The Ministry of Health and Welfare has set up a child protection and medical service network to stop more children from being abused by their caretakers.
The network that started operations on Monday offers medical care and counseling services in six hospitals.
Statistics show that about 28,000 children were suspected of falling victim to child abuse annually over the past five years. In other words, one child is physically or mentally abused every 18 minutes in Taiwan.
A ministry official, Happy Chen, said on Monday that spiritual scars are harder to recover than physical wounds.
“In the past, each hospital did physical exams at the emergency room but there was no psychological help. The [network] allows abused children to receive care to be offered by clinical psychologists or psychiatrists at the emergency room," said Chen. "The most important thing is to prevent them from developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), becoming delinquents or even using drugs.”
The Taiwan Pediatric Association said while many parents have trouble handling children that throw tantrums, misbehavior is actually a signal for help.