The Health Care Setting As A Context For The Prevention And Treatment Of Child Abuse

This special issue was designed to explore the role of health care professionals in the assessment, treatment, and prevention of child maltreatment. The initial five articles were solicited to enhance our understanding of various forms of child maltreatment as well as approaches designed to effectively respond to this difficult problem. The final manuscripts in this issue represent a theoretical and empirical perspective on child maltreatment. Medical settings represent a fertile arena for prevention as well as intervention initiatives. Future research should further support clinical strategies via program evaluation and outcome studies, and be aimed at enhancing our knowledge of the field and developing more comprehensive models to guide our efforts. It is hoped that this issue will stimulate research in this area and provide additional support for clinical interventions in the field.

This special issue was designed to explore the role of health care professionals in the assessment, treatment, and prevention of child maltreatment. The initial five articles were solicited to enhance our understanding of various forms of child maltreatment as well as approaches designed to effectively respond to this difficult problem. The final manuscripts in this issue represent a theoretical and empirical perspective on child maltreatment. Medical settings represent a fertile arena for prevention as well as intervention initiatives. Future research should further support clinical strategies via program evaluation and outcome studies, and be aimed at enhancing our knowledge of the field and developing more comprehensive models to guide our efforts. It is hoped that this issue will stimulate research in this area and provide additional support for clinical interventions in the field.

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves -- they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains--including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems--and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

The most comprehensive book of its kind, Social Work in Health Settings presents a "practice in context" framework which is then applied in thirty-one casebook chapters, covering a great variety of health care settings from working with survivors of domestic violence through supporting people with HIV to services for military personnel. Reflecting the enormous changes in policy, health care delivery, insurance systems, and the diagnosis and treatment of many conditions, this third edition features all new case chapters. Each chapter considers the impact of dimensions of context including policy, technology and organization on the client situation and then explores the key practice decisions that structure the helping relationship: the definition of the client; determining goals, objectives and contract; meeting place; use of time; strategies and interventions; stance of the social worker; use of resources outside of the social worker/client relationship; reassessment and evaluation; and transfer or termination. This thought-provoking volume thoroughly integrates social work theory and practice, and provides an excellent opportunity for understanding particular techniques and interventions. In this era of managed care, downsizing, and moving away from hospital-based work, the approach taken in Social Work in Health Settings proves more salient than ever before.

This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically-driven child protection practice. Detailed guidance is provided about how to re-think earlier intervention strategies, and establish stronger and more effective programs and services that prevent maltreatment at the population level. Service user and stakeholder perspectives, particularly from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples, highlight how public health approaches can better support families and keep children safe. Case studies from different countries grapple with the fraught nature of large system change and the various strategies needed to effect multi-level reforms. Presenting the reader with an array of innovative services used in different institutional and community context, this volume confronts the complex challenges found in implementing successful prevention programs that are aligned with diverse cultural and political environments and community expectations.

This book deals with child abuse and neglect as it presents itself in primary care. All health professionals, including those who work in primary care, have an important role to play in the child protection process. Inappropriate management of suspected instances of child abuse may result in serious implications for the child, family and involved professionals. Primary health care teams have specific and unmet training needs in this area and many general practitioners express anxiety regarding their involvement in child protection work. The overall aim of this book is to enable members of the primary health care team to fulfil their responsibilities in the protection of children from the threat of abuse or neglect. Readers are made aware of the skills required both to protect children and to subsequently maintain relationships with families. The contents have been extended to include child protection issues in our multi-cultural society along with comparison of different systems across Europe. The book is primarily aimed at GPs and their teams; social workers and health care managers will also benefit from its unique treatment of child protection issues in a primary care setting. 'This book addresses these issues with sagacity and imagination. The reader (all primary care team members would benefit from it) is offered facts, skills, attitudes and insights to help in this difficult area. We can all do child protection better - let us use this book to achieve that aim.' From the foreword by Professor Michael Pringle, Immediate Past Chairman, Council of Royal College of General Practitioners