My article was written from the perspective of a CASA volunteer working with very troubled children that were not adopted. They needed a consistent adult in their life and we must help provide that.

Some of my CASA children had been in over ten foster homes and treatment centers and would age out of foster care very alone and uncertain.

I failed to clarify that in yesterday’s article. This counterpoint helps to clarify the serious issues that must always be considered in our struggle to provide the very best services to abused and neglected children. Please submit your own ideas and comments to this discussion.

Michael,
I am emailing you this privately and will leave it to your discretion as to whether you want to post this on your site as a mode of discussion. I know you support CASA and they do a lot of good for some kids, but the program has developed major faults over time.

It was never intended that CASA become a substitute parent or become personally involved with the children at all. They are supposed to be objective, getting FACTS from everyone involved, making recommendations to the judge based up those facts. Their own rules caution them against becoming too personally involved causing loss of objectivity.

They are not supposed to take the child shopping, buy them gifts, or celebrate milestones. This is the role of the parental figure in the child’s life. What if the parent doesn’t step up? The CASA can recommend that the child be assigned a person who can serve that role. It is not the CASA responsibility to fill it.

The CASA guidelines describe this role as “passive observer, information gatherer.” Passive is not active. They may not actively do anything. Gathering information does not equal obtaining or performing services. Obtaining services is the duty of the caseworker.

The CASA may recommend to the judge that services be obtained, but is not allowed to perform them himself.

This is where CASA goes awry causing blurred boundaries with the other parties involved in the case, especially, the parents. CASA can overstep to the point that they push the parent out of the picture completely, and this is a grand travesty to the child.

Additionally, CASAs receive their 40 hours of training in neglect and abuse cases, yet they are also assigned to dependency cases. Sometimes, “no fault dependency” cases.

As a result of ASFA, when the federal government gave money to states for the purpose of increasing adoptions, large numbers of kids did get good homes. Thirteen years later, hoards of those kids are re-entering the system because they came to parents with severe mental and emotional scars as a result of infant and child trauma, neglect, and abuse.

States refuse to help in any way with the astronomical mental health fees, such as $150,000 per year for residential care. Health insurance, Medicaid, and adopt subsidies pay nothing towards this care, not $1. Adoptive families are being forced to relinquish children back to the states to access astronomically expensive mental health care.

It defaults to child protective services and Juvenile Court, neither of which understand mental health and trauma. These cases are being treated just like abuse and neglect, when they are really clinical matters. What training does CASA have for cases like these? ZERO. NONE. They treat parents like they are abusive too. They are taking over the parental role, which is the last thing a child with bonding and attachment issues needs.

These children need assistance staying close to the only parents they’ve ever known. They don’t need to be separated from them. They don’t need to suffer guilt from watching their parents be charged with neglect and having CASA and caseworkers run all over their parents.

This happened to us. The CASA on our case bribed our son with over $1000 in gifts. Books, clothes, electronic games, rollerblades, skateboard, bicycle, health club membership complete with personal trainer, and on, and on, and on. This worker’s supervisor ridiculed me in court while the judge and attorneys were in chambers because I dared bring it to their attention that they were breaking all their own rules.

My son was calling her twice weekly asking her to buy him things, which only served to feed his OCD, causing setbacks in his therapy. He spoke to her husband on the phone. On her final visit, she sat in front of him at the residential treatment facility and cried tears in front of him, because I was trying to get her dismissed. I was, and rightly so.

She gave legal advice. She told the school I needed a court order to get his school records which was not true. She tried to paint to everyone that we were bad parents. Then she lied repeatedly in an effort to cover up her own discrepancies. She wound herself up in such a web of lies the judge dismissed her.

The only issue with our family is that our son has PTSD and OCD due to pre-adoptive trauma and severe infant neglect that happened two years before he came to live in our home. The state baled on us for any and every kind of mental health funding.

Unfortunately, after she was gone, our son figured out the truth. He no longer trusts them and neither do we. Kids with PTSD do not trust adults and it has taken us many years to develop a level of trust with him.

That CASA magnified his trust issues even more. The new one has been less involved, but still insists on overstepping the parental role. He keeps advising us on what he thinks would be best. We are good parents. We’ve raised 3 other kids, all of whom are community servants and upstanding citizens, nursing, police work, military.

Just because parents can’t cure PTSD does not make them unfit. It does not mean they don’t want a relationship with their child. It does not give CASA or anyone else the right to take their place.

We have another parent in our state in the same situation. The states attorney is seeking to terminate her parental rights because he does not feel that a single mom can raise a child with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Shame on the states for giving children permanency and then taking it away after failing to provide the mental health services the child needs. Shame on CASA for taking advantage of children and parents in this unjust situation.

It is my opinion that CASA should not be assigned to these cases at all, and that the parents be allowed to speak for the child’s “best interests.” If the CASA organization truly wanted to help this population of children, they should boycott these types of cases all together, sending a clear message to the government that these cases do not belong in court at all. Parents are entitled to the same rights as those who have children with physical illnesses, CUSTODY AND TREATMENT. Preserve adoptions.

As a guardian ad Litem in the U.S., I often found medical professionals unresponsive to the violence and dysfunction responsible for the condition of the child before them.

In the U.S. there is an organization trying to change that; The Academy on Violence and Abuse, www.avahealth.org is working diligently to better educate the medical profession about the signs of abuse and how to respond effectively.

Visit the Academy’s website and watch their videos, it is compelling.

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2008) — Better guidance is urgently needed for doctors in child protection cases to prevent them from being deterred from acting to protect children, says an editorial on the British Medical Journal website.

Writing in response to recent high profile cases such as that of Sir Roy Meadow, which have highlighted “the crisis of confidence” developing between the General Medical Council (GMC) and paediatricians, David Foreman and Juliet Williams call for better guidance to prevent doctors from being deterred from raising concerns about child abuse and to restore confidence in child protection processes.

They point out that the number of complaints against paediatricians related to child abuse work increased by more than 500% between 1995 and 2003.

In addition, since 2003, registrations of children for emotional and sexual abuse have increased while those for physical and sexual abuse have declined. This, they say, suggests that doctors may be avoiding work related to abuse for which more detailed physical examinations are needed.

According to the authors, part of the problem is that there is a basic confusion in doctors’ duties regarding child protection. Medical law still states that doctors have a duty of care to both the parent and the child, but current paediatric professional guidance incorrectly applies the Children Act principle that the welfare of the child must be placed over all other considerations. In fact, this only applies to the courts, when they make a decision governed by that Act.

Therefore, in child protection cases, doctors have conflicting duties both to the child and to the parents who may not feel that doctors are acting in their best interests, particularly if they are suspects and if retrospectively no abuse is detected. This situation worsens if the doctor is later required to act as an expert witness in court.

Recent hostile media campaigns have added to the pressure on doctors by making it less likely that the GMC will dismiss high profile cases because its duty is to protect the public and also the reputation of medicine while maintaining public confidence in the profession, say the authors.

So what can be done to reinstate confidence in child protection processes and prevent a reduction in child protection?

The authors call on the GMC and other professional bodies to issue more specific guidance for doctors on how to manage these conflicting duties of care in child protection cases.

They also suggest that complaints against professionals in child protection cases should be subject to independent scrutiny before they are referred to their professional bodies.

To avoid unwarranted public criticism the public also need to be better educated about child protection work, so that the dual role of doctors in these cases is better understood, they conclude.

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

BMJ-British Medical Journal (2008, September 4). Better Guidance Urgently Needed For Doctors In Child Protection Cases, Say Experts. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 26, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/09/080904215617.htm

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

We learn slow as a nation, but we do learn. This story needs to be repeated (pass it on).

Almost nothing is known about the rivers of psychotropic medications that are poured into the millions five, seven, and nine year old children that pass through child protection systems in America without sufficient mental health services.

Judge Heidi Schellhas shared with me the quantity of Prozac, *Ritalin, and other mind altering psychotropic medications poured into the very young children that passed through her court room each year. The amounts were staggering.

One of my first cases as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem took me to a four year old girl at the suicide ward at a Minneapolis hospital. Many of my cases of very young children were taking powerful psychotropic medications and not receiving access to mental health professionals. There was almost no coordination of services for these children, one provider had no idea what another provider was doing or how they might work together in the interests of the very troubled child.

There is no doubt that traumatized children and veterans need better access to mental health services. Veterans are fortunate in that their traumas are readily understood, discussed, and addressed.

Not so with abused and neglected children. The Media and the Public fail to see that child do not end up in child protection services unless they have been traumatized.

It is America’s “Imminent Harm Doctrine” that rules child protection law, and it only allows children to be removed from a home if their lives are endangered. In my experience over twelve years as a guardian ad-Litem, all children removed from their homes have been endangered and severely traumatized. Many children that were not removed from their homes were traumatized also. They need help too.

It would serve us well as a nation to help them. Our schools, communities, families, and children would benefit.

*Ritalin was banned in Sweden in 1968 because of a huge increase in suicides in the nation attributed to its use.

Kids At Risk Action needs your support for its successful launch of televised public service announcements building awareness to the issues surrounding child abuse. In collaboration with award winning Salo of Finland, KARA is working to create and place ads on national TV. These ads will reach millions and create interest and understanding of this important and often misunderstood subject.
Please contact us with your questions, referrals, and donations.The KARA team.

Healing eludes veterans at unit for broken warriors

Some soldiers sent to recover in a Warrior Transition Battalion say medication is too easy to get, while care is hard to come by.

By JAMES DAO and DAN FROSCH, New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.

A year ago, Specialist Michael Crawford wanted nothing more than to get into Fort Carson’s Warrior Transition Battalion, a unit created to provide closely managed care for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma.

A strapping Army sniper who once brimmed with confidence, he had returned emotionally broken from Iraq, where he suffered two concussions from roadside bombs and watched several platoon mates burn to death. The transition unit at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs, seemed the surest way to keep suicidal thoughts at bay, his mother thought.

It didn’t work. He was prescribed a laundry list of medications for anxiety, nightmares, depression and headaches that made him feel listless and disoriented. His once-a-week session with a nurse case manager seemed grossly inadequate to him. And noncommissioned officers — soldiers supervising the unit — harangued or disciplined him when he arrived late to formation or violated rules.

Last August, Crawford attempted suicide with a bottle of whiskey and painkillers. By the end of last year, he was begging to get out of the unit.

“It is just a dark place,” said the soldier, who is waiting to be medically discharged from the Army. “Being in the WTU is worse than being in Iraq.”

Created in the wake of the scandal in 2007 over serious shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Warrior Transition Units were intended to be sheltering way stations where injured soldiers could recuperate and return to duty or gently process out of the Army. There are currently about 7,200 soldiers at 32 transition units across the Army, with about 465 soldiers at Fort Carson’s unit.

But interviews with more than a dozen soldiers and health care professionals from Fort Carson’s transition unit, along with reports from other posts, suggest that the units are far from being restful sanctuaries. For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers. Because of their wounds, soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are particularly vulnerable to depression and addiction, but many soldiers from Fort Carson’s unit say their treatment there has made their suffering worse.

‘You’re just floating’

Some soldiers in the unit, and their families, described long hours alone in their rooms, or in homes off the base, aimlessly drinking or playing video games.

“In combat, you rely on people and you come out of it feeling good about everything,” said a specialist in the unit. “Here, you’re just floating. You’re not doing much. You feel worthless.”

At Fort Carson, many soldiers complained that doctors prescribed drugs too readily. As a result, some soldiers have become addicted to their medications. Medications are so abundant that some soldiers in the unit openly deal, buy or swap prescription pills.

Heavy use of psychotropic drugs and narcotics makes it difficult to exercise, wake for morning formation and attend classes, soldiers and health care professionals said. Yet noncommissioned officers discipline soldiers who fail to complete those tasks, sometimes over the objections of nurse case managers and doctors.

At least four soldiers in the Fort Carson unit have committed suicide since 2007, the most of any transition unit as of February, according to the Army.

Senior officers in the Army’s Warrior Transition Command declined to discuss specific soldiers. But they said Army surveys showed that most soldiers treated in transition units since 2007, more than 50,000 people, had liked the care.

Those senior officers acknowledged that addiction to medications was a problem, but they denied that Army doctors relied too heavily on drugs. And they defended disciplining wounded soldiers when they violated rules.

“These guys are still soldiers, and we want to treat them like soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Andrew Grantham, commander of the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Carson.

The colonel offered another explanation for complaints about the unit. Many soldiers, he said, struggle in transition units because they would rather be with regular, deployable units. In some cases, he said, they feel ashamed of needing treatment.

“Some come to us with an identity crisis,” he said. “They don’t want to be seen as part of the WTU. But we want them to identify with a purpose and give them a mission.”

A changed man

Sgt. John Conant, a 15-year veteran of the Army, returned from his second tour of Iraq in 2007 a changed man, according to his wife, Delphina. Angry and sullen, he reported to the transition unit at Fort Carson, where he was prescribed at least six medications a day for sleeping disorders, pain and anxiety.

The medications disoriented him, Delphina Conant said, and he would often wander the house late at night before curling up on the floor and falling asleep. Then in April 2008, after taking morphine and Ambien, the sleeping pill, he died in his sleep. A coroner ruled that his death was from natural causes. He was 36.

Delphina Conant said she felt her husband never received meaningful therapy at the transition unit. “They didn’t want to do anything but give him medication,” she said.

Other soldiers and health care workers at Fort Carson offered similar complaints.

“These kids change their medication like they change their underwear,” said a psychotherapist who works with Fort Carson soldiers and asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the transition unit. “They can’t even remember which pills they’re taking.”

More problems

Michael Crawford has been waiting more than a year for his medical discharge. As his anxiety and depression have worsened, so have his problems in the unit. His rank was recently reduced to private in punishment for overstaying leave and using marijuana.

But things are looking up, his mother believes: He will be able to stay with her in Michigan while awaiting his discharge. His mother, Sally Darrow, has already seen one son commit suicide. She believes that Michael would become the second if he had to return to Fort Carson and the transition unit.

“At home, with family and schoolmates, he’s dealing with things better,” Darrow said. “He’s not safe there.”

In collaboration with award winning Salo of San Ramon CA, & the Academy on Violence and Abuse www.avahealth.org KARA is working to create and place public service ads that bring attention to child abuse on national TV.

These ads will reach millions and create interest and understanding of the children impacted by abuse.

Contact KARA with your questions and support. Please contact us with your questions, referrals, and donations.

The KARA team.

ps… pass this on to those you think might appreciate the opportunity;

In Red Lake and other communities that have suffered such mayhem, much money has been spent after a tragedy to put in place services that should stop the next Virginia Tech, Red Lake, Columbine.

