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Proposed solutions for child abuse
Prevention and protection of child abuse
Prevention and protection of child abuse
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As a human service professional, there will be times when it is necessary to become involved with cases that surround abuse and or neglect. The types and classes of people that we will provide services for will be a mixture of different cultures, situations, and circumstance surrounding the abuse. In the scenario presented, a teacher has referred a set of twin students to the human services professional who must intervene in a situation of abuse. The father is known throughout the community to make threats, which causes concern about the safety of the worker and the child. The topic of discussion of this paper will focus on prevention methods and interventions.
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A set of fifth-grade twins, Jonah and Joann, has been referred by
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their teacher to the school counselor because of concerns of abuse by a parent. She has noticed on several occasions that the children have come to school looking unkempt and wearing long sleeve shirts even though the weather has been hot, and there is no air conditioning in the school. The teacher also notices several bruises on the children. After speaking with the twins, they tell the counselor that the father has grabbed them when they are bad. As a mandated reporter, the counselor must report her suspicion of suspected abuse to Child Protective Service (CPS). The counselor is concerned for her safety and the safety of the children once a report is made. However, because she is a mandated reporter, she must make the call because it is the law and in the best interest of the twins. It is not her responsibility to prove that abuse has occurred, that responsibility rests on the shoulders of CPS. Types of Intervention There are many types of interventions available to prevent child abuse in different setting such as the home and a school setting.
These three types of interventions are categorized as, primary, secondary, and global intervention. These interventions work to reduce child abuse and maltreatment. These interventions may be funded by grants, rely on the community for help or government funds. One such prevention method used in a family setting is parent education. This type of intervention is educating parents about their children. Many parents can become very frustrated and do not know the right guidance techniques to use with their children, especially those children with behavior issues. It is important to understand the behavior of the child by considering the surrounding of the child where he/she lives. Environment factors play important role in modifying the behavior in various ways. A suitable environment can help the child grow in a socially acceptable way and otherwise, it may put negative influence on child’s behavioral …show more content…
pattern. Types of Parent Education Several studies have indicated that parent education has positive influences on parenting and is an effective means of reducing child abuse. The most effective parent education uses skill building, feedback of skills and modeling good parenting practices. There are three types of parent education that are used in the family setting: Individual parent education, involves working one on one with a family. Home visitations are often done and work to build parenting skills at home to reduce abuse. The human service professional may model for the parent how to handle certain behaviors and to reduce stress in the home.
This is done by a social worker who works close with the family. The second type of parent education is group parenting. Those parents who take individual parent education will most often also take group parenting. Group parenting usually takes place in a school or office setting where parents gather for one or more classes aimed at improving their parenting skills. These classes teach different skills needed to help parent and guide children the right way. The last type of parenting education is the self-directed parent education, this type refers to the use of reading materials or audiovisual information that they read or watch on their own in an effort to improve their parenting
skills. While most group parent education has specific goals and is organized around a specific topic, some programs allow parents to decide on topics to discuss and allow time for group discussion, questions and concerns. Parenting education can be done before abuse has occurred to inform parents, or it can be requested by social services to parents if neglect or abuse has been reported. Many times parenting classes will be required for parents that are fighting to get their children back from foster care or social services. Primary Interventions in a School Setting Teachers play an important role in a child’s life through infancy until adulthood. Many times as adults we will remember the teachers that left a positive mark on our life. Teachers are the caregivers of children for most of the day while parents are working. Teachers can also play a role in helping to identify and prevent child abuse in the school setting. It is important to build strong relationships with families before problems occur so that there will be a foundation of mutual trust and respect that is established when problems or concerns arise. It is critical that the procedures for dealing with suspected child abuse is in the school policies and that parents are made aware of them. Teachers can also inform families of how to identify and report abuse. Children who are abused and neglected often feel safe, secure and have protection from harm by their attendance in child care and school. Children who have suffered abuse and neglect are also much more likely to have behaviors that are difficult for teachers, and therefore, they are at higher risk for being expelled as well as receiving harsher treatment from frustrated teachers. If expelled, some are sent home where there is a greater chance for maltreatment because of increased time with abusive parents who may continue to punish the child because of the expulsion. Teachers who learn and practice appropriate guidance techniques provide protection and skills for these children that can help them and can minimize the effects of abuse and neglect. Teachers are able to help these children with their behavior and develop interventions to help misbehavior. Art and music are areas that provide great prevention and intervention for abused children. Children are able to express themselves through their art without talking to an adult. Teachers can often tell a lot about a child’s life through their drawings and artwork. If the child is always draws monsters, blood and scary situations, then there might be a problem at home. The teacher can ask the child, “So tell me about your drawing”. Soothing music can be used to calm an anxious child. Music can be encouraging to children to reach out for help from police, teachers and the community. Another critical area is communication which is the key to reducing child abuse and to improve parent and teacher communication. Establishing relationships with parents often encourages a parent to reach out for help and protects children who are at-risk. Teachers can do this by sending home positive notes, phone calls, or emails to the child’s parents with positive information about the child. This opens up communication with the parents and teacher. “If a concern about the child arises the teacher can communicate with the parents and work together to fix the problem” (Hirschy & Wilkinson, 2010). Factors to Consider Before getting involved with a case, or even during the case, a worker must be aware of their personal feelings as they relate to the situation. Abuse is a very touchy subject and how a worker feels about abuse can impact the decisions that need to be made. How a worker was raised, their environment, social and economic status all plays a part in the way they perceive. People, in general, have feelings and or opinions, but in situations such as this, they must be able to check those feelings if they want to help their client. Having strong feelings about the case, particularly the parent or caregiver, should not be the driving factor in helping the client, it should be what is in the best interest of the child and how they can affect a positive outcome. If and or when a worker feels they cannot or no longer be unbiased, they should remove themselves from the case. In the situation of this scenario, the initial stages of intervention will rely greatly on the communication between the worker, social services, the twins, and the father. It will be important for the worker to maintain constant communication.
