Pediatrician Child Abuse

Sometimes the family/carer of the child may be hurting them so its important to report any signs as early as possible so that the case can be looked further into without the possible abuse escalating.

When dealing with suspected or actual abuse it is important that we don’t make premature judgments and try to deal with the situation without having all information and evidence required. Just because (for example) a child comes into school regularly with cuts and bruises, this does not mean that they are being abuse. Observations can play a key role into getting actual evidence. By making premature judgments and proceeding to accuse parents/carers of abusing a child can cause a lot of unnecessary upset to both parent and child and make your workplace look inadequate.

To comply with federal law, all states have some form of regulation that requires health professionals to report child abuse/neglect to the appropriate agency.

After watching these different cases, the way they affected me is that it’s very difficult for social workers to decide to remove the child or let them go back to their house and live with their parents. For them it’s a very difficult and important decision because basically child’s life and future depends on the social worker’s decision. If they say it’s safe for the child to go back to live with his/her parents and if the abuse and neglect still continues, they put the child’s life on risk. I think the 10-year-old Matthew case stand out more than others because even though the dad was physically abusing the child, Matthew still wanted to go back to his house and live with his dad. It’s interesting that the way they were acting it felt like

Child abuse is a ginormous problem throughout the United States. There are numerous attempts to try to stop child abuse, but how many are effective? America is known to be great and strong, so America can come together and end child abuse. In “A Child Called ‘It”, Dave Pelzer says, “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul”. Children should not fear to wake up and the next morning and live their life.

If any professional becomes concerned that a child might be at risk of abuse, be it physical, sexual, emotional or neglect, it is their legal duty to pass on such concerns to the appropriate professionals who can assess if and what action should be taken. In cases where it will not put the child at greater risk or danger, the parents / carers of the child will be informed that such action has been taken.

Pediatricians must recognize and respond to pediatric abusive head trauma, no matter how subtle the signs may be, in order to prevent further neurological injury. The appropriate reports must be made to child welfare services and law enforcement in order to make arrangements for the future safety of the child and deal with the legal ramifications of the abuser.

They separate families by making arbitrary decisions and by not investigating all sources of evidence or any evidence at all. Some CPS organizations do not always abide by the laws and even fail to follow their own regulations and policies. The children who are safe in the custody of their parents are being violated by a legal system that does not work. CPS organizations need to learn new techniques in distinguishing between real child abuse and parenting.

Under and over reporting is of equal concern because both affect the number of child abuse victims who are in need of help. “Failure to report exposes children to serious injury or even death and over reporting diverts resources from understaffed agencies, thus limiting their ability their ability to protect children in real danger” (Loseke, 285). Another issue is when to decide whether signs of abuse are actual signs of child abuse or just everyday injuries child usually inflict on themselves. Furthermore, this can also impact the whether a person will report the incident or not. For example, two people can see the same incident and depending on their knowledge of child abuse they can, either report it or determine it is not abuse. “A study of non-reporting among teachers, blamed their lack of knowledge for detecting symptoms of child abuse and neglect” (Loseke, 292).

Westat found that professionals failed to report many of the children they saw who had signs of child abuse and neglect. It found that in 1986, 56 percent of apparently abused or neglected children, or about 500,000 children, were not reported to the authorities. This figure, however, seems more alarming than it is: Basically, the more serious the case, the more likely the report. For example, the surveyed professionals reported over 85 percent of the fatal or serious physical abuse cases they saw, 72 percent of the sexual abuse cases, and 60 percent of the moderate physical abuse cases. They only reported 15 percent of the educational neglect cases they saw, 24 percent of the emotional neglect cases, and 25 percent of the moderate physical neglect cases.

Christian (2015) in the article “Evaluation of Suspected Child Physical Abuse” aims to provide a clinical guidance to evaluate the suspected physical abuse in children and determine the suitable treatment depending on the radiological diagnosis. The prevalence of this study was limited in the US to whom are inflicted the four types of child abuse; physical, emotional, sexual and neglect abuse. Christian (2015) divide the type of child abuse into two types; server (long term) and minor injury (long- term effect). In 2004, they declare that 26.4% of the cases that registered in the USA as a child abuse were pushed, grabbed or slapped. So, the sign of physical harm is considerably noticeable. However, it is unclear in some cases that are unreported

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (MBPS) is a disorder of which should bring awareness to the medical field. It is not well understood and brings a lot of controversy. This disorder is when a parent, usually the mother, who purposely causes illness to her child rather physically or emotionally. The disorder was named after Baron von Munchausen, from the 18th century who gained fame from his tales. The child only becomes sick in the presence of the mother which makes it hard to identify the cause of the illness. It is thought that the reasoning for MBPS is the need for attention The only treatment known for this

Children have seen many things done in their presence, some impacted them positively, for example, love and compassion. While some impacted them negatively, for example, a violent misconduct. Some children had experience neglect and abuse of all kind from grown-ups that they are related to, or even a friend of their family. Some have been abuse by individual that they have never seen in their life until the day the person mistreated them. However, most of the times children are hurt by adults and they do not tell anyone because of fear or shame. This can cause the child to shut down and have emotional, psychological as well as behavioral issues. Therefore, it is always good for the child if they tell someone trustworthy and they get professional help as well as the individual that committed the crime is being punished (Child Advocacy Center, 2017). This is where the Forensic Interviewer come in.

Many researchers believe that statistics based on official reports do not accurately reflect the prevalence of child abuse. Definitions of maltreatment vary from state to state and among agencies, making such statistics unreliable. Professionals who interact with children—such as teachers, day-care workers, pediatricians, and police officers—may fail to recognize or report abuse. In addition, acts of abuse usually occur in the privacy of a family’s home and often go unreported. Surveys of families, another way of estimating abuse, indicate that 2.3 percent of children in the United States—or about 1.5 million children—experience abusive violence each

Which is why according to the lead author of this study, joseph spinatsola, a TV personality and a well know pediatric, points out that there are no physical wounds linked with emotional abuse, so child protection case workers have a particularly hard time recognizing it. So why aren’t we addressing this issue with the same intensity of more visible kinds of abuse such as verbal abuse? After all as the American academy of pediatrics stated “it is the most challenging and prevalent form of abuse and neglect.”