Mental health is the cornerstone of a healthy life. We all have our ups and downs. Some of us start lower than others and sink lower than others. Throw in alcohol or drugs (proscribed or not) & bad things begin to happen.

Programs that help youth understand these issues and how to cope with them are one of the best investments that we can make in our youth and our community.

Not having programs is expensive. Just ask the people that lost family and friends in Red Lake, Columbine, & at Virginia Tech.

The following articles are an expansion on the topic of money and teen substance abuse (thanks Jamie);

A new report finds that more kids say they are using alcohol and other drugs, but many parents are unable or unwilling to deal with the issue — a bad combination when declining support for prevention and cultural apathy about the issue leave parents as the last and sometimes only line of defense against adolescent drug use.
http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2010/new-survey-again-raises-alarm.html

Cuts of substance will hurt teen drug, alcohol programs
BY PHILIP FEROLITO
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2010/03/01/cuts-of-substance-will-hurt-teen-drug-alcohol-programs

Latest Youth Substance Abuse Research Encourages Parents to Take Action Early

Mar 16, 2010 by Kim Manlove | Categories Addiction, Alcohol, Ecstasy, Teenagers, intervene
The recent release of the Partnership/MetLife Foundation Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) of teen drug use, and parent and teen attitudes toward substance use, shows both encouraging and alarming trends. The data point to notable increases in teen use of alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy, marking an end to a decade of long declines in drug and alcohol use among young people. This coupled with the decline in “perceptions of harm,” among both teens and parents is a strong indication that American society may be in for a perfect storm of increased adolescent drug and alcohol abuse not experienced in the United States since the 1990s.

This storm is fed by a growing climate of parental denial, which sees teens agreeing that “being high feels good” and parents of teens who have drug and alcohol problems either waiting to act or taking no action at all to address the problem…….
http://decoder.drugfree.org/2010/03/16/latest-youth-substance-abuse-research-encourages-parents-to-take-action-early/

Reclaiming lives;

http://blog.reclaimingfutures.org/?q=adolescent-substance-abuse-treatment-SAMHSA-CASPAR

Plain talk on gang intervention;
http://www.washoe.k12.nv.us/schools/safe-and-drug-free-schools/gang-resistance-intervention-program

Many good real world articles;

http://www.addiction-intervention.com/

A new national survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report finds that 12-year-olds are using inhalants more than marijuana, hallucinogens, and cocaine combined.;

http://www.addiction-intervention.com/addiction/inhalant-abuse-increasing-among-12-year-olds/

The Growing Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse;

http://www.addiction-intervention.com/addiction/prescriptiondrugabuse/prescription-drug-abuse-still-a-growing-problem/

Trends of Alcohols and Drugs Abuse 1997 to 2007;

http://www.addiction-intervention.com/addiction/addiction-research/comparing-trends-for-co-abuse-of-alcohol-and-drugs-from-1997-to-2007/

Breaking addiction; feeling the pinch
http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20100321/NEWS01/3210304/Drug-addiction-on-the-rise-funding-for-treatment-declining

Safety first: Parents, Teens and Drugs;http://drugpolicy.org/safetyfirst/

Drug policy state by state; http://drugpolicy.org/statebystate/

Drugs, Police & the Law; http://drugpolicy.org/law/
Affected Communities; http://drugpolicy.org/communities/

Reducing Harm; http://drugpolicy.org/reducingharm/

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

This is perhaps a more technical/professional piece than is usually found here, but I think it is important and might serve as reference to people you know in the social service or medical fields.

It explains how to distinguish between accidental burns and deliberate burns. I found it to be a complete and important investigation of this serious and not often discussed type of abuse.

One of my first cases was a baby in a very dysfunctional home that had been terribly scalded in a bathtub. The skin on the bottom half of her body had suffered third degree burns in a bathtub of 161 degree water. A very painful experience for the baby that would be with her for her life (her legs and bottom would be scarred forever).

The only positive was in this sad case was a firm that specialized in burns that recovered substantial damages for the child against the landlord that had ignored frozen cold water pipes and turned the hot water heater to a scalding temperature.

Link to the complete Worksheet;

http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/91190.txt

Title: Burn Injuries in Child Abuse

Series: Portable Guide

Contributing Authors: Phylip J. Peltier, Gary Purdue,

and Jack R. Shepherd

Published: May 1997; June 2001
Subject: Missing and Exploited Children
27 pages
37,000 bytes
——————-

Figures, charts, forms, and tables are not included

in this ASCII plain-text file. To view this document

in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic

file available from this Web site or order a print

copy from NCJRS at 800-638-8736.
——————–
Foreword
Our most defenseless children are the most likely to

be burned intentionally. Child abuse burn victims are

almost always under the age of 10 with the majority

under the age of 2. Immediate identification of

intentional burn victims by those individuals first

responding to the call for assistance is crucial

because most of the victims are unable to speak for

themselves. It is also important that responsible

caretakers not be unjustly accused.

In this guide you will find information that will

assist you to distinguish intentional burns from

accidental contact with hot objects. Burn Injuries in

Child Abuse provides both guidance on determining the

veracity of a caretaker’s report by re-creating the

incident and a burn evidence worksheet for use at the

scene of an investigation. Information regarding the

distinctions between immersion and contact burns is

also included.

It is our hope that information in this guide will be

of use to law enforcement as we all work to protect

our children.

Original Printing May 1997

Second Printing June 2001

NCJ 162424
——————-
Although general awareness of the magnitude of child

abuse is increasing, deliberate injury by burning is

often unrecognized. Burn injuries make up about 10

percent of all child abuse cases, and about 10

percent of hospital admissions of children to burn

units are the result of child abuse. In comparison

with accidentally burned children, abused children

are significantly younger and have longer hospital

stays and higher mortality rates. The child burn

victim is almost always under the age of 10, with the

majority under the age of 2.

Children are burned for different reasons. Immersion

burns may occur during toilet training, with the

perpetrator immersing the child in scalding water for

cleaning or punishment. Hands may be immersed in pots

of water for playing near the stove. A person may

place a child in an oven for punishment or with

homicidal intentions.

Inflicted burns often leave characteristic patterns

of injury that, fortunately, cannot be concealed.

Along with the history of the burn incident, these

patterns are primary indicators of inflicted burns

versus accidental ones. Findings in response to the

following questions can raise or lower the index of

suspicion, helping to determine whether a burn was

deliberately inflicted:

o Is the explanation of what happened consistent with

the injury? Are there contradictory or varying

accounts of the method or time of the “accident” or

other discrepancies in the witnesses’ descriptions of

what happened?

o Does the injury have a clean line of demarcation,

parts within or immediately around the injured area

that are not burned, a burn pattern inconsistent with

the injury account, or any other of the typical

characteristics of an inflicted burn? Are the burns

located on the buttocks, the area between the child’s

legs, or on the ankles, wrists, palms, or soles?

o Are other injuries present such as fractures,

healed burns, or bruises?

o Are the child’s age and level of development

compatible with the caretaker’s and witnesses’

accounts of the injury?

o Was there a delay in seeking medical attention?

Smaller burns may have been treated at home.

o Does the caretaker insist there were no witnesses,

including the caretaker, to the injury incident?

o Do those who were present seem to be angry or

resentful toward the child or each other?

A detailed history, including previous trauma,

presence of recent illnesses, immunization status,

and the status of routine medical care, is critical,

as is careful documentation of the scene of the

injury, including photographs and drawings. To

investigate a burn injury:

o Stay focused on the facts in front of you and

proceed slowly and methodically.

o Ask questions, be objective, and reenact the incident.

o Treat each case individually.

The incidence of further injury and death is so high

in deliberate burn cases that it is critical for all

concerned persons to be aware of the indicators of

this form of child abuse.

The following descriptions provide information about

the various types of accidental and nonaccidental

burns children may incur.

o Scald burns are the most common type. They may be

caused by any hot liquid–hot tap water, boiling

water, water-like liquids such as tea or coffee, and

thicker liquids such as soup and grease. Scald burns

may be either a spill/splash type of burn or an

immersion burn, the most common of the liquid burn

injuries. Most deliberate burns are caused by tap

water.

o Contact burns are usually of the branding type and

will mirror the object used to cause the injury–

curling iron, steam iron, cigarette lighter,

fireplace or hibachi grill, and heated kitchen tool

or other implement.

Young children have thinner skin than adults;

therefore, a child’s skin will be destroyed more

rapidly and by less heat. Thicker skinned areas of

the body include the palms, soles, back, scalp, and

the back of the neck. Thinner skinned areas are the

front of the trunk, inner thighs, bottom of forearms,

and the inner arm area.

It is important to work with the emergency medical

personnel, who were probably the first persons to see

the child’s injuries, hospital personnel, and social

services investigators.

Classification of Burns

The preferred classification of burns used by most

physicians is “partial” or “full thickness.” Only an

experienced medical practitioner can make a

determination of how deep a burn is, but there are

some features of partial and full thickness burns

that can be observed immediately after the incident.

o Patches of reddened skin that blanch with fingertip

pressure and refill are shallow partial thickness

burns. Blisters usually indicate deeper partial

thickness burning, especially if the blisters

increase in size just after the burn occurs.

o A leathery or dry surface with a color of white,

tan, brown, red, or black represents a full thickness

burn. The child feels no pain because the nerve

endings have been destroyed. Small blisters may be

present but will not increase in size.

Spill/Splash Injuries

These injuries occur when a hot liquid falls from a

height onto the victim. The burn pattern is

characterized by irregular margins and nonuniform

depth. A key indicator to look for is where the

scalding liquid first came into contact with the

victim. Water travels downward and cools as it moves

away from the initial contact point. When a pan of

water is spilled or thrown on a person’s chest, the

initial contact point shows a splash pattern. The

area below this point tapers down, creating what is

called an “arrow down” pattern. This pattern is more

commonly seen in assaults on adults than in assaults

on children.

If the child was wearing clothing at the time of the

injury, the pattern may be altered. This is why it is

important to determine whether clothing was worn and,

if possible, to retain the actual clothing. Depending

on the material, the water may have been against the

skin longer, which would result in a deeper injury

and pattern. A fleece sleeper, for instance, will

change the course of the water and hold the

temperature longer in one area as opposed to a thin,

cotton T-shirt.

Questions to ask in a scalding injury investigation

include the following:

o Where were the caretakers at the time of the

accident?

o How many persons were home at the time?

o How tall is the child? How far can he or she reach?

o Can the child walk and are the child’s coordination

and development consistent with his or her age?

o How much water was in the pan and how much does it

weigh?

o What is the height to the handle of the pan when it

is sitting on the stove (or counter, or table)?

o Was the oven on at the time (thus unlikely that the

child could have climbed onto the stove)?

o Does the child habitually play in the kitchen? near

the stove? climb on the cabinets or table?

o Has the child been scolded for playing in the

kitchen? for touching the stove?

It is unusual for a child to incur a scald burn on

his or her back accidentally, but it has happened. As

in all burn investigations, factors other than

location of the burn must be considered before

concluding the injury was nonaccidental. Deliberate

burning by throwing a hot liquid on a child is

usually done either as punishment for playing near a

hot object or in anger. However, the child may have

been caught in the crossfire between two fighting

adults and then been accused of having spilled the

liquid accidentally.

Immersion Burns

Immersion burns result from the child falling or

being placed into a tub or other container of hot

liquid. In a deliberate immersion burn, the depth of

the burn is uniform. The wound borders are very

distinct, sharply defined “waterlines” with little

tapering of depth at the edges. There is little

evidence that the child thrashed about during the

immersion, indicating that the child was held in

place, and occasionally there may be bruising of the

soft tissue to indicate that this is what happened.

Only children with deliberate immersion burns sustain

deep burns of the buttocks and/or the area between

the anus and the genitals. Many of these injuries

involve toilet training or the soiling of clothing.

There may be dirty diapers or clothing in the

bathroom. The water in the bathtub may be deeper than

what is normal for bathing an infant or child and may

be so hot that the first responding adult at the

scene is unable to immerse his or her own hand in it.

Several key variables must be observed in

investigating immersion burns:

o The temperature of the water. Variables that must

be taken into account include the temperature of the

water heater, the ease with which it can be reset,

and recent prior usage of water.

o The time of exposure, an unknown that can sometimes

be estimated from the burn pattern and its depth.

o The depth of the burn. Several days may need to

pass before the true depth of the burn can be

determined.

o The occurrence of “sparing” (areas within or

immediately around the burn site that were spared).

An adult will experience a significant injury of the

skin after 1 minute of exposure to water at 127

degrees, 30 seconds of exposure at 130 degrees, and 2

seconds of exposure at 150 degrees. A child, however,

will suffer a significant burn in less time than an adult.

When a child’s hand is forced into hot water, the

child will make a fist, thus “sparing” the palm and

discounting the statement that the child reached into

the pan of hot water for something. A child whose

body is immersed in hot water will attempt to fold

up, and there will be sparing in creases in the

abdomen. Curling up the toes when the foot is forced

into a hot liquid will spare part of the soles of the

feet or the area between the toes. The area where the

child was held by the perpetrator will also be

spared. These flexing actions prevent burning within

the body’s creases, causing a striped configuration

of burned and unburned zones, or a “zebra” pattern.

Deliberate immersion burns can often be recognized by

one of the following characteristic patterns:

o Doughnut pattern in the buttocks. When a child

falls or steps into a hot liquid, the immediate

reaction is to thrash about, try to get out, and jump

up and down. When a child is held in scalding hot

bathwater, the buttocks are pressed against the

bottom of the tub so forcibly that the water will not

come into contact with the center of the buttocks,

sparing this part of the buttocks and causing the

burn injury to have a doughnut pattern.

o Sparing of the soles of the feet. Another instance

of sparing occurs in a child whose buttocks and feet

are burned but whose soles have been spared. If a

caretaker’s account is that the child was left in the

bathroom and told not to get into the tub, and that

the caretaker then heard screaming and returned to

find the child jumping up and down in the water, the

absence of burns on the soles of the child’s feet is

evidence that the account is not true. A child cannot

jump up and down in hot water and not burn the

bottoms of the feet.

o Stocking or glove pattern burns. Stocking and glove

patterns are seen when feet or hands are held in the

water. The line of demarcation is possible evidence

that the injury was not accidental.

o Waterlines. A sharp line on the lower back would

indicate the child was held still in the water. A

child falling into the water would show splash and

irregular line patterns. The waterline on the child’s

torso indicates how deep the water was.

