neglect

“Maltreatment of individuals with disabilities may be committed by only a few, but the responsibility to protect them belongs to all of us.[1]” This is true for all children, not just children with disabilities. As a society we must prevent child abuse and neglect from taking children and turning them into bad adults. Prevention will keep our society from being damaged, not only in terms of the trauma to the individual but also in economic terms. If society can prevent people from neglecting and abusing their children, then we will save money on welfare services for children. President Bush wants a $200 million dollars increase in funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program, which will be administered by HHS’ (Health and Human Services) Administration for Children and Families[2]. This money would intensify its efforts to help stop child abuse by helping states and enabling children to be adopted into safe and stable families quicker. The government is not doing everything they can to prevent neglect and abuse from taking place. The government is too worried about what to do with the children after they take children from their families that they cannot focus on preventing the problems.

Child abuse and neglect is defined as, at a minimum
(PL 104-235, Section 111; 42 U.S.C. 5106g), any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or as an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm. Child neglect is characterized by failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional.

· Physical neglect includes refusal of or delay in seeking health care, abandonment, expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home, and inadequate supervision.

· Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child of mandatory school age child in school, and the failure to attend a special educational need.

· Emotional neglect includes such actions as marked inattention to the child’s needs for affection, refusal of or failure to provide needed psychological care, spouse abuse in the child’s presence, and permission of drug or alcohol use by the child.

The economy is affected by the child neglect that takes place. Money that is normally spent on child welfare services and the large sums used to address short- and long-term consequences can be used in other areas of the government if the steps taken to prevent neglect are strong enough to save innocent children from neglect. Effective preventions programs that promote safety and well being of children and families hold potential for lessening the suffering and trauma experienced by the children and in return greatly reducing future economic costs. Prevention programs go back to the idea that parents teach children and if we can teach parents to treat their children correctly, then the children will then teach their children correctly in the future.

Two studies done in the recent past have found that neglect is the most common for of child maltreatment. It was also found that children with disabilities tend to be maltreated multiple times and in multiple ways[3].

· of these children, 56% suffered neglect; 25%, physical abuse; and 13%, sexual abuse. Some were victims of more than one type,

· in 41 states that reported fatalities, 967 children died because of abuse or neglect; three-quarters of them were under the age of 3,

· decline from about 900,000 children in 1998 to an estimated 826,000 victims of maltreatment,

· incident rate declined to 11.8 per 1,000 children rather than the 12.6 per 1,000 in 1998.

There is not a clear cut set of risk factors for all children because every situation is different from any other. Some risk factors include parental substance abuse, poor coping skills, poor impulse control, and a history of violence. Parents with low self-esteem, those diagnosed with depression, and parents whom are disabled also have risk factors associated with neglect and abuse.

As a country, we should demand that more money is given to the Department of Health and Human Services for more and better children related services. The Department of Health and Human Services must work with the Department of Education to ensure the well being of children. Both departments deal with children so much that they must work together to make the future of American children bright. We must also train educators, daycare providers and others working with children to see the signs and teach these people how to work with the different government agencies to check out possible neglect and abuse situations. If all of these people understand what happens in these situations, then we can fight child abuse and neglect, and help children to become the best possible citizens that they can. We must also do a better job of documenting signs of neglect and abuse. If we can see that these signs of neglect and abuse are constant, then we can help prevent the problems from getting worse and remove the child from the situation. We must make stricter laws and have more people trained to enforce these laws.

The focus of child neglect and abuse must be towards prevention rather than solving the problems. As a society, we must demand that our nation’s future is protected from the abuse and neglect that is taking place. There must be stricter laws and more people to enforce the laws. The government is now starting to understand how prevention works but they need to improve the prevention programs so they are beneficial to all children. Citizens must work together to make our country safe for all children.

[1] From “The Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities”

[2] From ACF Press Room, 4-2-01

[3] From “The Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities”

[4] From “Protecting the Child”

[5] From ACF Press Room, 4-2-01

Position Paper