction in Bermuda is directly related to how parents treat their children.

And facts show it is almost impossible to find a violent offender without a history of abuse -- physical, sexual or both -- in his or her childhood.

Government's recently published Health Care Review Report stated that "Child abuse in Bermuda is worse than many other developed countries with almost a third of women exposed to abuse as children.'' Responding, Coalition for the Protection of Children's Sheelagh Cooper said, "We need to look at health care in terms of wellness -- a holistic approach -- which puts the emphasis on prevention.'' Child abuse "in most cases ... brings with it a whole host of mental health disorders including chronic depression, eating disorders, alcoholism or drug addition.

"Because of these links we know that a dollar spent on early intervention probably saves $10 at the back end of the system in either mental health cost or correctional institutional costs.

"This is not even factoring in the human costs.'' Mrs. Cooper also said the implication for health care was that "our services should be placed disproportionately at the front end of the system in prevention rather than at the back end in terms of psychiatric and correctional institutions.

"I think the Health Review report is very well done and comprehensive and I am very pleased that they have included all of the recommendations from our report.'' Mrs. Cooper's report, "Healthy Communities, Healthy Children -- Recommendations Regarding Health Care for Bermuda's Children'' stated that because of Government subsidised health care for children, the overall state of health among Bermuda's children was good.

"Bermuda compares favourably to other jurisdictions in this respect. However, when one ventures beyond the conventional model of disease control into the much more complex area of mental and emotional health, Bermuda lags behind some more enlightened jurisdictions in its service delivery to children.'' She added: "When health is defined to include both the physical and mental health of children, Bermuda's health care services to children in the important area of their emotional health is seriously limited.

"Problems such as drug abuse, young teenage pregnancy, child abuse, both physical and sexual, and neglect, are problems which the health care system of Bermuda has barely begun to address at its root.

"Part of the reason for that is the fact that these problems are so multi-faceted that they stretch way beyond the boundaries of conventional health care.'' And that landed many individuals in the lap of the conventional health care services, her report concluded.

"Conditions related to drugs or alcohol as well as the associated violence are increasingly the source of many hospital admissions.

"Attempts to reduce this increased burden on conventional health care structures will only be successful if efforts are made at the front end of the system on a preventative or early treatment level.'' She added the extraordinary rate of alcohol and drug dependency in Bermuda and its resultant levels of violent crime pointed to problems in the way parents treated their children.

"Research in this field has begun to establish an alarmingly close relationship between early physical and sexual abuse in children and latter addictive behaviour in adults.

"The problem of physical and sexual abuse of children in this community is as bad, if not worse, than other similarly developed countries.

"For example, current estimates indicate that between 20 and 30 percent of all women, and three to ten percent of all males, have been victims of sexual abuse as children,'' she said.

No caption