An Evidence Worksheet for Immersion Burns and

instructions for filling it out are part of this guide. The

worksheet was developed to record data to help the

doctor determine accidental or intentional injury.

The information recorded on the worksheet is also

helpful to the prosecutor in preparing the case and

defeating potential defenses that may arise later in

the investigation and trial. Developed with the assistance

of a department of social services and several law enforcement

child abuse investigative teams, the worksheet is a

guideline and can be modified to suit particular

investigative needs.

Contact Burns

Contact burns may be caused by flames or hot solid

objects. Flame burns are a much less common cause of

deliberate injury. When they do occur, they are

characterized by extreme depth and are relatively

well defined when compared with accidental flame

burns.

When a child accidentally touches a hot object or the

object falls on the child, there is usually a lack

of pattern in the burn injury, since the child

quickly moves away from the object. However, even

brief accidental contact can cause a second-degree

burn with the pattern of the object, for example,

falling against a hot radiator or grate.

Distinguishing Nonaccidental from

Accidental Contact Burns

Nonaccidental burns caused by a hot solid object are

the most difficult to distinguish from accidental

injuries. Cigarette and iron burns are the most

frequent types of these injuries. Cigarette burns on

a child’s back or buttocks are unlikely to have been

caused by walking into a lighted cigarette, and

therefore are more suspect than burns about the face

and eyes, which can occur accidentally if the child

walks or runs into the adult’s lighted cigarette held

at waist height. Accidental burns are usually more

shallow, irregular, and less well defined than

deliberate burns. Multiple cigarette burns are

distinctively characteristic of child abuse.

Purposely inflicted “branding” injuries usually

mirror the objects that caused the burn (such as

cigarette lighters and curling irons), and are much

deeper than the superficial and random burns caused

by accidentally touching these objects. Most

accidental injuries with hot steam or curling irons

occur when the hot item is grasped or falls. These

are usually second-degree injuries and randomly

placed, as might happen when a hot iron strikes the

skin in multiple places as it falls. It is important

to know where the iron was–for example, on an

ironing board or on a coffee table at the child’s

height?

Another source of accidental burns is contact with

items that have been exposed for prolonged periods to

hot sun. Pavement in hot sun, which can reach a

temperature of 176 degrees, can burn a child’s bare

feet; however, these are not likely to be deep burns.

A child placed in a carseat that has been in a car in

the sun can receive second- and even third-degree

burns. Full thickness burns have also resulted from

contact with a hot seatbelt buckle.

Key questions in this area are:

o Where is the burn injury and could the child reach

the area unassisted?

o Does the child normally have access to the item

(such as a cigarette lighter) that caused the injury?

o How heavy is the item and how strong is the child?

For instance, is the steam iron a small travel-size

one that a small child could lift or a full-size home

model that might be too heavy?

o Is there any sparing that would be significant to

the injury?

o How was the item heated and how long did it take to

heat it to cause the injury?

o Is the injury clean and crisp, with a distinctive

pattern of the object, or is it shallow or irregular,

as from a glancing blow? Several cleanly defined

injuries, especially on an older child, could

indicate that the child was held motionless by a

second perpetrator while the first perpetrator

carefully branded the child.

o Are there multiple burns or other healed burns?

o Has the child been punished before for playing with

or being too close to the hot object?

Skin Conditions That May Simulate Abuse

Investigators should be aware that it is sometimes

difficult to distinguish between burns caused by

abuse and certain diseases or medical conditions:

o Cutaneous (skin) infections. Some infections have

patterns that may mimic deliberate injuries.

Impetigo, severe diaper rash, and early scalded skin

syndrome sometimes resemble a scald injury.

A careful history, microbiological tests, and

observation of the lesions over a 2- to 3-week period

usually determine whether or not these are deliberate

burn injuries or just infections.

o Hypersensitivity reactions. A substance in citrus

fruits such as limes, when in contact with the skin

and exposed to sunlight, can produce a form of

photodermatitis with a pattern that resembles

a splash burn. An allergic reaction causing a severe

local skin irritation may be mistaken for a burn.

Skin preparations such as topical antiseptics can

cause a similar burn appearance. Again, the exposure

history will allow differentiation of these reactions

from burns.

o Marks left by folk remedies. Moxibustion is an

Asian folk remedy that entails placement of a hot

substance, often burning yarn, on the skin of the

abdomen or back, causing circular lesions that can be

mistaken for other types of burn injuries. The

practice of cupping, which is the placement in a cup

or glass of a small amount of flammable substance

that is ignited and placed on the skin, may cause a

burn lesion. Note: Even when the cause of a burn

injury is determined to be a folk remedy,

investigators should exercise caution and carefully

evaluate all circumstances surrounding the incident

to determine whether the injury should be further

investigated.

Helpful Investigative Techniques

The following investigative steps and techniques will

help you and other professionals determine if burns

have been purposely inflicted.

Medical Examination

The physical examination of all burned children

includes careful evaluation of the entire skin

surface for the presence of other signs of abuse such

as:

o Healed burns.

o Multiple simultaneous burns.

o Bruises, slaps, and bite or whip marks.

o Evidence of sexual abuse.

Evaluation and documentation of the burn pattern

should be precise. Multiple burns of varying ages and

types that obviously could not have occurred from the

same accident (for example, cigarette and scald burns

or different types of scald burns) are strong

indicators of child abuse. However, the absence of

other injuries does not rule out child abuse, since

80 percent of deliberately inflicted burns are not

associated with other trauma.

Long bone, chest, and a skull radiographic (x-ray)

series (commonly called a “babygram”) need to be

performed on all burned children with suspected

abuse. Unfortunately, there are no specific

laboratory studies that will help distinguish

deliberate from accidental burn injury.

———————

Investigator’s Checklist for Use in Suspected

Cases of Deliberate Burn Injuries of Children

o Have you contacted the emergency response team?

o Have you contacted the child protective services

team?

o Have you reviewed the medical findings with the

appropriate medical staff?

o Have you carefully considered the suspicion index

findings?

o Where was the primary care provider at the time of

the incident?

o Where is the burn injury located on the child’s

body?

o How serious is the burn?

o Is the burn a wet contact burn or a dry contact

burn?

o If the burn appears to have been caused by a dry

source of heat, what is the shape of the burn and

what object does it resemble?

o Have you completed the Evidence Worksheet for

Immersion Burns?

o If the burn was produced by a hot liquid, was the

child dipped or fully immersed?

o What does the line of demarcation look like?

o Are there any splash burns present?

o How symmetrical are the lines of immersion if

stocking or glove patterns are present?

o Is toilet training, soiling, or wetting an issue?

o Have you recorded information concerning the

child’s age, height, degree of development and

coordination; location of fixtures; temperature and

depth of water; weight of burn object, etc.?

o Have you compared the burn injury with the area of

sparing?

o Was the child in a state of flexion (tensing of the

body parts in reaction to what was happening)

indicating resistance? Examples of flexion on a

child’s body include:

o Folds in the stomach.

o Calf against back of thigh.

o Arms tightened and held firmly against body or

folded against body.

o Thighs against abdomen.

o Head against shoulder.

o Legs crossed, held tightly together.

———————

Reenactment of the Incident

Objectivity is without a doubt the most important

quality you should possess as an investigator.

Reenacting the incident as given to you by the

witness is a good way to obtain objective information

and to answer any questions you may have. Using

yourself or another adult, but never the child, you

can reenact the incident at the scene, at your home

or office, and, ultimately, in court as demonstrative

evidence. The following are examples of useful

reenactment of the incident:

o When investigating wet contact injuries, use water

with blue dye to re-create the incident and then

photograph the results, which often clearly show that

the child’s burn injury pattern is not consistent

with the pattern that would have resulted from the

described incident.

o The fact that the time of exposure, temperature of

the water, and degree of the burn are all related

will test the accuracy of the caretaker’s reenactment

of the incident.

o If the suspect re-creates the incident using cooler

water, thinking that if hot water is used it will

look incriminating, you can point out that if the

water had been at that temperature, the child would

have to have been held still for a long time in order

to receive the degree of injury sustained.

Another example is a burn that a witness claims

happened because the child was playing with a

disposable cigarette lighter. Cigarette lighters

cause a specific injury pattern. Take an inkpad,

re-create the top of the lighter on a piece of paper,

and note the pattern. Next, using the inkpad,

re-create the pattern on different parts of your

body. You will see that it is difficult to make an

impression without distorting the pattern and that

the pattern is different on soft tissue as opposed to

hard, bony parts.

Moreover, if the lighter has a safety switch, as most

disposable lighters now do, could the injured child

have released the safety switch, lit the lighter,

kept the flame lit, and burned the area of the body

that was injured without burning his or her own hand,

especially the thumb closest to the flame?

Documentation

The following elements are important in diagramming

and photographing the scene:

o When diagramming, be sure to include all items in

the room where the incident occurred. Children often

climb when they are exploring. You may think the sink

is too high for access by the child, but a determined child

may have climbed from a step stool, to the toilet seat, to

a hamper, and then the sink.

o Accurate measurements of the items involved in the

incident–tub, basin, stove height, height to object, etc.–

are essential. Photographs of these items should document

the size and shape of the item and should contain a measure

scale.

o Always use color 35mm film for photographs. It

will give you maximum clarity and detail and is best

suited for making enlargements for court evidence.

Instant cameras are acceptable but do not give the

same clarity and produce photographs less suitable

for enlargements.

All body parts should be photographed. Photographs

should include a standard front, standard back,

standard left, and standard right. The significantly

burned areas should be particularly well

photographed. Reliable testimony, however, should not

be based solely on photographs or drawings. Testimony

from the treating physician or medical personnel who

conducted a hands-on evaluation of the child is

critical and more effective.

Working With Other Agencies

Fire and rescue teams are usually the first

responders to a 911 call for a burn victim.

Their observations of the scene and their

communication tapes verifying the response

time provide valuable information.

Another important agency is the Department of Social

Services. It is advisable to work closely with the

child protection services team, for their cooperation

can result in evidence and information law

enforcement may not be aware of. In fact,

joint training sessions of social services, medical,

emergency response, and prosecutorial personnel

can benefit everyone–victim and investigators.

———————-

Contributing Authors

Phylip J. Peltier

Criminal Investigator

Butte County District Attorney’s Office

Special Victims Unit

25 County Center Drive

Oroville, CA 95965

530-538-5224

Gary Purdue, M.D.

Professor, Department of Surgery

The University of Texas

Southwestern Medical Center

5323 Harry Hines Boulevard

Dallas, TX 75390-9158

214-648-2041

Captain Jack R. Shepherd

Commander, Executive Division

Office of the Director

Michigan State Police

714 South Harrison Road

East Lansing, MI 48823

517-336-6552

——————-

Supplemental Reading

Besharov DJ. Combating Child Abuse: Guidelines for

Cooperation Between Law Enforcement and Child

Protective Agencies. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1990.

Butler KD, Chadwick DL. Child abuse. In Warner CG

(ed): Emergency Care: Assessment and Intervention. 2d

ed. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 1978.

Deitch EA, Staats M. Child abuse through burning.

Journal of Burn Care and Rehabilitation 3:89-94, 1982.

DePanfilis D, Salus MK. A Coordinated Response to

Child Abuse and Neglect: A Basic Manual (The User Manual

Series). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth

and Families, National Center on Child Abuse and

Neglect, 1992.

Fowler J. Child maltreatment by burning. Burns 5:83-

85, 1978.

Gary FP, Hunt JL, Prescott PR. Child abuse by

burning–An index of suspicion. Journal of Trauma 28(2):221-

224, 1988.

Gil DG. Violence Against Children: Physical Child

Abuse in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 1970.

Helfer RE, Kempe RS (eds). The Battered Child. 4th

ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Hight DW, Bakalar HR, Lloyd JR. Inflicted burns in

children: Recognition and treatment. Journal of the

American Medical Association 242:517-520, 1979.

Lenoski EF, Hunter KA. Specific patterns of inflicted

burn injuries. Journal of Trauma 17:842-846, 1977.

MacMillan BG, Freiberg DL. Special problems of the

pediatric burn patient. In Hummel RP (ed): Clinical

Burn Therapy. Boston (MA), Bristol, and London: John

Wright/PSG Inc., 1982.

Moritz AR, Henriques FC. Studies of thermal injury:

II. The relative importance of time and surface

temperature in the causation of cutaneous burns.

American Journal of Pathology 23:695-720, 1947.

Pence D, Wilson C. The Role of Law Enforcement in the

Response to Child Abuse and Neglect (The User Manual Series).

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, Administration on Children, Youth and

Families, National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect,

1992.

Purdue GF, Hunt JL. Child abuse by burning. In Ludwig

S, Kornberg A (eds): Child Abuse: A Medical

Reference. New York, NY: Churchill Livingstone, 1992,

pp. 105-116.

Schanberger JE. Inflicted burns in children. Topics

in Emergency Medicine 3:85-92, 1981.

Shepherd JR, Dworin B, Farley RH, Russ BJ, Tressler

PW, National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children. Child Abuse and Exploitation: Investigative

Techniques. 2d ed. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1995.

Stone NH, Rinaldo L, Humphrey CR, et al. Child abuse

by burning. Surgical Clinics of North America

50:1419-1424, 1974.

Whitcomb D. When the Victim Is a Child. 2d ed.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of

Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice,

1992.

———————

Organizations

American Burn Association

800-548-2876

Fox Valley Technical College

Criminal Justice Department

Law Enforcement Training Programs

P.O. Box 2277

1825 North Bluemound Drive

Appleton, WI 54914-2277

800-648-4966

920-735-4757 (fax)

http://www.foxvalley.tec.wi.us/ojjdp

Participants are trained in child abuse and

exploitation investigative techniques, covering the

following areas: recognition of signs of abuse,

collection and preservation of evidence, preparation

of cases for prosecution, techniques for interviewing

victims and offenders, and liability issues.

Fox Valley also offers an intensive special training

for local child investigative teams. Teams must

include representatives from law enforcement,

prosecution, social services, and (optionally) the

medical field. Participants take part in hands-on

team activity involving:

o Development of interagency processes and protocols

for enhanced enforcement, prevention, and

intervention in child abuse cases.

o Case preparation and prosecution.

o Development of the team’s own interagency

implementation plan for improved investigation of

child abuse.

National Burn Victim Foundation

246A Madisonville Road

Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

800-803-5879

908-953-9091

908-953-9099 (fax)

The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, Inc.

