CHILD PROTECTION

Psychologists Call for Overhaul of Child Protection System; Present System too Reactive and Unable to Prevent Abuse

A new report on child abuse and neglect released by the American Psychological Association (APA) today calls for a revamping of the child protection system to de- emphasize investigation and coercive actions as the only solution. The system needs to focus more on prevention and treatment, says the APA 'Working Group on Child Abuse and Neglect: Psychological Issues Related to Child Maltreatment,' using early interventions in the community as the main resource for families to get help before a child ends up in the hospital, on the street, or dead.

'Child abuse is a national epidemic,' said psychologist Diane J. Willis, Ph.D., who chairs the APA working group whose report will appear in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. 'Child maltreatment is not decreasing, with over three million reports made to social service and law enforcement agencies in the United States. If the economy worsens and people lose their jobs and the safety net once provided by government is gone, we are going to see an increase of child abuse and neglect. We need considerably more research in the treatment area and focus on what works with the family. Early intervention is absolutely critical and could prevent more serious cognitive and psychosocial problems.'

Over the past four years, members of the working group examined the current psychological research on prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect and the research on legal issues. They found that many services operating now protect only those already in danger because of ongoing abuse but do not offer preventive assistance to those on the verge of abuse.

Among the key findings were:

Child protection agencies are set up to intervene only after the abuse has occurred.

Policies are not child-centered but system-centered. They are reactive versus proactive and by the time the officials react, it is usually too late. Families need to have access to services all the time, in the beginning and not only when someone gets arrested.

Programs are needed that concentrate on strengthening the parents' skills in coping with stressors and risk factors in order to increase family functioning and decrease the likelihood of using violence in a tense situation.

Programs that attempt to empower children to avoid situations that might lead to sexual abuse don't work very well. Children can't be expected to know what is appropriate touching and what is not in every situation.

Prevention efforts that encompass the individual, the family and community at large, such as home visitation, parent education and child sexual-abuse prevention programs, have proven to work better than programs that target only one risk factor or a particular family member.

'Putting the onus on the child to protect him/herself doesn't work. A child must first recognize that he/she is in an abusive situation and even many adults are unclear about what constitutes sexual abuse,' the report said. 'A child must believe that he/she can take action and know what the appropriate action is, which is a lot to ask from a seven-year-old.'
'Child abuse is a preventable tragedy,' said psychologist David Wolfe, Ph.D., of the University of Western Ontario and an expert on child abuse prevention, 'and in all likelihood, we will never have the resources to treat the problem after the fact. Prevention is a much more viable solution in the long run.'
'There is a need for further research, especially in neglect cases. The recent focus has been on child sexual abuse,' said psychologist Barbara Bonner, Ph.D., who is the Director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. 'We have a lot more research on sexually abused children than we do on physically abused or neglected children.'
The typical child protection case is very different from the image portrayed in the media and probably widely held among both the general public and the professions, the report said. 'Although serious physical and sexual abuse do occur in alarming frequency, most reported cases primarily involve neglect or emotional abuse in families living in poverty and in social isolation.'
'More community-based services need to be available for families at risk, such as first-time parents or adolescent parents. By setting up community based services in the schools -- parenting classes, literacy classes, treatment classes for disturbed children or children who have been abused -- you have all the essential services in one place,' said Dr. Willis.
'Unfortunately, our present system makes us go to extremes,' said Dr. Willis. 'We either remove children too quickly and not provide enough services for the family or the children stay and then suffer serious brain damage from physical abuse or die. Removing a child from a home works only when there are realistic services to take the place of the home.'
According to the task force report, our current system of mandatory reporting of possible maltreatment of children by mental health professionals to social service and law enforcement agencies is too unreliable and ineffective in protecting children. Less than one quarter of mental health professionals, says the report, believe that children actually benefit from their reports to child welfare authorities. Furthermore, fewer than 50 percent of reported cases are substantiated.
'The problem is that most of the resources are allocated to investigation,' said psychologist Gary B. Melton, Ph.D., of the University of South Carolina and an expert on the legal issues in child maltreatment, 'which by itself does not increase the safety of children. We need a system that promotes prevention and treatment.'
'We also need to move away from a reliance on coercive intervention. Overall, kids might be better protected if the legal system were removed from child protection work altogether,' said Dr. Melton. 'Unfortunately, though, if we did that, some kids would be left in truly egregious situations. The problem is to redesign the system in such a way that the use of coercive sanctions is a last resort.'
One direction that looks promising, according to the working group report, is to provide alternatives to mandated investigation, which only supports responses to allegations of child abuse, rather than needs for help. Many employees at child protection services spend most of their time gathering evidence and preparing for court, said Dr. Melton. 'Even when they have time to provide services, their ability to help may be compromised by their law enforcement role,' he said. The working group also found that '40 percent of families in which child abuse or neglect is substantiated receive no services at all.'
(The full text of the Report will appear in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Vol. 24, December 1995 which will be available from the APA Public Affairs Office.)

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 132,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 49 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 58 state and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.