Cup Noodles in a Pile of Used Diapers! Women Who Left Their Children in an Infant Care Facilities Have Higher Risk of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault!

— “I thought I couldn’t raise my baby on my own. I thought I couldn’t raise my baby by myself, so I decided to leave her at an institution.

When I interviewed parents at infant homes, I was often told this by parents in a weary tone. Many of the parents suffer from mental illness or were born with disabilities.

Support for children who are not raised by their parents at home is known as “social advocacy. After abuse, the second most common reason for children being placed in institutions is parental mental illness or disability.

For example, in Japan, there is an institution called an infant care center that accepts children between the ages of 0 and 2 years old. 2018 In terms of statistics for fiscal year 2018, of the reasons why parents entrusted their children to institutions23.4 percent of the reasons for parents leaving their children in institutions were “parental mental illness. This is a result of abuse (26.9 This figure is second only to abuse (9%). This is the second highest rate after abuse (9%), and is about compared to 20 years ago. 10 percent higher than 20 years ago.

The “Young Homeless” series follows young people who have lost their homes. In this issue, we would like to shine a light on these parents and their children.

In Japan, the number of people diagnosed with mental illness or disability is on the rise. There may be various factors behind this trend, including changes in the social structure, the spread of medical knowledge, and changes in the living environment.

Abuse risk is 13 times higher

However, people with such handicaps are vulnerable to various risks in their daily lives. In particular, it has often been pointed out that women are at increased risk of violence and sexual crimes.

Specifically speaking, children with disabilities are at a higher risk of abuse than their healthy counterparts. 13 In particular, children with disabilities are at more than 13 times the risk of abuse compared to their normal counterparts. The same may be true for spousal domestic violence.

In addition, according to an overseas study, women with disabilities are three times more likely to be involved in sexual crimes than normal women. However, the risk would be even higher given the very large number of cases that are not manifested as incidents.

In an infant care center. 20 One woman who has worked in an infant care center for more than 20 years says

I have certainly seen many cases where parents with mental illness or disabilities have their children placed in infant homes. What concerns me is that many of these parents, especially mothers, are unmarried.

They are often run away or abandoned by men when they become pregnant. If women, who are handicapped to begin with, do not receive adequate support, raising children becomes difficult. They come to us for help when they can no longer manage.

Even if they have a spouse, some of them are suffering from domestic violence or are in great financial difficulties. Even under such circumstances, women become codependent and cannot leave their husbands. So they are sometimes left with only their small children.”

Of course, not all women with mental illness or disabilities are affected in this way. What she is saying is that when we focus on the special environment of the infant home, we see a relatively large number of such women.

She also says

She also says, “There is a lot of talk in society about being gender-free and diversity. Maybe in the conscious world of large corporations, there is a trend. But being in the world of social advocacy, I frequently see handicapped women being targeted, attacked, and hurt as if they were herbivores. It is true that society is changing, but at the root there are many sad realities.”