2153 Wealthy Street SE., Suite 215

East Grand Rapids, MI 49506

616-458-2773

Burn survivor toll-free line: 800-888-BURN

Burn camps in the United States and abroad: 800-888-BURN

http://www.phoenix-society.org

Shriners Hospital Referral Line

2900 Rocky Point Drive

Tampa, FL 33607

800-237-5055

Shriners Burn Institutes

Boston Unit

51 Blossom Street

Boston, MA 02114

617-722-3000

Cincinnati Unit

3229 Burnet Avenue

Cincinnati, OH 45229

513-872-6000

Galveston Unit

815 Market Street

Galveston, TX 77550

409-770-6600

Sacramento Unit

2425 Stockton Boulevard

Sacramento, CA 95817

916-453-2000

Trauma Burn Center

University of Michigan Medical Center

1500 East Medical Center Drive

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0033

734-936-9666

In addition, many communities have their own burn

centers, which can be identified through local

hospitals.

———————–

Instructions for Evidence Worksheet for Immersion Burns

Section A

The location should include the address and

room in which the burn occurred.

Section B

Two investigators are required to gather the information

on the worksheet. You will need an immersion thermometer,

a 35 mm camera, a measuring device, and a watch with a

second hand.

Photograph the scene with a 35 mm camera. Use a ruler,

yardstick, or tape measure in all photographs.

Sketch the scene including all objects in the area.

Be sure to include the distance from the basin or tub

in relation to nearby objects and the dimensions of

furniture, fixtures, etc.

Section C

One investigator holds the thermometer so that the

water from the faucet is hitting at the immersion

line on the thermometer. That person notes the

starting temperature, which is recorded by the other

investigator, who is also holding the watch. The

first investigator calls out the time and the second

investigator calls out the temperature in response,

recording it at 5-second intervals (or when the

temperature remains constant for 15 seconds). Note:

The person holding the thermometer should not be

wearing glasses since the steam will fog them up.

When recording the hot and cold water temperature

together, turn the faucets on full and record when

the temperature remains constant for 15 seconds.

Section D

After the tub or basin is filled, you can hold a

low-key interview with the caretaker and/or witnesses

while checking the temperature at 5-minute intervals.

Section E

Have the suspect show you how he or she ran the water

when the burn occurred. If the suspect wants to run

the water deeper than 5 inches, allow this and note

it on the worksheet.

——————-

Other Titles in This Series

Currently there are 12 other Portable Guides to

Investigating Child Abuse. Additional guides in this

series may be developed at a later date. To obtain a

copy of any of the guides listed below (in order of

publication), contact the Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention’s Juvenile Justice

Clearinghouse by telephone at 800-638-8736 or e-mail

at puborder@ncjrs.org.

Recognizing When a Child’s Injury or Illness Is

Caused by Abuse, NCJ 160938

Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Child Sexual Abuse,

NCJ 160940

Photodocumentation in the Investigation of Child

Abuse, NCJ 160939

Diagnostic Imaging of Child Abuse, NCJ 161235

Battered Child Syndrome: Investigating Physical Abuse

and Homicide, NCJ 161406

Interviewing Child Witnesses and Victims of Sexual

Abuse, NCJ 161623

Child Neglect and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy,

NCJ 161841

Criminal Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse,

NCJ 162426

Law Enforcement Response to Child Abuse, NCJ 162425

Understanding and Investigating Child Sexual

Exploitation, NCJ 162427

Forming a Multidisciplinary Team To Investigate Child

Abuse, NCJ 170020

Use of Computers in the Sexual Exploitation of

Children, NCJ 170021

———————

Additional Resources

American Bar Association

(ABA)

Center on Children and

the Law

Washington, DC

202-662-1720

202-662-1755 (fax)

American Humane Association

Englewood, Colorado

800-227-4645

303-792-9900

303-792-5333 (fax)

American Medical Association

(AMA)

Department of Mental Health

Chicago, Illinois

312-464-5000

(AMA main number)

312-464-4184 (fax)

American Professional Society

on the Abuse of Children

(APSAC)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

405-271-8202

405-271-2931 (fax)

Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI)

National Center for the

Analysis of Violent Crime

Quantico, Virginia

703-632-4333

Fox Valley Technical College

Criminal Justice Department

Appleton, Wisconsin

800-648-4966

920-735-4757 (fax)

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

(JJC)

Rockville, Maryland

800-638-8736

301-519-5600 (fax)

Kempe Children’s Center

Denver, Colorado

303-864-5252

303-864-5302 (fax)

National Association of Medical

Examiners

St. Louis, Missouri

314-577-8298

314-268-5124 (fax)

National Center for Missing

and Exploited Children

(NCMEC)

Alexandria, Virginia

703-274-3900

703-274-2220 (fax)

National Center for the

Prosecution of Child Abuse

Alexandria, Virginia

703-549-4253

703-549-6259 (fax)

National Children’s Alliance

Washington, DC

800-239-9950

202-639-0597

202-639-0511 (fax)

National Clearinghouse on

Child Abuse and Neglect

Information

Washington, DC

800-FYI-3366

703-385-7565

703-385-3206 (fax)

National SIDS Resource

Center

Vienna, Virginia

703-821-8955, ext. 249

703-821-2098 (fax)

Prevent Child Abuse America

Chicago, Illinois

800-835-2671

312-663-3520

312-939-8962 (fax)

————————

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention

Washington, D.C. 20531

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

The vast majority of the children we will be tying up & confining come from very troubled homes. Or, as former MN Supreme court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated, about 90% of the youth in juvenile justice have come through child protection services.

Before a child can become removed from a home through child protection services, they have lived for a long time in an abusive or neglectful home and have been tortured as defined by the World Health Organization.

It’s not the happy children that we will be restraining - it’s the three million children that are reported to child protection in America each year.

In my experience, the WHO’s definition of torture fits the life experience of a child that has been removed from an abusive home; “extended exposure to violence and deprivation” has been their life. The U.S. has no other child protection policy than the IMMINENT HARM DOCTRINE.

The link between an abused child’s past tortured life and future troubled life is clear to most of us that have lived with or worked with these damaged children long enough. It causes me great pain to see my guardian ad-Litem kids handled like mad animals (tasered, confined, beat up by under-trained staff in under-resourced detention centers)

These are the children that develop behavior problems in school, get into trouble with delinquency, juvenile justice & the court system. Without appropriate services, they are on a one way path to criminal justice, poverty, preteen pregnancy & dysfunctional lifestyles (and that is often forever).

Our schools, jails, and courts are filled with abused and neglected children.

Thirteen million prison and jail releases in the U.S. last year, & America has more crime and criminals per capita than any other nation in the world. All because we can’t stop punishing abused and neglected children.

States that have discovered restorative justice and a therapeutic approach for youth are saving money and getting terrific results. States that continue to punish and incarcerate are feeling the burden of failure of public policy.

Children with serious behavioral problems need help getting to normal.

Most children with serious behavioral problems that don’t get help end up leading dysfunctional lives. It is far less costly to help a child get to normal than to let the child develop into a dysfunctional adult.

A good number of the children I have worked with in child protection have never had a nice day in their life, have a great need for mental health services, and do not respond well to threats or punishment.

The need for early childhood programs and mental health help is tremendous. Most states are using way to many psychotropics along with brute force and punishment against children that have already endured horrifically tortured home lives.

The A.C.E. study in Ramsey County demonstrated that about 70% of the serious and violent crime committed by youth in the county was committed by youth from under four % of the families in the county.

Our current policies of punishment instead of treating the behavior problems of children has failed and will continue to fail.

If our policies are to be measured by what they produce, it must be said that America’s politics of punishing abused and neglected children (restraint, confinement, imprisonment, lack of a humane approach to children), are producing juvenile delinquents, preteen mothers, overcrowded prisons and unsafe cities. Internationally, we are no longer a leader in the quality of life indices that we lead in for so long.

Minneapolis Minnesota has a mental health model in its school system that could work for the nation. Missouri went from 90% recidivism in its juvenile justice system to almost 90% success in just a few years with a therapeutic and caring approach to youth.

The economics of saving children through these models is proven and our mandate to care for the weakest and most vulnerable among us has been with us since time began, yet we continue to charge eleven year old children in adult criminal court & legislate to heap more punishment on abused and neglected children.

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

Support KARA buy our book or donate

Become part of KARA’s email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Add to that the serious growing issues of diabetes that conservatively predicts that fifty percent of American’s children will be obese within three years, & that three times as many American children are proscribed psychotropic medications as are European children, is a strong indication that our public policies are not child friendly.

We are all too familiar with the sad fact that the U.S. tries 150,000 juveniles as adults each year, and that most juvenile justice cases have been child protection cases, paints an even darker picture for poor inner city children.

New York Times article on Rising Rates of Chronic Health Problems for Children;
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/research/23child.html
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Public policy at the time treated the Irish more like animals than people and their children were doomed to living lives of crime, prostitution, and destitution.

Jonathon Swift’s satirical theme was that Irish children would be better off dead than raised in such horrible and inescapable circumstances.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to understand Swift’s rage at the cruelties a community can pile on to poor children.

The idea that America’s poor working families don’t deserve education, health care, & safe homes for their children in the richest nation in the world is a cruel and unsupportable position.

The other industrialized nations have figured out that caring for their youngest citizens guarantees healthy adults and productive communities. We now don’t rank anywhere near the top in the majority of quality of life indices among the 24 industrialized nations.

America can’t quit building prisons and filling them with juveniles and preteen moms. We continue to quit subsidizing daycare, early childhood programs, healthcare for the poor, & education funding, while at the same time listening more and more to the mean spirited philosophies of radio and TV hosts that blame the nations ills on people that have (and always will have) the least.

The economic arguments of caring for children are all in favor of creating productive citizens by early intervention and early childhood development. It actually costs a great deal more to continue to punish the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Are we a community without compassion?

KARA is seeking a 21st Century Modest Proposal. If you are a writer and given to challenges, please read Swift’s “Proposal” below, and write your own as you see it applying to American children & include it as a comment, or send it to Info@invisiblechildren.org

A Modest Proposal

For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

By Jonathan Swift (1729)

About this text.

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled …”

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of 2s., which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty’s prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young laborers, they are now in as hopeful a condition; they cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor, they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.

I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.

Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.

Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old and upward, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a-piece per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, The constant breeders, beside the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating: and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef, the propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well-grown, fat, yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a lord mayor’s feast or any other public entertainment. But this and many others I omit, being studious of brevity.

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and ’twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, ’till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.

But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and children who are beggars in effect: I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

The End

Note: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), author and satirist, famous for Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and A Modest Proposal (1729). This proposal, where he suggests that the Irish eat their own children, is one of his most drastic pieces. He devoted much of his writing to the struggle for Ireland against the English hegemony.

KARA Note: In America today, there is a growing movement to blame the nations ills on poor people, at a time when resources are scarce this is not uncommon, but it is reprehensible. We are better than this.

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Smart people from mental health and education spoke on stigma, truancy, intervention & juvenile justice. A very smart person from the community stepped forward and spoke about mental health as perceived from within the community.

By the end of the evening it was made clear that the 47,000 arrested juvenile arrests in MN last year were related to high school dropout rates and the safety of city streets. No reference was made to the A.C.E. study of two years ago indicating that over 70 percent of all violent and serious crime in Ramsey County was committed by youth from 3% of the families within the county.

Thank you to all of the committed individuals that work in education, social services, mental health and justice trying to make these institutions responsive to the massive needs within our communities.

Please appreciate the frustration from those of us who know that preteen moms and juvenile felons deserve better from our policy makers than the hard politics that have continued to underfund mental health and young families at the expense of prisons, punishment, and jails.

I am pleased that we are having public forums on the topic for more than a few reasons;

As a community, the topic has been uncomfortable and avoided for too long. Last nights discussion on “mental health” and how to be mentally “healthy” was positive and meaningful and a model for other forums and future discussions.

As a guardian ad-Litem, I came to know many traumatized children that had no access to adequate mental health services and watching them grow into dysfunctional adults has been painful.

Missouri went from 90% recidivism in its juvenile justice system to about 10% over just a few years as it transitioned into a restorative justice model that treated youth as children in need of counseling instead of adult criminals (about 30% of American youth are tried in adult courts).

California locks up young people longer than any other state — on average young people spend about 3 years in the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). More than a year of this time is tacked on by DJJ guards, who extend parole hearing dates for disciplinary and other reasons.

This flies in the face of research that shows that positive incentives are much more effective at helping kids improve than are negative, disciplinary actions. And, because DJJ spends $234,000 a year to lock up each youth, it’s not only unfair and ineffective, it’s incredibly expensive.

MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz commented that 90% of the youth in juvenile justice had passed through child protection. As a long time guardian ad-Litem working with children in child protection, it hurts me greatly to see children born into almost certain lives of early pregnancy, crime, and incarceration.

The only way out for these children is a system of education, mental health, and civil justice that concentrates on the most vulnerable citizens in our community.

They have no lobby or PAC fund to attract politicians to their cause. It is up to us, those that work in the field, foster & adoptive parents, and advocates, to speak up for them.

Let CIVIL JUSTICE COMMITTEE Chair Joe Mullery know that you want justice and mental health services for youth.

Joe Mullery (DFL) 58A – Minnesota House of Representatives
Representative Joe Mullery. * 367 State Office Building 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155 651-296-4262 …

Show map of 4101 Vincent Ave N, Minneapolis, MN 55412
www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?id=10442 – Cached – Similar –

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Kansas budget cuts and layoffs have created a backlog that appears to be growing dramatically.

Budget cuts hurting state child health program

By Marshanna Hester http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/feb/01/budget-cuts-hurting-state-child-health-program/

Almost all developed nations have affordable health care. Why are we unable to provide health care even for America’s children?

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2010
Budget cuts hurting state child health program

By Marshanna Hester
Forty thousand Kansas children depend on a state program for health insurance, but the state program is failing to do its job because of budget cuts.

Now some parents are worried how their children are going to get the care they need.

“I just couldn’t believe the state would cut a program for Kansas kids,” says Harold Stultz, a dad with children on Healthwave.

Like thousands of Kansas parents, Harold Stultz, who’s self-employed depends on state program Healthwave to provide health insurance for his children, including 12-year-old Keenan.

So when Keenan hurt his knee wrestling, Stultz assumed he had insurance. He was wrong.

“They said they had everything they need, but due to the economy and cutbacks they couldn’t process the applications.” says Stultz.

“I figured if it happened to me it happened to a lot of other people,” says Carmetti Klein a mom with children on Healthwave.

She’s right. Klein, just like Shultz, assumed her children were covered. She sent in her application on time, but learned it wasn’t processed.

“I got on the phone and told them I needed this processed,” says Klein.