"We knew [abuse of] black kids was reported about twice as often as it was for white kids, and we were concerned that that might be due to racism. We also knew black kids, in terms of economics, were facing a lot of problems that most white kids were not facing," said Washington University social work professor Brett Drake. Rates of reported child abuse are disproportionately high for black children. Many researchers believe that poverty is the main reason black children are twice as likely as white children to suffer abuse (Gray 1). In 2012, over 1,600 children died from abuse. Child abuse is a major problem faced in the United States today, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States every year. These reports add up to nearly six million children involved in child abuse every year. Of the 702,000 cases of substantiated child abuse in 2009, 44 percent involved white children and 22.3 percent involved black children. Blacks make up 12.4 percent of the country's population; whites, 74.8 percent (Gray). Being that child abuse is against the law it is concerning that child abuse accounts for five deaths per day. It is also the leading killer of children under the age of four. These children have suffered the loss of innocence and have had their child hood stripped away from them. Therapy has a positive effect on African American children who have endured abuse because it allows them to heal through creative therapies, gives the child a safe place to express their feelings, and helps them regain confidence.
Child abuse is a worldwide phenomenon that needs urgent attention. Kopp and Miltenberger (2008) in their study evaluated the validity and acceptability of using role-plays to assess sexual abuse prevention skills.
Child abuse and neglect incidence rates are approximately ten times higher than the incidence rates for cancer. The incident rates for child abuse and neglect are 40 children per 1,000 children every year. The incidence rates for cancer patients are 3.9 people per 1,000 people every year. According to Frank Putnam (2005), “We find an incidence rate for child abuse and neglect that is about ten times as high as the incidence rate for all forms of cancer…There is a multi-billion-dollar research base reliably renewed on an annual basis for cancer treatment and prevention. Nothing remotely similar to this exists for child abuse and neglect” (p. 1). The 2001 federal fiscal year budget was $3.74 billion for the National Cancer Institution. Between all of CAPTA’s grants combined, the total of monetary governmental support comes to approximately $72 million. While cancer research is an incredible thing, child abuse and neglect programs should be well funded in order to help more children. In addition to more children being helped, if funding for abuse awareness increased, there would possibly be more jobs open for social workers and other types of advocates. (The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, 2005).
According to Malley-Morrison and Hines (2004), abuse is a very broad term, and it conveys images of destructive implications, so maltreatment is used by the author to define two diverse stages of abuse (p. 16). One level consists of the dangerous but lest severe form of abuse such as hitting, shoving, or calling someone names. There is violent abuse which consists of sexual abuse or injury to the person. The Ecological model is the model used by the Department of Health and Human Services to report and it helps the workers identify the underlying reasons, origins, and magnitude of working with child abuse and domestic violence.
Parent-child intervention programs are another use for the theory. Children learn from experiences based on their home life. “Children’s strategies for managing emotions, resolving disputes, and engaging with others are learned from experience and carried forward across setting and time. For younger children especially, the primary source of these experiences is the parent–child and family relationship environment” (O’Connor, Matias, Futh, Tantam & Scott, 2013).Young children witness much of their learned behaviors from their parents. By intervening at an early age to help change some of the parents behaviors children will then learn new responses to situations. Children who are victims of domestic abuse can see videos or models portraying
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 3.3 million referrals for alleged maltreatment were made in 2013. Out of the 3.3 million referrals, 899,000 children were officially documented as being maltreated(Child Abuse & Neglect 2015). Child abuse is the mistreatment of a child. Child abuse is recognized in several forms; physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Children who experience any form of abuse will tend to withdraw themselves from their peers and sometimes from other family members who are not aware of what is taking place. Child abuse occurs not just in the homes of these children, but can also occur in schools, churches and after school programs. Anywhere a child is present there is a chance that abuse can occur. This paper will review the forms of child abuse, the effects of child abuse, reasons child abuse occurs and possible therapies to bring healing in the parties involved.
