Failing to respond
Amidei, Nancy
Child abuse FAILING TO RESPOND AGENCIES ARE CAUGHT SHORT THE MEDIA have finally discovered child abuse, and particularly the sexual abuse of children. Sometimes it has seemed almost...
...Without more staff, it will take at least six months to get to all those families, and money for more staff is one thing they (and their funding sources) don't have...
...Sometimes it has seemed almost impossible to pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening news without hearing yet another horrifying account of crimes against children...
...It is chilling to think that families who get up the strength to come to a social agency and report that their children are being sexually abused, may be served...
...As one Florida social worker explained, most of the proposed laws deal with criminals and day care centers, but 97 percent of the problem occurs within families...
...But all of the attention focused on the problem has had another result as well...
...Families where children are being abused are urged to seek help, and growing numbers do...
...Like their colleagues throughout the system, they have too few staff for too many families...
...A similar account comes from a family service agency in Oklahoma, where the long-term effects of economic recession are taking their toll...
...Those child-protection workers and family therapists aren't irresponsible or heartless...
...One family service agency in Maine has a waiting list of about 350 families — 120 of which need help with "intra-familial sexual abuse...
...NANCY AMIDEI (Nancy Amidei writes regularly for Commonweal...
...Many now have more reports of abuse than they can handle, and so they struggle to "manage" the backlog of abuse reports...
...They took up such matters as whether child abuse victims could give their testimony on videotape (and so be spared a court appearance), whether day care center employees should be finger-printed, and the length of prison terms for child molesters...
...So it is not surprising that federal and state legislators should have taken up the issue, and drafted proposed legislation to deal with various aspects of the problem...
...by being put on a list...
...in California there were over one hundred such bills...
...And whether the adults involved are part of the family or not, the children need help, the families need help...
...Continued on page 390) Commonweal: 388 Beyond the stage of investigation, there are even fewer places to refer troubled families...
...This year, sixty bills dealing with child abuse were introduced into the Maine State Legislature...
...Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they'll get help...
...And "help" in this case means trained staff, which in turn means the one thing the politicians don't want to talk about: money...
...Initial reports of abuse or neglect are usually made to public child protection agencies which investigate reports of abuse and neglect, and refer the families to both public and private family service agencies...
...Some no longer investigate if the complaint involves a child over twelve, others no longer investigate when the problem is "only" neglect, and some investigate only if it seems very serious...
Vol. 112 • July 1985 • No. 13