The state’s not denying there are problems, so why are there delays? A spokesperson says he could: “verify that the delay in processing applications is due to a shortage of resources and manpower. We understand that many parents are frustrated at the delays in processing applications. This has been a problem since the recession really hit in Kansas in late 2008 and early 2009.”

It’s only getting worse because of the economy. The need is growing and applications are up dramatically.

Until his application is processed, Stultz will have to find money to treat his son’s knee. So far, that’s about $6,000.

‘It just upsets me that there are more people in my situation,” says Stultz.

Kansas provides low-cost health insurance to children who meet the following criteria: they must be under the age of 19, not covered by Medicaid, have a family income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and who are not eligible for state employee health insurance.

The state says it is taking proactive steps to speed up processing, but it’s just now putting those into effect and it’s going to take time.

A specific number of pending applications is unavailable, but it is said to be a sizeable amount.

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2 Important truths; most of the youth in the juvenile justice system have come through child protection services, & a large percentage of these youth suffer from mental health issues.

Children don’t become involved in child protection systems unless they have suffered extended exposure to violence and deprivation in their birth homes.

The World Health Organizations definition of Torture is; Extended Exposure to Violence and Deprivation – Trauma.

New York is now spending about $250,000 per year / per youth in their juvenile justice system.

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/12/14/new-york-meet-missouri/

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem in MN I have watched really terrible things happen to very troubled children under the direction of people and programs that were supposed to be “helping” the child.

One young boy walked home many miles without a coat, on a sub zero MN night (with no home to go to) from a juvenile facility after being severely abused.

While it would be easy to blame the people in the institutions, it is really the fault of poor public policy, resulting from lack of understanding of underlying issues.

Mental health is all about functioning within our communities. Bear that in mind as you read the New York Times article and the following KARA pieces.

My note on the following; The amount of psychotropic medications being proscribed to this population is enormous in relation to the the therapy that is needed but not available.

For Detained Youths, No Mental Health Overseer
By JULIE BOSMAN New York Times

Published: February 10, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/nyregion/11youth.html

Other Invisible Children mental health articles;

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/03/10/a-grim-truth-about-big-pharma/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/06/21/amy-shermans-blog-for-floridas-at-risk-children/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/06/05/study-early-therapy-can-save-teens-from-depression/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2008/09/28/ptsd-study-of-abused-children/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/07/23/abandoned-abandoned-again-and-tasered-whats-next-for-at-risk-youth/

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Before the earthquake, UNICEF estimates that tens of thousands of Haitian children were being sold as servants to rich Haitians each year.

Developing nations are often unable to provide even the most basic safety for their nations children (child endangerment, slavery, basic care) through the proper writing and passing of laws and standards that all sensible people could agree on. Enforcement is another issue entirely.

Helping third world nations control human trafficking, child prostitution, slavery, and other basic child safety standards is more that a noble endeavor.

It is critical to the success of our communities everywhere.

Without basic human dignity for all of us, the ruined lives and violence spawned by unhealthy, unhappy people impact all of us in some way, & for those in proximity to children that have suffered from its absence in many ways.

The world health organization defines torture as “extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.

Is child abuse and neglect torture?

In the U.S., the law governing the safety of a child in the home is the Imminent Harm Doctrine, which states that a child may be removed from the home if his/her life is endangered by the caregiver.

More on Haitian children;

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_statistics.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/19/unicef-ambassador-how-can_n_428719.html

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To not support children that are unable to read or function well in the classroom is to insure continued failing schools and more and bigger prisons.

America is already the largest criminal nation in the world in per capita and in gross prison numbers – and that is expensive in financial and quality of life measurements.

The following This PEW issue brief goes on to explain in detail why we should continue early childhood programs in tough economic times.

Use this information to help your local programs keep their funding in these hard times. Cutting Early Childhood Programs Worsens Fiscal Problems http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=56880

Contact: Rolanda B. Rascoe, 202.540.6413Washington, DC – 01/19/2010 – States can save money and stimulate their economies, in the short and long run, by protecting funding for effective pre-kindergarten and home visiting programs, according to a new issue brief by the Partnership for America’s Economic Success. “The Costs of Disinvestment”

http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Partnership_for_Americas_Economic_Success/Cost_of_Disinvestment_brief_final.pdf?n=1454

provides evidence for why states cannot afford to cut early childhood programs whose demonstrated economic and societal benefits reduce taxpayer costs now and generate more revenue in the future. Rigorous science and hard data show that these investments are fundamental to achieving a globally competitive workforce and fiscal sustainability for states and the nation.

“Reducing budgets for proven early childhood policies means health, education and social services costs will rise,” said Sara Watson, the Partnership’s director and senior officer at the Pew Center on The States. “The fiscally wise choice is to maintain quality home visiting and pre-k investments. These policies are steps toward short-term savings for states and produce high rates of return on each public dollar by stimulating consumer and business spending.”

The brief highlights how public funding for evidence-based home visiting and early learning benefits taxpayers as soon as a year after children and families have received services. Voluntary home visiting programs serving pregnant women can help decrease by half the incidence of low-birthweight births, each of which adds between $28,000 and $40,000 in costs. Pre-k programs can quickly reduce the number of children with developmental delays or held back in the early grades. A study of New Jersey’s Abbott Preschool Program found 30 percent less grade retention in first grade among children who attended one year and up to 50 percent less for those who attended at both ages 3 and 4; each child held back costs the state $16,000 per year.

The brief also provides evidence that early childhood programs act as an economic stimulus. Because child care and pre-k professionals tend to spend much of their earnings locally, their jobs cause wage dollars to move multiple times through their communities. Facilities maintenance and supplies for early childhood programs are heavily local, spurring spending when and where it is most needed. Also, parents whose children are in reliable, quality care are able to work more productively and rely less on public assistance, while parents out of work can better search for jobs and participate in training programs. Such public investments can help attract new business by signaling the state’s commitment to workforce development.

The Partnership for America’s Economic Success is a national coalition of business executives, economists, funders and civic leaders mobilizing business to improve tomorrow’s economy through smart policy investments in young children today. It is managed by the Pew Center on the States and funded by Robert Dugger, the George Gund Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ohio Children’s Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Scholastic, Inc.

The years of hard research this organization has done to quantify the impact of abuse on children as they become adults is as incontrovertible as it is moving.

This information shared with the public and policy makers can help abused and neglected children received more and better care and lead more productive lives.

Support them
info@avahealth.org

Academy on Violence and Abuse
14850 Scenic Heights Road, Suite 135A
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Phone: (952) 974-3270
Fax: (952) 974-3291

Durham, NH–According to a new brief by Carsey Institute director of research on vulnerable families Marybeth J. Mattingly and research assistant professor of sociology Wendy A. Walsh, rural families who have been reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) are more likely than those reported in urban areas to experience high family stress and financial difficulties. Rural children referred to CPS are also more likely than urban children to live in a single parent home.

Based on data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, this brief shows that across place, nearly 40 percent of children who are reported to CPS live in poverty, and roughly half have a caregiver with mental health issues.

Families reported to CPS also report low levels of social support. Families living in rural areas may have less access to services designed to help cope with situations that may lead to child maltreatment, so policies must be designed to address this.

Author Marybeth J. Mattingly can be reached for comment at 603-862-2961, 240-593-4297, or atbeth.mattingly@unh.edu.

Read the brief.

Read about author Marybeth J. Mattingly.

Read about author Wendy A. Walsh.

The Carsey Institute conducts national and regional policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. We give policy makers and practitioners the timely, independent resources they need to effect change in their communities. href=’www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu’>carsey institute rural families distribution of child maltreatment>

Among the 24 industrialized nations, the U.S. stands out with no positive public federal policy for children.

The only Child Protection policy in America is its Imminent Harm Doctrine, allowing courts to remove children whose lives are endangered by their parents. CP systems in the U.S. are under resourced, poorly coordinated, with no meaningful studies or outcome based measurements to track success or failure.

Absent coordinated positive public policy for the care of children, America is now at the confluence of misaligned and mistaken public policies that are overwhelming its schools, health and mental health services, child protection services, juvenile justice services, and criminal justice systems.

Failing schools, unsafe communities, and absurdly high rates of incarceration are just the tip of the iceberg.

Many Americans see the tip of this iceberg and assume that they understand the deeper problem, which they will fix by lowering taxes, criticizing civil servants, harsher sentencing, limiting juvenile or criminal justice rehabilitation, and move towards privatizing prisons.

What people are not seeing, and what undermines our civil society, is the correlation between healthy children and healthy citizens. We are ignoring an explosion of traumatized children with serious mental health issues, unable to cope with school & work, or get by without intervention or services

Dr. Bruce Perry gives credible argument with his research that within the next few generations, 25% of Americans will be special needs people.

1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood
1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents
1 in 4 lives with only one parent
1 in 8 is born to a teenage mother
1 in 25 lives with neither parent

68.7% of American Youth are living in non-traditional families

23.3% living with biological mother (Step-family Association)

4.4% living with biological father (Step-family Association)
1% Foster Families (U.S. Census Bureau)

3.7% living with non-relatives (U.S. Census Bureau)

6.3% living with grandparents (AARP – U.S. Census Bureau)

30% living in Step-families ** (Step-family Association)
(Note: This does not include youth impacted by the death of a loved person such as a sibling or grandparent.)

Approximately 30% of U.S. families are now being headed by a single parent, and in 80% of those families, the mother is the sole parent.

The United States is the world’s leader in fatherless families.Father absence contributes to crime and delinquency. Violent criminals are overwhelmingly males who grew up without fathers.

Slightly more than 40% of all current marriages are second or third marriages. (U.S. Census Bureau, 1992)

75% of children/adolescents in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families. (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA)

1 out of 5 children have a learning, emotional, or behavioral problem due to the family system changing.

More than one half of all youths incarcerated for criminal acts lived in one-parent families when they were children. (Children’s Defense Fund)

Nine million American children face risk factors that may hinder their ability to become healthy and productive adults.

One in seven children deal with at least four of the risk factors, which include growing up in a single-parent household…The survey also indicated that children confronting several risk factors are more likely to experience problems with concentration, communication, and health. (1999 Kids Count Survey – Annie E. Casey Foundation)

Every 78 seconds a teen attempts suicide – every 90 seconds they succeed. (National Center for Health Statistics)

63% of suicides are individuals from single parent families (FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin – Investigative Aid)…

75% of teenage pregnancies are adolescents from single parent homes

Approximately 13% of all babies born in the U.S. are born to adolescent mothers, with one million teens becoming pregnant each year.

A Generation At Risk (adapted from Rainbows: program for children who suffer a loss through a life altering crisis including death of a parent, divorce or other separation issue: www.rainbows.org

FACTS WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN CHILDREN
1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood
1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents
1 in 4 lives with only one parent
1 in 8 is born to a teenage mother
1 in 25 lives with neither parent
(The State of America’s Children, 1998 Yearbook, Children’s Defense Fund)
DIVORCE STATISTICS
Current Family Statistics – 2003
68.7% of American Youth are living in non-traditional families
7 out of 10
23.3% living with biological mother (Step-family Association)
4.4% living with biological father (Step-family Association)
1% Foster Families (U.S. Census Bureau)
3.7% living with non-relatives (U.S. Census Bureau)
6.3% living with grandparents (AARP – U.S. Census Bureau)
30% living in Step-families ** (Step-family Association)
(Note: This does not include youth impacted by the death of a loved person such as a sibling or grandparent.)

** Per the Step-family Association, there are no current Census stats available for Step-family statistics. However, a survey conducted in 1995 estimated that 30% of all children are living in either a step-family or a cohabiting couple.
Children of divorced parents are seven times more likely to suffer from depression in adult life than people of similar age and background whose parents have not divorced. This Israeli study, indicated that the loss of a parent through divorce is more likely to cause depression than loss through death. “The earlier the separation occurred, the more likely it was to have had an influence,” researcher Bernard Lerer said. (Study by Bernard Lerer and Ofer Agid of the Biological Psychiatric Unit at Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem, as reported in Molecular Psychiatry, 1999)
CUSTODIAL / NON-CUSTODIAL STATISTICS
Fathers without visitation or joint custody pay only 44.5% of child support owed, but fathers with visitation pay 79.1% of child support owed.
Fathers with joint custody pay 90.2% of child support owed.
The number of single-parent homes has skyrocketed, displacing many children in this country. Approximately 30% of U.S. families are now being headed by a single parent, and in 80% of those families, the mother is the sole parent. The United States is the world’s leader in fatherless families.
Father absence contributes to crime and delinquency. Violent criminals are overwhelmingly males who grew up without fathers.
(U.S. Census Bureau report, “Child Support and Alimony: 1989, released Oct. 11, 1991)
STEP-FAMILY STATISTICS
More than a quarter of today’s children will live in a step-family situation.(Nicholas Zill, Child Trends, Washington, D.C.)
16% of all families with children at home live in step-families.
(U.S. Census Bureau)

High divorce and remarriage rates have resulted in about 20% of the children in two-parent households living with one natural parent and one step parent. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Slightly more than 40% of all current marriages are second or third marriages. (U.S. Census Bureau, 1992)
BEHAVIOR STATISTICS
75% of children/adolescents in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families. (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 5 children have a learning, emotional, or behavioral problem due to the family system changing. (National Center for Health Statistics)
More than one half of all youths incarcerated for criminal acts lived in one-parent families when they were children. (Children’s Defense Fund)
Nine million American children face risk factors that may hinder their ability to become healthy and productive adults. One in seven children deal with at least four of the risk factors, which include growing up in a single-parent household…The survey also indicated that children confronting several risk factors are more likely to experience problems with concentration, communication, and health. (1999 Kids Count Survey – Annie E. Casey Foundation)
SUICIDE STATISTICS
Every 78 seconds a teen attempts suicide – every 90 seconds they succeed. (National Center for Health Statistics)
63% of suicides are individuals from single parent families (FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin – Investigative Aid)
“Separation, divorce and unmarried parenthood seemed to be a high risk for children/adolescents in these families for the development of suicidal behavior”. (Atilla Turgay, M.D.American Psychiatric Association’s Scientific Meeting, May 1994)
TEEN PREGNANCY STATISTICS
75% of teenage pregnancies are adolescents from single parent homes (Children in need: Investment Strategies…Committee for Economic Development)
Approximately 13% of all babies born in the U.S. are born to adolescent mothers, with one million teens becoming pregnant each year. Explanations for teen pregnancy include the break-up of the American home and parental loss. (University of Kentucky, Departments of Psychiatry, Ob/Gyn and Psychology)
FAMILY TYPES
Traditional
Single Parent Due To Divorce, Death, Abandonment Or
Mother Never Married
Step Family
Blended Family
Foster Family
DEATH STATISTICS
In the U.S., 8 million people suffered through the death of someone in their immediate family last year; 800,000 new widows and widowers; 400,000 people under 25 suffered from the death of a loved one (National Mental Health Association)
1.2 million children will lose a parent to death before age 15 (Dr. Elizabeth Weller, Dir. Ohio State University Hospitals, 1991)
In 1980, about 23 babies were born to every 1,000 women age 35 to 44, according to federal statistics; in 1996, the rate had risen to 42 per 1,000. Similarly, about 60 babies were born to every 1,000 men that age in 1980; by 1996, that number increased more than 20%. Mortality rates for adults in their 40s and 50s in the past two decades have risen dramatically making it more likely that younger children will experience the death of a parent, or a classmate’s parent. “Kids are encountering death more often and at a younger age – it’s just inevitable” says Gerald Koocher, chief of psychology at Boston’s Children’s Hospital. (Wall Street Journal, Early Grief Article, February 18, 1999)
Currently, 1.9 million youngsters under age 18 (or more than 2 percent of American children) have lost one or both parents. (U. S. Social Security Administration, as reported in the Chicago Tribune Magazine, 7-18-99)
A parent’s death usually makes a severe impact on a child, research shows. After losing a parent, 85% of children exhibit such symptoms as difficulty sleeping, angry outbursts, worry, depression, bed-wetting, and thumb-sucking. After a year, more regressive behaviors may fade, but other problems, such as lack of confidence and preoccupation with illness, are likely to continue.

