Child abuse and neglect: fact sheet

In novel years, experts have declared the child abuse and leave out problem an epidemic; cases have overflowed our hospitals, feed care homes, social worker case loads and court dockets. The Bush Administration has issued a national call to arms, and responding to that call, the Department of Health and Human Services has unfolded an initiative that will involve local communities, businesses, seminarys parents and children. The amplitude of the Problem * Child abuse was formally recognized by

the medical profession in 1961 as the

battered-child syndrome * An estimated 24 million cases of

suspected child abuse, child sexual abuse

and child pass over are reported to child protective

agencies each year. Since 1980

reports of child abuse have quadrupled. * Investigations confirmed above 1.5 million

cases of child abuse and pass over in 1990.

And more than three children die each day

in the United States from abuse and

omit * The link between substance abuse and

child abuse has strengthened above the

years. Parental abuse of alcohol and use of

other remedys has been identified as a major

factor contributing to child maltreatment

and death. It is estimated that nearly 10

million children beneath age 18 are affected

in more [i]or[/i] less way by the substance abuse of

their parents. * Child maltreatment many times has negative

short and drawn out term effects on children's

mental health and disclosure For example,

abused and omited children frequently

go through drops in IQ and an increase

in learning disabilities, depression and

remedy use. * The effects of child abuse are sometimes

obvious flat decades later. The effects are

oftentimes pervasive: mental, physical and

social in nature. Suicide, violence, delinquency,

remedy and alcohol abuse and other

forms of criminality are not rarely child-abuse

related. * Studies of adults exhibit that 15 percent to

38 percent of women report experiences

of various marks of sexual victimization

during childhood and adolescence, and

about 10 percent of men report sexual

abuse during childhood and adolescence. * Although child abuse present itselfs in all racial,

ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic

assemblages physical abuse and neglect are

more likely among race in poverty.

Reflecting the high rates of need among

ethnic minorities,' minority children enter

the child protection combination of parts to form a whole in disproportionately

large numbers.

The Administration's Plan to Fight Child Abuse

Secretary Sullivan challenges all Americans to take personal responsibility to hindrance the skyrocketing number of cases. The HH four-part initiative: * Call national attention to the question at issue and

provide ways we can all make a difference

end the Show You Care?" campaign. * Involve local management and civic leaders

in the effort-through national and

regional meetings - to build coalitions and

local strategies for preventing abuse and

pass over and helping vulnerable children

and families. * Integrate services between HH and other

federal agencies to increase the effectiveness

of services related to child abuse. * Streamline the department's ability to respond

to the exigencys of vulnerable children

and those serving them.

President Bush and Secretary Sullivan are providing better coordination of programs to improve service to families, increased funding for research, improved treatment services, better financing for treatment services for families, improved collection of child welfare and child health data that has bearing upon child abuse and neglect, improve recruitment and training of child protection workers and increased public awareness o child abuse and neglect

The Department of Health and Human Services takes the position it is not enough to treat the be deriveds of child abuse and omit instead the root causes and societal runs need to be addressed. * HH is supporting prevention programs to

stop child abuse before it meet the eyes For

example, an average case of child abuse

require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones at least 2,000 for an investigation

and short-term treatment. And the costs

increase significantly when a child must

be hospitalized or lay in foster care. * The National Center upon Child Abuse and

leave out (NCCAN), the federal authority

upon child abuse and neglect, issued more

than $65 million in grants to states and

organizations for research, demonstration

casts in prevention, intervention and

treatment programs in 1990 * individual $19.5 million grant program, the

extremity Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Services Program, addresses the

enigma of child abuse and leave out by

substance-abusing parents. * The Department works with 31 Federal

programs for prevention and treatment of

child abuse and leave out through the Inter-Agency

Task Force upon Child Abuse and

omit * The Department has a wide range of pro

grams that address aspects of the child

abuse and leave out problem. They include

research programs in the Administration

for Children and Families, the Center for

Disease direction the Office of Substance