Audit of child maltreatment medical assessments in a culturally diverse, metropolitan setting.

Objective: Child maltreatment (CM) is a major public health problem globally. While there is evidence for the value of medical examination in the assessment of CM, little is known about the quality of clinical assessments for CM. South Western Sydney (SWS) has a large metropolitan population with many vulnerable subgroups.

Analysis of acute presentations for child protection medical assessments in a large, culturally diverse metropolitan setting.

Objective: South Western Sydney has a large culturally diverse population with many vulnerable subgroups; little is known about the health and social outcomes following acute child maltreatment assessments. We aimed to describe acute presentations of maltreatment in South Western Sydney-including examination findings of the assessment, determine health and social outcomes for children following medical assessment, to inform service development.

Design: We gathered data from the acute child protection database on all children <16 years referred for physical abuse and neglect and/or sexual abuse assessment between 2013 and 2015 to one hospital service.