CRIME STATISTICS
“Gang recruitment is a powerful lure for the products of broken homes and single-parent households” as gang members are likely to “receive little guidance or attention from family members at home.” (Chicago Crime Commission Report,1995)
It is crucial that we discuss this very important topic that is affecting our present as well as our future. We need to learn how to support one another in grief as well as to learn powerful tools that can encourage and increase resiliency in our youth.

Lisa is currently accepting bookings for workshops and presentations for 2009 and 2010. Call her and see how she can help your school, organization, hospital, business or community group. Lisa can create a unique presentation for your particular audience or conference needs.
Phone: Please call 973-912-0177 to contact Lisa
or email her at lisa@griefspeaks.com

Every year, we read about useful new methods of addressing trauma, yet in my 12 years working with children in child protection I rarely saw abandoned kids receive the mental health services that they needed to lead normal lives.

Prozac, Ritalin, and other psychotropic medications are readily available, but without consistent access to therapy, abused and neglected children are often doomed to live with the PTSD that makes them behave in ways that cost them their place in our community.

Here are a few PTSD articles on the topic that I found on BBC that were very powerful; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6897406.stm


Brain target for stress disorder

Patients with PTSD can be offered counselling
Blocking a molecule in the brain may “cure” post-traumatic stress disorder, according to US researchers.
They showed that inhibiting a specific enzyme removed fear in mice and report to journal Nature Neuroscience that the finding may lead to new treatments.

Around a third of people may suffer PTSD after an exceptionally traumatic event, such as a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

Experts said it was early days but the findings were worth exploring further.

This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia
Professor Li-Huei Tsai, study leader
There is currently no treatment for PTSD although antidepressants and sleeping pills can help with the symptoms, which include flashbacks, anger, anxiety and depression.

Professor Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT looked at the effects of an enzyme called Cdk5 in the brains of genetically engineered mice which had been given mild foot shocks.

When re-exposed to the same environment but without the shocks, mice in whom the researchers had increased levels of Cdk5 activity had difficulty letting go – or extinguishing – the memory of the foot shock and continued to freeze in fear.

But in mice whose Cdk5 activity was blocked, the bad memory of the shocks disappeared when the mice learned that they no longer needed to fear the environment where the foot shocks had occurred.

The enzyme activity was modified in the hippocampus – the brain’s centre for storing memories.

Traumatic experience

Emotional disorders such as post-traumatic stress and panic attacks stem from the inability of the brain to stop experiencing the fear associated with a specific incident or series of incidents.

A study conducted by the US Army in 2004 found that one in eight soldiers returning from Iraq reported symptoms of PTSD.

The National Institute of Clinical and Health Excellence estimate five in 100 men and 10 in 100 women in the UK will get PTSD in their lifetime.

In guidance published in 2005 NICE said the condition was under-recognised in the NHS and better screening and treatment was needed.

Professor Tsai said: “This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia.”

Dr Jonathan Bisson, senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Cardiff and co-chair of the NICE guideline group said the finding was “potentially a significant advance”.

He added: “Translation of them into an effective treatment for PTSD is a long way off, and may not be possible.

“But the results are consistent with current theories on the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms and it is an area very worthy of further investigation.”

Humans have six hour window to erase memories of fear

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8401134.stm

Humans ‘have six-hour window’ to erase memories of fear

Memory fuels our fears
Humans have a six-hour window of opportunity when fearful memories can potentially be erased, a study says.
Reliving a harrowing memory opens what experts call a “reconsolidation window” – a time-limited period when it can be changed from bad to good.
A New York University team was able effectively to neutralise fearful memories by acting within six hours.
They hope their work, reported in Nature, will ultimately help those with disorders like post-traumatic stress.
Naturalistic approach
In the study, the volunteers were wired up to electrodes and given a shock each time they were shown a picture of differently coloured squares to make them fearful of the image – which they did.
A day later, the investigators worked on banishing the fear.

Our results suggest a non-pharmacological, naturalistic approach to more effectively manage emotional memories
Lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Phelps
They re-exposed the volunteers to the same image, but this time without the shocks.
They found that this worked, but only if the volunteer was first made to recall the fearful experience and, critically, made to recall it no longer than six hours before the “treatment” commenced.
Also, the treatment only blocked fear for the specific coloured square for which the fear memory was recalled, suggesting that the erasure is highly specific.

People need to realise it is the memory that is fearful and not the current reality
Professor Anke Ehlers
Lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Phelps of New York University said: “Timing may have a more important role in the control of fear than previously appreciated.
“Our memory reflects our last retrieval of it rather than an exact account of the original event.
“Our results suggest a non-pharmacological, naturalistic approach to more effectively manage emotional memories.”
Professor Anke Ehlers, an expert in post traumatic stress disorder at London’s Institute of Psychiatry, said: “Talking about the traumatic memory can help. That’s a common element of therapies.
“People need to realise it is the memory that is fearful and not the current reality.”

Child protection systems in the U.S. are under resourced, poorly coordinated, with no meaningful studies or outcome based measurements to track success or failure.

Absent coordinated positive (1*) public policy for the care of children, America is now at the confluence of misaligned and mistaken public policies that are overwhelming its schools, mental health services, child protection services, juvenile justice services, and criminal justice systems. Failing schools, unsafe communities, and absurdly high rates of incarceration are just the tip of the iceberg.

Many Americans (including a significant proportion of legislators) see the tip of this iceberg and assume that they understand the deeper problem, which they will fix by lowering taxes, criticizing civil servants, harsh sentencing, limited juvenile or criminal justice rehabilitation, and a move towards privatizing prisons (and building more of them).

What many people are not seeing, and what is undermining the critical underpinnings of our civil society, is the correlation between healthy children and healthy citizens. Or, perhaps stated more directly, we are ignoring a thirty year explosion of traumatized, abused and neglected children growing up with serious mental health issues, unable to cope with school & work, or get by in their own community without intervention (incarceration), or services.

These children are graduating into their own new dysfunctional families, which are being followed by the next generation, and the next generation (exponential growth in this sector).

Dr. Bruce Perry gives credible argument to his research that if this is not addressed strongly and in a timely fashion, within 30 years, 25% of Americans will be special needs people.

After thirteen years in child protection services, I think Dr Perry is an optimist.

About three million children per year are reported to child protection services. Only recently have the services began to show up that could address the mental health needs of traumatized children (to date the services remain far short of addressing those issues adequately). The vast majority of these children are being prescribed psychotropic medications (Prozac, Ritalin, etc) without adequate mental health therapies.

It may need to be pointed out that children are not removed from their homes in this nation until they have been severely traumatized (these children need services). The World Health Organization defines torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. This is also my definition of child abuse.

50% to 75% of the youth in juvenile justice have diagnosable mental illness, with half of this population living with multiple, severe, and chronic conditions that get worse over time if left untreated. These statistics are the same for adults in the criminal justice system. There is no available mental health data for youth in child protection systems. If the data existed, it would mirror juvenile justice data.

America’s At Risk children form “a pipeline to prison” (Marion Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund founder).

Minneapolis MN arrested 44% of its adult black male population in 2001 (with no duplicate arrests, 58% of these men went on to be rearrested for a second crime within two years).

The negative racial disparity among abused and neglected children in child protection systems, or schools, juvenile justice, jails and prisons besmirch America’s reputation to the rest of world.

As a guardian ad-Litem for Hennepin County for about fifty children over 12 years, I have witnessed multiple cases of untreated mental health problems of children traumatized by child abuse and the correlation with the dysfunctional lives that they go on to live as adults.

A Hennepin county judge has provided me with the psychotropic medications taken by the four and five year old children that she has guided through her juvenile courtroom.

I have witnessed and written about suicides by children as young as four years old.

The reliance this nation has on psychotropic medications for severely damaged children without concurrent mental health therapies is a failed public policy.

Maladjusted children become maladjusted adults.

A core assumption of invisiblechildren.org is that crime in the U.S. would evaporate if hopeless and gruesome childhoods that we are now propagating were addressed as if we meant to help children lead productive lives.

Significant U.S. data;

13 million prison and jail releases last year

13% of America’s black men can’t vote because they are felons

1 to 1.6 trillion dollars in crime annually (insurance cost estimates alone)

America has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population

Almost all felons come through the juvenile justice system. There are at least six major American cities with adult black male populations that have ex felon ratios above fifty percent.

MN Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz states that 90% of the youth in juvenile justice have come through child protection services. That of course is not true in states with poor child protection services with no services, as there is no way to identify at risk children (and there are many such states).

**”If you define institutions by what they create instead of what they were designed to create”, then child protection services create dysfunctional human beings that will forever be a burden upon their community. These citizens will be disproportionately institutionalized and require services for most of their lives, and they will go on to raise families as dysfunctional and as costly to their community as they themselves were.

(**borrowed from Kathleen Long, Angels and Demons).

The U.S. stands out among the industrialized nations with the weakest of child protection policies. The Imminent Harm Doctrine allows courts to remove children from families from homes ONLY where their lives are in danger. Judges receive no special training to work in child protection court and many of them view the duty as onerous.

The expense of not investing in our very young children far exceed the longterm costs of dealing with that child and his or her actions and progeny to our community.

Besides, it is the right thing to do.

1*. This is one of many examples; as a guardian ad-Litem, it was my job to support the County in its attempt to remove four children from a father whose key problem with the County was that he could not afford day care, which would leave the children in the possible care of his crack addicted wife. The County maintained that it was good public policy (cheaper/less disruptive) to take these four children from their hard working and decent birth father and place them in foster homes than it would be to help him find affordable day care.

Day care workers are paid about the same as food service workers in America (the lowest paid employees in the U.S.). This is how we value children in America.

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As Pliny the Elder said 2500 years ago, “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”

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The following are some of the more striking differences between our nations.

“converting the American figures for direct comparison with Sweden (2001), a comparative picture of the reported incidence of child abuse in Sweden and America is as follows:

Sweden – 57/l00,000
America – 4,500/100,000. ”

My note on the above; because America’s child protection systems is so overwhelmed, only the more severe cases of abuse are reported. I would estimate that the reported number of abused children could easily double if we were to honestly report just the most severe instances of abuse ( = 9000/100,000).

It has been my experience as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem that child protection services will not take the call unless multiple criteria are met. I have many stories from people that have told me how their report of abuse was not considered serious enough, or they were not deemed a credible source (in one case they were a family member reporting the abuse).

In 1998 comparative study of child abuse 9 years after the prohibition of corporal punishment in Sweden, 10.7% of American men and 8.2% of American women sampled stated that they had been victims of child abuse as children, compared to 3.9% of Swedish men and 0% of Swedish women in the sample. Finally, according to Joan Durrant, professor of family studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, “Sweden went from a family violence- child death rate of 18% in 1970 to 0 percent in recent years”- a significant and congratulatory fact.

My note on the above; I have written about this at length this summer and give concrete proof that American parents are murdering hundreds if not thousands of very young children. One must include the seven year old Florida foster child that hung himself and the two year old foster child that was disappeared in Nevada.

We are better than this and children deserve more.

This is one more example of the great need for KARA’s grassroots effort to raise awareness to the needs of America’s at risk children.

Until that happens, children, schools, families and communities, will contintue to suffer.

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

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Child Protection in Sweden

I. Introduction
While many might have an opinion that corporal punishment by parents for the purpose of discipline and correction is acceptable as a normal way of raising one’s children, several countries in Europe have disagreed moving towards abolishing all forms of corporal punishment of children.

This area of law dates back to 1979 when Sweden took the leading role on this issue and passed a law that prohibited children corporal punishment. To date 17 countries have abolished all forms of corporal punishment of children including the imposition of corporal punishment in the home or by parents.

These countries are Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Germany, Italy, Israel, Sweden, Iceland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belgium and Romania.

Around 75% of Swedish children live in traditional nuclear families with birth parents. To support parents and children, social and medical support systems were rapidly and radically expanded and changed during the decades after the World War II. Today they include preventive services with free (or very inexpensive) health controls during pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal education programs, and regular health controls for children during the school years.

The Swedish parental insurance system has gained international recognition, aiming at enabling both men and women to combine parenthood with employment- parental insurance allows the mother or father to stay at home up to 360 days after the birth of the child, with 80% compensation for loss of income.

Furthermore, parents have the right to stay home from work to care for a sick child in sum 60 days annually (per child under twelve years of age), with a cash benefit corresponding to 80% of their income.

II. Child Abuse and Neglect: Definitions in Swedish Law
According to Hessle and Vinnerljung, Swedish lawmakers have a stern attitude to physical abuse. Even minor physical punishment may be a reason for a court order.

Other circumstances that may lead to a court order include children who are repeatedly told they are stupid, clumsy, ugly or worthless. Frequent threats of physical or other punishment may also constitute reasons for intervention.

Exploitation mainly refers to sexual abuse but include cases where children are forced to do heavy labor. This criterion also applies to children who have “un-normal responsibilities in the home”, eg children who have to look after an alcoholic parent.

