Child Protection Service

There are many efforts that are made each day to ensure safety of children living in the state of Mississippi. The MS Department of Child Protection Services (MDCPS) is at the center of every community’s child protection efforts. MDCPS conducts initial assessments of reports of child abuse and/or neglect. The agency also provides other prevention services to children and families where maltreatment has occurred or is likely to occur. The adaptation of these services examines underlying conditions. These underlying conditions consist of drug and alcohol abuse, sexual molestation, poverty and cultural beliefs. MDCPS utilizes tools such as Comprehensive Family Assessments (CFA) and Family Service

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

Groves, B.M. (1999). Mental Health Services for Children Who Witness Domestic Violence. The Future of Children, 9(3), 122-132.

Child Protective Services (CPS) is a complex system of assessments, investigations, and conclusions. CPS is the central agency in each communities child abuse and neglect service system. It is responsible for ensuring that preventative, investigative, and treatment services are available to children and families endangered by child abuse and neglect. As a result, CPS workers must perform a variety of functions when responding to situations of child maltreatment and play a variety of roles throughout their involvement with child protective clients. Reporting a suspective case of child maltreatment to the local CPS agency (or a family member’s own request for help with the problem) initiates

Did you know in 2012 that 1,640 kids have died because Child Protective Services did not act upon their situations? CPS stands for Child Protective services; that reports of child abuse or neglect. The government thought that CPS would have helped more than harmed, but because of their statistics CPS has been cancelled and now there is a new program which is called DCS (department of child safety). CPS has failed in their position by not focusing on all child cases; CPS only puts effort towards cases they picked. If we were to continue with CPS the way it is , so many more kids would die. CPS was put down because of the ratio of kids that have passed away under their care.

Children are recognized as the future of modern society as the population continues to grow old. Therefore, each and every child has the right to be nurtured in a safe environment (Geffner, 2000). A home riddled with domestic violence is the complete opposite of what Geffner described in her book, Children exposed to domestic violence. According to the 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS), almost 250 000 homes across Canada failed to provide an ideal living environment for their children (citation). Most of the damage comes at the hands of a parent or other relative, and the damage can last a lifetime. An abused child is 35% more likely to end up in violent or abusive relationships as an adult (citation). As stated by the statistic above, the likelihood

Everyday there are children being abused by someone who is supposed to protect them. An estimated 905,000 children were victims of child abuse or neglect in 2006(Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2008). In 1996, more than three million victims of suspected abuse were reported to child protective services agencies in the United States (Baker, 2002). The numbers have changed and still many cases of abuse go unreported. The number of incidences of child abuse rises when the family is under stress, such as being in our economy. The effects of physical abuse can last a lifetime and are measured by the physical, psychological, behavioral, or social outcomes. Normal physical abuse scenario involves a parent who loses control and lashes

The “estimated overlap of domestic violence and child abuse is 30 to 50 percent” of all cases (Henderson 321). As the child grows older and sees the violence in their household there is a possibility that the child will think that it is acceptable.

“A home with a loving and loyal husband and wife is the supreme setting in which children can be reared in love and righteousness and in which the spiritual and physical needs of children can be met”. Said David Bender. One of the main section of the Michigan Department of Health & Human services MDHHS website is Adult and services children. the major type in this section is called abuse and neglect and under this division, there are adult and children protective services and others. One type of abuse interested me and surprised me referring to the statistics I found is children protective services. The children protective services CPS program is a responsible for investigations

If the child’s immediate safety is not at risk, then the worker will work with the family to reduce the risk of future maltreatment and help the child cope with the effects of previous maltreatment. If the child’s environment is deemed a risk to their well-being, then the CPS worker will intervene to protect the child from harm. The child typically goes to a foster home as counseling begins. While the goal of the CPS worker is to be able to reunite the child with their family after intensive counseling, they also begin to develop a concurrent plan. This means seeking out a safe adoptive home for the

In 2002 there was estimated to be nearly 3 million referrals to Child Protective Services (CPS) in the United States, and about 5 million in the year 2000 (McWey & Mullis, 2004). Children who are living in environments that put them in harms way, depending on the situation are generally removed from their home and placed into a foster home in attempts to keep them safe (Carlson, Egeland & Lawrence, 2006). Common examples of Child Protective Service (CPS) referrals include physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological maltreatment (McWey & Mullis, 2004). In 2001 it was estimated that nearly 542,000 children were in foster care in the United States and that the number of children in foster care exceeded the number of available foster homes by nearly 30-40% (Carlson, Egeland & Lawrence, 2006). For many children in foster care, reunification with biological parent or parents is the ultimate goal (McWey, Acock & Porter, 2010). In 60% of foster care cases, reunification with biological parents occurs (Carlson, Egeland & Lawrence, 2006) .In order for reunification to be possible, or to help determine whether reunification can occur, children and biological parents have scheduled visits with trained supervisors who monitor the visits (Haight, Kagle & Black, 2003). The duty of the supervisor is to look at the parent child interactions and determine whether or not they are appropriate. Supervised visitation has been shown to have positive and negative effects on children who are

When a child is physically beaten or sexually abused, the ideal set of eventsis that doctors treat the injuries, therapists counsel the child, social services works with the family, police arrest the offender, and attorneys prosecute the case. To promote this response, effective community interventioninvolves the formation of a child protection team that includes professionals from medicine, criminal justice, social work, and educationwhounderstandandappreciate the different roles, responsibilities, strengths,

Cross, T. P., Mathews, B., Tonmyr, L., Scott, D., & Ouimet, C. (2012). Child welfare policy and practice on children's exposure to domestic violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36(3), 210-216. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.11.004

In 2012, a report by the Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence indicated that over 46 million children residing in the United States were most likely to have their lives affected by violence, crime, abuse, or psychological trauma in that year (Klain, & White, 2013). The task force recommended that every concerned group serving children exposed to violence and mental trauma should establish and provide trauma-informed care and trauma-focused services to the affected children. The targeted groups include child welfare system stakeholders, professionals, and advocates concerned with helping these

Furthermore, whenever it has proven that a child has been abused and/ or neglected, the Children’s Protective Services ensures that the child is protected and safe.