Providing Services When Threat May Exist Essay example

There are a myriad of ways that the environment can influences behaviors and some children are subjected to childhood maltreatment. These youths may develop into adults with serious emotional problems or face various addictions. In an abusive environment, it may subject the abuse survivors struggle with many negative effects that include substance abuse, mental disorders, learning disabilities, impulsivity, promiscuity, anti-social behaviors, and various other complications.

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

“There are situations of where the child shuts down and stays in his own world. Studies have shown a link between child abuse and delayed intellectual development. The child loses his ability to adapt to his or her environment leading to poor cognitive development. The child produces feelings of guilt, violation, loss of control and lowered self-esteem sometimes with suicidal tendencies. Common problems include emotional and behavioral problems, poor performance in school, and possible further abuse (Husted).

Abuse in the home whether it be mental, physical or sometimes sexual can affect every aspect of a child's life and development.

The published articles in this literature review all prove evidence that child abuse can negatively affect those children in either their adolescences or adulthood, or even in both. None of the articles explore if those children abused later abuse their future children, however a study by Ehrensaft,

As child neglect, abuse, or maltreatment occurs among all populations, the agency serves all families with children, including pregnant females, single mothers, single fathers, two-parent families, and legal guardians of children. There are also many other diverse factors within the families such as race, religion, age, gender, culture, lifestyle, and income. Much of the population served are victims of domestic violence and receive government assistance in the form of Medicaid, food stamps, and WIC (E. Thompson, personal communication, September 18, 2017).

Child maltreatment has serious implications for social work, because of the difficulties in intervening or preventing the occurrence of child maltreatment. Social work’s primary missions involve improving human well-being and human potential and assisting the vulnerable populations. In cases of child maltreatment, social worker’s need to be able to effectively recognize and respond to incidents of child maltreatment; as well as, effectively identify the causes of child maltreatment in order to treat and prevent it.

There are significant signs of psychological trauma due to any kind of abuse. Children experience feelings of low self esteem and depression. Many exhibit behavioral problems including aggression towards other children. Other emotional problems include hostility, fear, humiliation and the inability to express feelings. The social impacts of physical abuse include inability to form relationships, poor social skills, poor cognitive language skills, distrust of others, over-compliance with authority figures, and tendency to solve interpersonal problems with aggression. (2008, p. 1). Verbal and physical abuse has a cumulative impact on children’s socialization. Abused children are caught in damaged relationships and are not socialized in positive, supportive way (Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010, p. 196). They learn defiance, manipulation and other problem behaviors that are used to escape any maltreatment. In turn they will learn to exploit, degrade and terrorize.

“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul” (Pelzer, 1995, p. 166). Various discussions, studies, and ethical problems are formed around the topic of child abuse. Child abuse, defined by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), is “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 “an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” (Gateway, 2013) This leaves a large area for speculation on whether situations are covered under this definition. Nonetheless, child abuse is an unfortunate and growing problem in society today. With several causes such as poverty, parents who do not know any differently, and behavioral issues. These are all areas that social workers deal with on a day to day basis.

However, all forms of child abuse carry emotional consequences because the child's psychological and emotional development inevitably suffers from all forms of abuse. An intervention model that would focus on emotional abuse could also focus on preventing other forms of abuse because violent behavior towards children often comes from the same underlying causes, and most risk factors for child maltreatment are associated with caregiver, family, and environmental factors (McDonald, 2007). With this in mind, a possible solution would have to include early detection, but the intervention would most likely focus on factors that cause all types of child abuse. Despite the widespread occurrences of all forms of abuse, emotional neglect or maltreatment are practically impossible to detect while they occur and impair the child's normal development and social integration. Emotional abuse includes includes verbal, mental, and psychological maltreatment of children, and it is frequently overlooked by the community and mental health professionals who do not define emotional abuse as a suitable factor for diagnostic purposes (as cited in Schneider, Baumrind, & Kimerling, 2007). In reality, emotional abuse is frequently used in many families, it occurs in several worldwide cultures, and it carries significant consequences that should not be overlooked.

A child who has been abused grows up to have many problems. These could include being in an unhealthy relationship once older, abusing drugs and alcohol, or being depressed and suicidal. Once someone knows a little bit of background about the topic, it is time to take action. How can recognizing when a child is abused help the child? So often the reason why abusive parents get away with harming their children is because no one noticed.

Every year, child abuse and neglect affect more than one million children nation-wide (Currie and Tekin 1). Along with this, child abuse is the source of severe injury to more than 500,000 children and the death of over 1,500 children (Currie and Tekin 1). These outrageously large numbers reveal the extent to which child abuse and neglect impact society; however, they do not acknowledge the effect abuse can have on a child’s life and the repercussions that may occur in both the individual’s childhood and adulthood. While the effects most certainly include physical pain and possibly future disabilities, child abuse and neglect can also affects the child’s psychological welfare. Psychological effects are often more difficult to recognize,

Child abuse and neglect have immediate and long-term consequences. In addition to negatively impacting the child, child abuse and neglect impacts the family, the school community, and even future generations. The ability to survive and be successful in the face of child abuse and neglect depends on a variety of factors, including the extent and type of abuse or neglect, whether it was continual or infrequent, the age of the child when abuse was initiated, the child’s relationship to the abuser, and how the abuse or neglect was responded to. Outcomes are also dependent on the child’s personality traits, inner strength, and the support the child receives from those around them. It is important to acknowledge that some children will not develop behavioral problems, so it cannot be assumed that a

The urgency to protect our youth and the future of the world should be top priority. It is unfair for any child or teenager to have to experience a violation of rights from any form of physical or psychological abuse. This abuse stays with the child for life and will play a negative role in their future. As stated above by working towards preventing this issue Poor social skills, psychological issues, and other mental and physical concerns can be avoided. Those are just a few of the effects abuse will cause, however, the list is quite

Our ability of having a healthy and productive relationships are learned but when a child is abused or neglected this will cause problems with them developing positive skills to navigate the social world. Child abuse creates problematic relationships in their lives that could pour over into their future (www.findcounseling.com).