Child abuse and neglect is a very serious issue that can not be taken lightly. We need to provide continuing public education and professional training. Few people fail to report because they want children to suffer abuse and neglect. Likewise, few people make deliberately false reports. Most involve an honest desire to protect children coupled with confusion about what conditions are reportable. Educational efforts should emphasize the conditions that do not justify a report, as well as those that do.
The mistreatment of children is classified by four types of actions: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect. Although, in recent years several steps have been taken to prevent the maltreatment of children it seems that child abuse is still prevalent in today's society. Countless children around the world suffer from some form of abuse and in many cases the same child experiences more than one. There is no exact number of victims because it difficult to measure the exact amount of children going through abuse. Child abuse almost always occurs in private, and because abuse is often hidden from view and its victims may be too young or too frightened to speak out, experts in child welfare suggest that its true prevalence
Perhaps the most famous social worker from the United States, Jane Addams once said,” This guy is a bastard. He took advantage of my daughter.” Social work allows you to experience many different sides of life; it gives you the opportunity to embrace life to the fullest, and the chance to influence people’s lives for the better. Becoming a Social worker will allow me to get involved with the community and to make a difference. It will shape you into a person that can do anything, and will make a permanent mark on your heart because of the experiences and people you come into contact with. I have faced many challenges throughout my life, but have always been able to manage somehow and rise above them, on the basis of strength and has made me a stronger person. The importance is that I feel I have become self-insured, and can be an asset to the social work profession. As a social worker I will be able to help make other lives better by relating to some of their personal situations, helping kids cope with physical and mental abuse, by providing child protection services.
Early Intervening Services is a hot topic and nonetheless relevant topic for us educators. Early Intervening Services is essential for all students to succeed. “The concept of early intervening services was introduced into public school systems with the implementation of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004” (Mire & Montgomery, 2009). Administrators need to adhere to the educational laws so that all children have the right to learn and grow with their peers in an educational setting. One change in the law is this emphasis of intervening early to meet the needs of children at risk of not succeeding in the classroom. A common thread with the research articles I’ve selected is this notion of effectiveness. Dickman’s (2007) formula and the provided description of IDEA: Early Intervening Services ( ) both support the non negotiable pieces of the puzzle in order to have an effective approach when providing Early Intervening Services. The research heavily emphasizes the importance of Early Intervening Services must be provided with scientific research-based, training to carry out the program, and informed environment. The research strongly suggests that all three are essential to meet the expectations of Early Intervening Services. Dickman’s vital points do align with the definition of IDEA. In Neuman’s (2007) Changing the Odds article, identifies effective principles to an intervention just like Dickman; she also agrees professional training is key to effective Early Intervening Services. Although, her attributes for an effective intervention consist of eight principles and his consist of three, both of them strongly believe children can succeed when provided effective early intervention services by...
Smith, M., & Segal, J. (n.d.). Child Abuse & Neglect. : Recognizing, Preventing and Reporting Child Abuse. Retrieved January 14 2014, from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/child_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm
In past few years, there are many countries that developed different programs and plans for intervention in child abuse and neglect. But, some of them fail to reach the goal. When there is contact with family or client, at this moment this is intervention. Effective prevention and early intervention services can make a difference when provided at the right time. Intervention is all about time, matter of weeks. In fact, at this critical period you can achieve a progress that is not even equivalent up to 3 years of case treatment and management. Intervention methods are just putting a bandage on the issue of child abuse and neglect (Mathieson, Reynolds, & Topizes, 2009).
When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the
Thus, even though many people and agencies outside try to address and investigate, there is no direct way to address and prevent the issues. As mentioned above, poverty, isolation and other factors are causes of child abuse, we should address the main causes to truly prevent and remove child abuse. The most adequate countermeasure is to make society with parents with money, time and emotional resources to spare. In other words, it is important that we make sure that the society that is parents is able to have enough money, time, and healthy mental health. It is also essential to help parents.
Child abuse has become a chronic and common issue in the country today. In the United States of America, an estimated three million children are victims of abuse every year. Whether the abuse is physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect, the scars can be deep and can have a negative effect on a child’s education. According to academic research preformed at Brown University in April 1996, it was noted that abused children have a harder time maintaining good grades in school due to their stressful home lives, which leads to a lack of focus in the classroom. These issues are severely hurting the education of many children which damages their conscious development. Unstable households are the number one cause of children not performing at the level of proficiency in the classroom. (Family Mobility Helps) There are four different types of abuse, but the effects are similar, which is physical, or emotional harm placed upon the child. There are certain types of abuse that are often harder to identify. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse. Family members and caregivers are the abusers in most cases. Research has shown there are three major reasons why abuses children suffer academically. The reasons are withdrawal, poor communication/social skills, and behavioral problems. Child abuse does not only hurt a child’s education, but can lead to deaths. Therefore prevention is the key to the success of a child’s future. (Rynders)