Premier Wu Den-yih said Thursday that although the number of child abuse and filicide cases is on the decline, the government should continue to help high- risk families to fulfill their parenting functions. Wu issued the directive after listening to a briefing on the Ministry of the Interior's (MOI's) high-risk family counseling and aid program that was launched in 2005 to help children from families in which child abuse, domestic violence or filicide is most likely to occur. As of the end of June 2010, 119,743 children and adolescents had received counseling services under the program and another 23,947 children and teenagers had received emergency financial aid during the same period, with a total amount of NT$1.35 billion (US$42.19 million) distributed to them, according to the MOI report. Under the program, the report said, the MOI has pooled the resources of education, health, labor administration, police and social welfare agencies to establish a screening network to identify the high-risk families in order to take precautionary measures and offer timely assistance in various fields. The premier instructed the ministry to strengthen collaboration with the police to activate timely rescue operations for children or youngsters who fall victim to domestic violence or other abuse by their parents, guardians or care-givers. Wu also directed the MOI to pool its professional resources to help high-risk families cope with issues such as unemployment, education, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health and suicide prevention in order to ensure that the country's younger generation can grow up in a healthy environment. 