Abuse and Neglect: What You Need to Know

Define abuse 

The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) defines child abuse as an act that presents an imminent risk of harm to a child. The provision also includes the failure to act that can result in imminent injury to a child. In this provision, therefore, child abuse and neglect are an act or failure to act, which leads to sexual severe, physical, emotional, and exploitation against a child. A child under this Federal provision is a person under the age of eighteen years. Under this provision, the child’s parents and caregivers receive directives. The states of California define child abuse and neglect separately. Under California provision, child abuse is any physical, mental, sexual, or emotional abuse inflicted on a child. On the other hand, child neglect is a negligence treatment of children that threatens their welfare or health. 

Discuss Prevention 

A nurse has a huge role in preventing the spread of instances or cases of child abuse. The three levels of preventions that are primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions have unique traits, and nurses must adjust to each level to be able to combat child abuse occurrences. The primary prevention involves activities a nurse should have in place to ensure that child abuse does not occur. Since a nurse interacts with parents, creating awareness could be an excellent strategy for primary prevention ( Teresi et al., 2016). A nurse needs to educate parents on the best ways to handle children. They should make the parents understand the importance of preventing child abuse among children. Fighting for stricter regulations on cases of child abuse could also be a strategy to deter parents and caregivers from abusing or neglecting children. 

The secondary prevention approaches a nurse can take to reduce the chances of child abuse and neglect should address families where child abuse is likely to occur. Setting up child abuse counseling programs could be an excellent way to begin as a nurse. Such programs should target both children and parents. Educating parents and children on ways to report abuse can be another technique. Championing for a support group for children who are vulnerable to child abuse is also another excellent strategy. Tertiary prevention is strategies that examine children who have already experienced abuse or neglect. As a nurse, educating such children to report similar cases is critical. The provision of intensive counseling and the provision of mentor services to a child and parents should be the priority of nurses ( Leonard et al., 2017). 

Many risk factors are likely to lead to child abuse. Poverty is a risk factor in child abuse. Children born and raised in low-income families are likely to experience different forms of abuse when they strive to look for jobs or do odd jobs to get money for survival. Gender is also another risk factor, as girls are more vulnerable to abuse than boys. Parental substance abuse is also likely to expose children to abuse, and so are the state of parental mind. Young parents also have a high chance of abusing their children. Parental state of education and child’s disability are also other risk factors to child abuse. 

Explain detection 

Identifying a child who is suffering from child abuse and neglect is easy. The following is an illustration of a child who is possibly suffering from child abuse and neglect. While examining the child, look at the physical, emotional, and behavioral appearances. A child who has physical injuries on the body could be suffering from abuse. Injuries, such as bruises, fractures, or burns that do not conform to explanations, could be signs of physical abuse. For sexual abuse, look at sexual behaviors, blood on the underpants, pregnancy, the statement from the child, and also sexually transmitted illnesses could be signs of sexual abuse. For emotional abuse, things such as withdrawal, delayed development, depression, and a decrease in school performance can illustrate emotional abuse ( Teresi et al., 2016). Child behaviors can also illustrate the chances of abuse and neglect. For instance, poor hygiene, poor communications, lack of clothing, lack of friendship and isolation, declining school records, fear as well as anxiety can all illustrate situations where a child is experiencing abuse and neglect. 

Intervention, treatment, and reporting 

Any person should report cases and instances of child abuse within 36 hours of their occurrences to social services bodies or agencies and legal departments or sheriffs in California. However, there are mandatory reporters, according to the California provision on child abuse. These are teachers, administrative, probation officers, social workers, clergy members, teacher's assistants, and parole officers. These people face the law if they fail to report such incidents to appropriate authorities. There are several resources for child abuse referral that can be beneficial for the mandatory reporters and people who have witnessed instances of child abuse. Social services, the police departments, and healthcare organization, as well as child welfare organizations, are an example of places where a person can refer to any case of child abuse. In most cases, physical treatments can be handled at various healthcare facilities. For mental care, counseling organizations, and service centers can be critical for a child ( Teresi et al., 2016). Many children's welfare organizations can be important for collaborations. Furthermore, collaborating with schools, churches, and hospitals to care for children who have experienced abuse and also to mobilizing resources to prevent child abuse can be a good strategy. The field of nursing, children's welfare, and other social workers are disciplines that can look into child abuse. 

Child and spousal abuse in comparisons 

Child abuse is acting or refusal to act to prevent injury to a child, on the other side, spousal abuse is where there are injustices done to married partners — the child abuse and spousal abuse different from reporting, treatments, and prevention. The reporting requirement for child abuse is stringent, and legal action can be taken for failure by the mandatory reporter. Such strict requirements are not present for spousal abuse ( Fortson et al., 2016). For child abuse, the law looks at the parents, caregivers, risk factors, and cases of child abuse while handling the case, while for spousal, issues such as divorce, domestic violence re given considerations during treatment. For child abuse, welfare organizations and social services agencies provide necessary resources, while for spousal abuse, gender-related organizations are concerned with resources that tackle such cases. At a young age, depression, isolation, and anxiety are apparent for child abuse. As they advance in age, depression takes center stage, and emotional retardation could come in. For the primary prevention of child abuse, a nurse considers education for both spousal and child abuse. The nurse's roles then change from being an educator to a counselor for both child and spousal abuses at the secondary and tertiary prevention levels. 

References 

Fortson, B. L., Klevens, J., Merrick, M. T., Gilbert, L. K., & Alexander, S. P. (2016). Preventing child abuse and neglect: A technical package for policy, norm, and programmatic activities. 

Leonard, S. A., Petito, L. C., Rehkopf, D. H., Ritchie, L. D., & Abrams, B. (2017). Maternal history of child abuse and obesity risk in offspring: mediation by weight in pregnancy.  Childhood obesity ,  13 (4), 259-266. 

Teresi, J. A., Burnes, D., Skowron, E. A., Dutton, M. A., Mosqueda, L., Lachs, M. S., &Pillemer, K. (2016). State of the science on prevention of elder abuse and lessons learned from child abuse and domestic violence prevention: Toward a conceptual framework for research.  Journal of elder abuse & neglect ,  28 (4-5), 263-300.