171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
|
 |
April 2006
Mental Health and Developmental Health Tips
April is Child Abuse Awareness month (wear your blue ribbon!). Child abuse and neglect are major public health
problems in the United States and can lead to significant psychiatric and medical harm and even death. Maltreated
children frequently come to the attention of medical professionals, and it is essential that professionals have
skills to recognize suspicious patterns of injuries. In the United States, 50,000 incidents of child maltreatment
are reported to authorities each week. These 2.6 million reports made each year involve 4.5 million children. Of
these reports, 896,000 are investigated and "founded," which leads to foster care placement or monitoring by child
protective services (CPS).
These involve the following:
- 60 percent neglect
- 20 percent physical abuse
- 10 percent sexual abuse
- 8 percent psychological maltreatment
Approximately four children die each day due to abuse and neglect (1400 in 2002) and 76 percent of these are less than four years of age
(NCCANCH, 2005). In short, violence against children has a significant impact upon children, parents, families, and society.
There is a major knowledge gap about the effects of child maltreatment on brain development, developmental milestones, cognitive and
emotional functioning. Young maltreated children have more psychiatric and cognitive difficulties and negative health outcomes than
their age, gender and socioeconomic ally matched peers without a history of maltreatment. School readiness skills are often delayed.
This is especially important given that 90 percent of brain development occurs by age six. Two recent articles in the Journal of Pediatrics
point out the importance of these issues to health care practitioners working with youth. An epidemiologic study of youth in the Carolina's
reveals physical abuse to be 40 times more common and sexual abuse to be 15 times more common than official statistics. Another study of
youth involved in child protection services revealed that both toddlers (41.8 percent) and preschoolers (68 percent) have need for developmental
and behavioral services. A better understanding of the role of adverse childhood events and the resulting changes in the cognitive and emotional
development of maltreated youth is needed to optimize appropriate interventions.
Pediatric health care practitioners need skills in developmental and mental health assessment and intervention to best meet the needs of
their patients. Psychosocial, developmental and mental health topics are discussed in our Promoting Happy and Healthy Youth peer supervision
group that meets the third Tuesday of the month at 8 a.m. Come join us! Breakfast is provided. For more information, e-mail
spratte@musc.edu or maciasm@musc.edu or call Josie at (843) 876-1507
|
|
Print Version