Inadequate care is an approximation of the international concept of neglect and covers a lot of ground: children receiving insufficient physical care, stimulation and emotional nurturing, substance abusing or mentally ill parents, children who do not get proper medical care, who are not receiving adequate supervision or are repeatedly left in the care of others.

III. Child Care in Sweden
Care for children and youth in Sweden can roughly be divided in three categories: foster (family), residential care; and homes for special supervision. Adoption without parent’s consent or procedures to ‘free children for adoption’ does not exist.

From WWII to the mid-1960ies, young “immature” mothers were as a matter of routine recommended/persuaded by local child welfare authorities to give up illegitimate children for adoption but now only a handful of children are left annually for adoption by Swedish parents. Childless couples have turned to international adoptions since the late 1960ies. An estimated 1.6 % of all children in current teenage cohorts were originally adopted from abroad.

Foster care
Foster care is by law and long tradition preferred to residential treatment. Swedish children have been placed in foster homes since the 18th century, 100 years before the American “orphan trainee’ brought thousands of poor children from cast coast cities to substitute parents in the rural west. Research from 1974-1992 clearly shows that the century old practice of placing children from urban families in rural foster homes continues.

In cross section data 75% of all children placed in care are in foster homes, but since cross section samples contain a large overrepresentation of long placements, the picture changes if we look at longitudinal data. Among initiated placements in 1995 of children all ages, around 55% were made in foster care.

Time series data reveals that the use of foster care has decreased continually the last 13 years, from 72% of all initiated placements in 1983 to 55% 1995, while placements in different forms of residential care have increased (from 28% to 45%).

Swedish child welfare professionals have in the last 30 years tended to regard kinship care (fostering by relatives) with suspicion, probably due to a prominent influence in practice of theories on intergenerational transmission of psychosocial problems. A media supported political campaign by a group of relatives to children placed in care (called the “grandma revolt”) resulted in a change of law in 1997. When children must be place in care, primary consideration must now be given to relatives (or other close adults) as substitute caretakers.

Lastly, many local authorities use contracted foster homes for short term or emergency placements. These families usually have a contract, agreeing to care for a set number of children. Contracted foster families are used as replacements or complements to residential care.

Residential care
The law of 1980 brought a change in definitions. It stated that if foster homes have four children or more and if foster parents’ main income came from fostering, they should be defined as a residential unit. The rationale behind this legal change was to bring professional care under stricter control. Furthermore, it paved the way for a private expansion in care that only partly can be explained by former foster homes being redefined.

There are now more residential units “in the market” than at the heyday of residential care in the 1930ies and half of them were established during the 1990ies. . Sweden’s care system has – if legal definitions are applied – slowly developed toward re-institutionalization and privatization during the last 15 years, even if foster family care still is the dominating form of care.

Some of the new private residential units would probably be defined as “specialist foster care” in other contexts. More than half of its owners/operators have experience from fostering. In 1995 they received almost as many children – 0- 1 8 years old – as publicly owned children’s homes. Residential care is mainly used for teenagers (60% of all initiated placements in 1995), but the private children’s homes have increased their 53 market share” substantially for younger children, mainly for intermediate and long term care, a new phenomena.

Placing young children in temporary residential care together with their parents is very common. Among children’s homes for 0- 12 year olds, 90% state that they receive children and parents together. Already in 1985, more than half of all children in children’s homes had at least one parent staying with them. The proportion is smaller now, since private small, home-like residential units are increasingly used for longer placements.

Homes for special supervision
Since youth justice is included in Swedish child welfare, criminal and drug-using youth make up a substantial part of teenagers in care. Sweden has for decades had special residential care for the “worst” in this group.

These homes for special supervision have facilities for locking up youth,
and are legally authorized to place violent youngsters in temporary solitary confinement and to perform (bodily) searches. There are 30 residential units of this category with around 600 beds today, since 1994 run by a national government agency (SiS). Most homes have been in operation for decades.

Residential care in this form does not exist in Denmark or Norway, but there are calls to replicate the Swedish example in these countries. Placements have increased since 1994 and the responsible government agency has strong ambitions of turning this form of care – traditionally punitive and confining – into an evidence-based treatment organization.

IV. Social intervention
In Sweden, social intervention is founded on the guiding principles of solidarity, parent rights and the child’s best interests but within the framework of family preservation.

The social workers have the professional latitude to focus on non-statutory interventions to ensure that the child has decent living conditions.

Therefore, in the Swedish model of social welfare the investigative and assessment aspects of social intervention are characterized by an inclination to focus on understanding acts or circumstances in the context of psychosocial difficulties experienced by families. As response in case of need, beyond the initial gate keeping function, often involves further assessment followed by the provision of therapeutic and practical services of the family members.

In a way, then, more than in any other country, the emphasis in Sweden is on a much broader notion of best interests and of a child’s needs and rights. Yet, at the same time, children have clearly defined rights to a satisfactory life conditions and not to be subjected to ‘physical punishment or other degradation’.

This approach means a greater willingness of the state to intervene in the private realm of the family – providing supportive measures such as adequate housing, decent day care, medical and dental services for children, and economically viable parental leave from the workforce.

Because of the strong social service structure in Sweden, there are a wider variety of services available to assist children in need which might mean earlier interventions, more preventive services and more services accessible to the family to deal with the issues as they arise. When combined in a table, and compared to the Canada’s Child Protection Model (for further information please see the section on child protection in Canada), Sweden’s model of child welfare is the following:

Child Welfare Model (Sweden) Child Protection Model (Canada)
A greater readiness to intervene

Less readiness to intervene and only most needy are eligible
Child welfare is assessment driven Child protection is structure driven
‘Best interests’ of the child are broadly defined to include well-being with the family ‘Best interests’ of the child are narrowly focused on preservation, protection and permanency planning.

More resources are available to support families and prevent harm Limited resources are directed at reacting to the consequence of harm committed.

Source: Khoo, E.G.; Hyvonen, U.& Nygren, L. Child Welfare or Child Protection: Uncovering Swedish and Canadian Orientations to Social Intervention in Child Maltreatment. Qualitative Social Work, Vol. 1 (4), pp.451-471.

As can be seen from the table, Sweden’s well-developed social welfare system as well as broadly defined ‘best interests’ of the child allows for a greater flexibility in finding the right approach to each separate situation.

V. Prevention
Majority of the general and group targeted prevention work is done outside child welfare organizations, including but not limited to pre- and post- natal maternal care, subsidized child care, social support at schools etc.

In daily child welfare work there are hardly any standardized preventive services, available to families regardless of what “municipality” they live in. Rather, an array of different programs attempt to prevent negative child development, family breakdown, placement in care and asocial behavior in youths. The following list is by no means complete, and should be seen as an attempt to cover mainstream examples.

1. Agency cooperation and intra-agency service delivery- in the past 5 years, this service has become increasingly popular. With financial aid from the National Board of Health and Welfare, scores of local authorities have constructed services where maternity care, child health, pre-schools and child welfare either operate in the same locality or intensify cooperation. The aim is to give information and social advice, provide non-stigmatizing support to families-at-risk and strengthen their social network by group activities. Evaluations of these programs are so far too local, small sized and process oriented for conclusions about outcome.

2. Self-help groups for children- target, for example, children with alcoholic parents, single mothers, refugee parents, and young victims of sexual abuse. The extent of availability and service delivery on a national scale is not known. Evaluations of self-help groups are encouraging, especially so for children with alcoholic parents, yet is questionable if self-help groups can be labeled prevention, although many such programs have clear secondary prevention goals.

3. Parent training/education programs – these programs are rare, but exist in some municipalities yet the extent of their success is unknown and no Swedish evaluation studies of these programs exist.

4. “Summer families” and summer camps – these used to be part of every larger local authority’s service delivery. Children from towns and cities were offered to spend a month as guest in a rural family or at a summer camp for a very low fee. The general idea is to give a compensatory service to low income urban families. But preventive aims are also prominent, for example, reducing the risk of family breakdown by providing parents with temporary relief from stress. “Summer families” and summer camps still exist – and are in demand – but no figures of service delivery rates are known.

5. Agency financed and staffed programs- these programs are aimed at giving to at-risk youth meaningful after-school activities and nurture relations between youths and community workers. Examples of such programs include café-, boat- and theatre- projects. Also, youth in around 85% of the municipalities have access to a Youth Advice Centre.

These centers give advice and guidance to youth in sexual matters, sexually transmitted disease protection and birth control, and are often run jointly by local social and medical authorities. A few small centers that offer advice on drugs to youth and parents are in operation. Social workers in most local authorities regularly give information and advice on drug related matters in schools.

VI. Legal Criteria for “Hard” Interventions
Conditions that can lead to placement in care without parental consent are (LVU):
• Abuse;
• Inadequate care/neglect;
• Other conditions in the home, e g very disturbed relations between the child and his/her parents;
• Children’s and youth’s substance abuse, crime or other socially destructive behavior.

Adverse home conditions are not by themselves sufficient ground for a court order, but their presumed short and long-term consequences. The law specifies that home conditions (or a child’s behavior) must constitute an “apparent risk to the child’s development or (physical/mental) health”.

This idea of prediction is firmly embedded in the fundaments of Swedish child welfare legislation, and has been so since the beginning of the century. Unfortunately, Swedish criteria for child protection are diffuse compared to many other countries. Evidence of abuse or harm to children is not even a typical precondition in practice. Andersson (1984, 1991) found that most preschool children taken into care during the 1980ies did not exhibit observable damages, dysfunction or maladaptive behavior.

They were placed due to parental life styles assumed to be harmful to children’s development, mainly mothers’ alcohol or narcotic abuse. Yet, several British writers have approvingly described the predictive elements in Swedish child welfare legislation. They have expressed regret about British law not permitting similar “theory based”, “pro-active” interventions.

From empirical evidence, it seems impossible to predict the development of children-at-risk or the future behavior of families-at-risk on an individual level with reasonable accuracy, especially so for low frequent phenomena like child abuse. The number of “false positives” in theory based screenings of families is simply so many that interventions labeling parents as potentially abusive become ethically impossible.

VII. Positive News: Violence Against and Abuse of Children Decreasing
Much of the available evidence indicates that Sweden has been extremely successful in reducing rates of child physical abuse over the past few decades and this reduction has been maintained since the passage of the corporal punishment ban.

Prevalence, frequencies and harshness of assaults against children have declined dramatically in Sweden over the last two generations. For example, research indicates that substantial proportions of women who became mothers in the 1950s struck their children at least weekly while 86% of youth who were born in the 1980s reported never having been physically punished.

Furthermore, practically no children are hit with implements in Sweden today. The currently positive situation might be explained due to the corporal punishment ban started in 1957 and finally implemented in 1999.

Another step to target children abuse was made in 1979 with the passing of ‘anti-spanking’ law which clearly stated that physical punishment and child abuse was not acceptable. In 1970s there was a worrying increase in the cases of physical child abuse which propelled government and children’s rights groups to act. A major research project concluded that stopping all physical punishment was the key to prevent physical child abuse in general.

As a result, in 1979 Sweden passed a law that claimed that “a child may not be subjected to physical punishment or other injurious or humiliating treatment.” As Whitney Glen explains, this law aimed not only to promote positive childrearing for all children, but to deter physical child abuse all together- all physical punishment of children, whether mild or severe, was banned. When the ‘anti-spanking’ law was passed, it was immediately followed by a far-reaching mass media campaign including the most expensive pamphlet distribution ever organized by the Ministry of Justice.

While there may have been many who disagreed about the necessity of such law, it inevitably spurred a discussion about an issue which might have previously been marginalized and ignored.

The core starting point which allowed for the establishment and legislation of such corporal punishment ban law was the “pshychologically and sociologically assumed connection between corporal punishment, domestic violence and child abuse.” Once this relationship was realized the only sensible action was to prohibit the use of physical punishment to prevent the further abuse of children. According to Norma D. Feshbach, Ph.D. and Chair of the APA task force on Rights of Children and Youth, “(T)he use of physical punishment or violence directed toward children is very close to the abuse of children.

It is often difficult to differentiate violence from abuse, just as it is difficult to legally establish the precise point at which corporal punishment becomes child abuse.” While physical discipline may not always be considered equivocal to physical child abuse, previous research indicates that they seem to be dynamically linked.

Between 1975 and 2000, the average annual number of homicides of children aged 0-4 in Sweden was 4 while between 1995 and 2000 the number decreased to 2.8 despite population growth. While it is hard to claim that the reason behind the decrease is the passed legislations banning child abuse, it is clear that in this regard Sweden excels among other industrialized nations:

the World Health Organization (2002) claims that homicide incidence figures for children aged 0 to 4 in Sweden (1999) was 3, in Canada (1997)- 24 and in the United States (1998)- 723. Even when taking into account that Canada’s population is approximately 3 times larger than Sweden’s and the U.S. population is approximately 20 times larger proportionally Sweden still ranks first.

The law is quite comprehensive because it includes supplementary measures provided for, including information policy, parent training, activity of child protective organizations and other support programs that provide primary, secondary and tertiary prevention by supporting families who need help in parenting.

As Glen indicates, there are no criminal sanctions or legal penalties against parents and guardians who spank their children, but instead infractions are heard in civil rather than criminal courts and adults who violate the law are referred to counselors and other programs for support, advice and training. The primary purpose of the law was to establish a norm against all forms of physical punishment , with a secondary purpose to make it easier to convict those who abuse and harm children under the Swedish Criminal Code.

Essentially, it was a process of setting certain expectations of parents and of society regarding the manner in child they treat children. As Ziegert puts it, the prohibition of corporal punishment had the “direct preventative effect of sharpening public awareness for the social problem of child abuse.”

While spanking has no legal sanctions in Sweden, the same cannot be said about child abuse. Legal sanctions for physical abuse of a child by an adult are defined in the Swedish penal code as follows:

- A person who inflicts bodily injury, illness or pain upon another or renders him unconscious or similarly helpless, shall be sentenced for assault to imprisonment for at most two years or , if the crime was petty, to pay a fine. If the crime is considered grave, the sentence shall be for aggravated assault to imprisonment for at least one and at most ten years (Lindell & Sveden 2001:151).

A study of police reports for physical child abuse conducted in 2001 revealed that 23 % of the children who had suffered abuse were immediately placed outside the family. According to the police reports, the number of child abuse and neglect cases in Sweden for 1996 were 57 per l00,000 people while in the United States the number of cases of substantiated child maltreatment was 14 for every 1,000 people and the number of reported, but undocumented cases was 45 for every 1,000 people.

Thus, converting the American figures for direct comparison with Sweden, a comparative picture of the reported incidence of child abuse in Sweden and America is as follows: Sweden – 57/l00,000;America – 4,500/100,000.

After the anti-spanking law was passed, several studies were conducted that revealed significant decreases in the use of physical punishment, support of physical punishment, and numbers of cases of child abuse.

In 1998 comparative study of child abuse 9 years after the prohibition of corporal punishment in Sweden, 10.7% of American men and 8.2% of American women sampled stated that they had been victims of child abuse as children, compared to 3.9% of Swedish men and 0% of Swedish women in the sample.

Finally, according to Joan Durrant, professor of family studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, “Sweden went from a family violence- child death rate of 18% in 1970 to 0 percent in recent years”- a significant and congratulatory fact. More than applying legal sanctions to those who would abuse children this law tended to shit the mentality and attitude towards using corporal punishment on children.

The 1979 anti-spanking law followed the principle stated by William James, the founder of the first psychology laboratory in United States in the 1870s, which claimed that we can use our behavior to control our attitudes and beliefs and that, in fact, behavior is easier to control than attitudes and beliefs.

More than passing a law regarding the prohibition of physical punishment of children, Sweden attempted to transform the previously accepted opinions and attitudes towards the issue. By changing the legal structure of society, Sweden’s laws allowed their people to better parents than their initial attitudes would suggest, and since physical punishment and child abuse are so closely linked, they have made significant strides toward reducing physical child abuse in Sweden as a whole.

VIII. Conclusion

Swedish child welfare stresses a social service approach by an emphasis on providing support. The rapid change in child welfare during the last decades can be dated back to three important conditions. Firstly, the emergence of the welfare state after VMI reduced the number of children in public care from 20 per 1,000 to 10 per 1,000.

Child neglect because of material poverty and misery eradicated as a reason for taking children from their families and placing them in institutions or foster homes. Secondly, the emerging family continuity principle in child care has dismantled the institutions for children – the whole family has entered care in Sweden.

Extended family and social networks are of increased importance in care, meaning that the world of the extended family is looked upon as valuable when considering children in placement rather than people to blame. Humanistic values and democratic ambitions that entered child care have created a revolution in child welfare.

Individualization of care and treatment has resulted in affirmation of the individual child in care. The welfare legislation has successively adjusted to these tendencies, and is constructed to offer services according to people’s rights rather than being part of charity.

Child protection legislation is diffuse and includes a high confidence in social workers ability to make predictions of children’s development. Another essential element can be added to this- a strong belief in the beneficial results of state interventions in families. Foreign observers have noted that Swedish child welfare has high legitimacy and support in the public, in spite of far reaching and diffuse powers.

Works Cited

At a Glance: Sweden Statistics. UNICEF. Accessible online at: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sweden_statistics.html

Cocozza, M.; Gsutafsson, P.A.; Sydsjo, G. Child Protection in Sweden: Are Routine Assessments Reliable? Acta Pediatric, Vol. 95, No. 11, November 2006.

Durrant, J. E. Child Abuse in Sweden. April 9, 2003. Accessible online at: http://www.nospank.net/durrant2.htm

Glenn, W. The Effects of No Spanking Law on Child Abuse in Sweden. Associated Content Press, May 7, 2007. Accessible online at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/233338/the_effects_of_the_no_spanking_law.html

Hessle, S. & Vinnerljung, B. Child Welfare in Sweden- An Overview. Stockholm Studies in Social work, No 15, Stockholm University.

Khoo, E. G.; Hyvonen, U.; Nygren, L. Child Welfare or Child Protection: Uncovering Swedish and Canadian Orientations to Social Intervention in Child Maltreatment. Qualitative Social Work 2002; Vol.1. No.4

Lundstrom, T. Child Protection, Voluntary Organizations, and the Public Sector in Sweden. Voluntas: International Journal on Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations, Vol.12, No.4., December 2001.

Nilsson, M. How a ban on corporal punishment has affected child protection in Sweden. Save the Children Sweden, July, 2009, Stockholm.

Prohibition of Corporal Punishment: An International Overview. The International Child and Youth Care Network. Article 19, Volume 1 Number 3, December 2005. Accessible online at: http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0206-article19.html

We agreed that there needs to be a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers type grassroots movement to turn around the cradle to prison pipeline that continues to fill our communities with troubled youth and the problems that stem from growing up without the basic building blocks of life.

Our plan is to work together to gather information about how the other industrialized nations treat very young children and families and make comparisons that will help us better understand what sensible programs could make more kids finish school and go on to lead more productive lives.

Most of America’s public policies have been based on saving money in the short term.  Many of those policies have cost exponentially more money than if we had taken the long term view and made better choices.

As an example, U.S. high school graduation rates are dismal and the 25% illiteracy rate upon graduation rate is unheard of in other industrialized nations.  Blaming teachers for this result of bad public policy is like blaming doctors and nurses for the hospital population.

It is public policy (not teachers) that allows children to pass out of the third grade without reading skills.

Children that begin school without the tools to learn will not graduate, or if they do manage to make it through the process, it will be with minimal skills.

I still point at the money Minnesota did not save by failing to maintain the 35w bridge when it fell in the river two years ago.

The request for maintainance money  was denied repeatedly and when it collapsed its impact on the lives of the 113 dead and injured people and their families was far in excess of the almost one billion dollars in total costs of the bridge failure and reconstruction.

Likewise, taking care of children when they are young and able to change and grow is a easier and less expensive than working with mentally unstable youth in juvenile justice (over fifty percent of youth in juvenile justice have diagnosible mental health problems, about half of that population have multiple, serious mental health diagnosis).

Minnesota Governor Pawlenty’s plan insures that poor children and their families will be far less able to receive the basic building blocks of life.  

These children will fail more often in school and not thrive as citizens when they enter society.

At Pliny the Elder said 2500 years ago, “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”

Watch your prisons grow.

It is an effort to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is worth doing.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

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Baby Death Public Health Crisis Thwarted by Poverty

By CRAIG LEAKE and DAVID APPLEBY
Aug. 22, 2008 ABC’s Health News Blog

There are places in America where the unthinkable is happening: Thousands of babies are dying.

The costs associated with saving a premature infant can be staggering.

Of the 23 richest countries, the United States has the highest rate of infant mortality, according to the CIA World Fact Book. And in Shelby County, Tenn., which encompasses Memphis, the state health department says a baby dies every 43 hours — a rate higher than that of any other major city. The babies most at risk come from impoverished parts of town with largely black populations.

This old Mississippi River town is now part of the “new South.” More than a million people live in Memphis’ city and suburbs. As in many other places, the city has been divided between those who can afford an upgraded lifestyle and those who remain in the older version of the city.

In the richer sections they’ve created their own parks, hospitals and schools — and, of course, churches.

Twice a year the Rev. Eli Morris, a minister at Hope Presbyterian, leads volunteers from his suburban congregation to a mission downtown, where they tour what can seem like a foreign country.

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my note;
12 years watching abused and abandoned children struggle to make their way through a poorly resourced county system as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem makes it tough to witness the Governor’s defunding of programs that have kept them from the most basic services and abject poverty.

The Governor’s line-item veto of GAMC and proposed unallotments ignore the human dignity of our poorest and most vulnerable neighbors, and will cause significant harm to those among us who we are called to place first. And, in turn, it will further weaken our state’s continual pursuit of the common good. Though the Governor’s plan includes several harmful unallotments, our greatest concerns are with the following seven proposed unallotments:

1. Elimination of Emergency Assistance: On November 1, 2009, two of Minnesota’s three Emergency Assistance programs will end: Emergency General Assistance (EGA) and Emergency Minnesota Supplemental Assistance (EMSA). These two critical safety-net programs provide needed assistance to Minnesotans who cannot fully support themselves, usually due to illness or disability, and who are facing an emergency that threatens their health or safety. Oftentimes related to imminent eviction, foreclosure or utility shut-off, ignored emergencies place our already struggling neighbors on the edge of homelessness….

2. Elimination of GAMC Coverage on March 1, 2010: Health insurance for “the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick” will end four months earlier than expected. When the Governor line-item vetoed GAMC on May 14, the program was slated to end on July 1, 2010. However, under the executive power of unallotment, GAMC will instead end on March 1, 2010…. the Minnesota Legislature will have less than four weeks, after reconvening on February 4, 2010 to address the elimination of health care coverage for our 30,000 neighbors who are living at or below 75 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

3. Cutting Children & Community Services Grants: Children & Community Services Grants provide crucial funding for counties to purchase or provide social services for seniors, adults, children and families struggling with abuse and neglect, living with a disability, mental illness or chronic health condition, or living in poverty. Additionally, these grants provide services for: pregnant adolescents, adolescent parents and their children; adults who are vulnerable and in need of protection; people over the age of 60 who need help living independently; and people with developmental disabilities. The Governor proposes cutting Children & Community Services Grants by 25 percent during FY 2010, and by 33 percent during FY 2011.

These grants fund a variety of critical services: adoption, case management, counseling, foster care for adults and children, protective services for adults and children, residential treatment, services for people with developmental, emotional or physical disabilities, substance abuse counseling, transportation, and public guardianship.

As Pliny said 2500 years ago; “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”, or as former MN Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz said just a few years ago, “90 % of the youth in juvenile justice have come through child protection”. Nationally, over 50% of youth in juvenile justice have diagnosable mental illness, and fully half of that population have multiple and severe diagnosis (this goes along way in explaining why America’s schools and streets are troubled).

Minnesota’s governor’s won’t maintain bridges or people, and he thinks it economically sound policy in the face of disaster and double digit prison growth. He believes in God and stadiums, yet I know of no religion in the world that abandons the weakest and most vulnerable among us. I’m not against stadiums, I’m simply more pro children).

Support at risk children, start a KARA group in your community.

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4. Lowering Medical Assistance (MA) Asset Limits for Parents and Eliminating MA Critical Access Dental Services: In order for parents to qualify for Medical Assistance (MA), health care services for low-income Minnesotans, they must be living at or below 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines ($22,050 for a family of four). On January 1, 2011, the MA asset limit for a single parent will decrease from $10,000 to $3,000, and from $20,000 to $6,000 for a couple. This unallotment completely undermines one of the six key challenges identified by the Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020 (LCEP).

According to the LCEP, “Public assistance programs must work to move people toward financial self-sufficiency. Too often well-intentioned programs end up having the opposite effect, especially when they lead to asset depletion as a condition for participation.” postscript; like the bridge that fell in the river at a replacement cost of one billion dollars (instead of a few million in maintenance), children that are ignored by a community will be more costly to that community as they become adults.

Further, eliminating funding for the Critical Access Dental Provider Program will severely harm the overall health and well-being of many low-income Minnesotans. Not only will many low-income and disabled Minnesotans lose access to dental care, but many Minnesotans will be forced to visit emergency rooms for untreated dental problems. In April 2010, the dental safety net that thousand of Minnesotans rely on could be eliminated.

5. Requiring the Health Care Access Fund to Fund Transitional MinnesotaCare and the Outreach Incentive Program: Transitional MinnesotaCare provides six months of coverage for low-income Minnesotans who are transitioning from GAMC to MinnesotaCare. Currently, the General Fund provides funding for the first two months of this program, and the Health Care Access Fund (HCAF) provides the remaining funding. The Governor’s proposed unallotment requires the HCAF to fund the entire six months of Transitional MinnesotaCare coverage. Beginning July 1, 2009, the HCAF will need to finance an additional, and unexpected, $37.5 million. The Minnesota Legislature created the HCAF in 1992 as a dedicated funding source for health care expansion. The HCAF is the primary source of funding for the MinnesotaCare program, which purchases health care for 118,000 uninsured, low-income, working families and adults each month. The General Fund also currently provides $3.4 million in funding for important community-based programs that help uninsured Minnesotans apply for public health programs.

On July 1, 2010, the HCAF will also need to fully fund these important outreach programs. Over the next two years not only will the HCAF need to fund an additional $41 million for Transitional MinnesotaCare and the Outreach Incentive Program, but the HCAF will need to fund health care for an additional 30,000 former GAMC recipients.

6. Cutting Funding for Group Residential Housing (GRH): Group Residential Housing (GRH) Grants provide income supplements for room, board and other related housing services for Minnesotans whose illnesses or disabilities prevent them from living independently. There are more than 5,000 facilities in Minnesota serving people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, chemical dependency, physical disabilities, advanced age or brain injuries. Each month, 15,200 Minnesotans who are unable to live independently in the community are served through GRH. With an additional 5% cut to GRH, as is proposed by the Governor, facilities will likely be unable to continue providing the same level of services.

There is also great concern that facilities will be forced to close. As a result, many low-income Minnesotans living with disabilities will be forced into homelessness.

postscript; like the bridge that fell in the river at a replacement cost of one billion dollars (instead of a few million in maintenance), children that are ignored by a community will be more costly to that community as they become adults.

As Pliny said 2500 years ago; “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”, or as former MN Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz said just a few years ago, “90 % of the youth in juvenile justice have come through child protection”. Nationally, over 50% of youth in juvenile justice have diagnosable mental illness, and fully half of that population have multiple and severe diagnosis (this goes along way in explaining why America’s schools and streets are troubled).

Minnesota’s governor’s won’t maintain bridges or people, and he thinks it economically sound policy in the face of disaster and double digit prison growth. He believes in God and stadiums, yet I know of no religion in the world that abandons the weakest and most vulnerable among us. I’m not against stadiums, I’m simply more pro children).

Support at risk children, start a KARA group in your community.

Have something to add? Tell us your point of view or story…

If you think someone might appreciate this information, press the share button below.

Gabriel Myers, 7, hung himself in the bathroom of his
Margate foster home in April

A state group looking at the suicide of a young foster child met Thursday to discuss ways to improve care and listened to adults who said they were overmedicated in the foster-care system.
Foster Child: “felt like I was an animal on a farm being tested’

BY AMY SHERMAN

Mez Pierre, 22, and Kimberly Foster, 25, both from Broward County, told the group that mental health drugs — already at the center of the investigation of Gabriel Myers’s tragic death — aren’t the answer for many foster youth. Children need caring adults who will look at the causes of their difficult behavior, they said — not simply write prescriptions in an attempt to control it.

Foster said doctors prescribed medication when she got upset about being removed from her home. She was ultimately placed in facilities with locked windows and restraints.

”They were trying to control the symptoms I had from being put into the system. . . . How I reacted was normal,” Foster said. “I was sad. I was taken away from my home. Because of that they felt medication was the right way to treat me.”

Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) administrators and child advocates who formed a work group to study Gabriel’s death held their third meeting Thursday in Fort Lauderdale. Gabriel hanged himself in the bathroom of his Margate foster home in April.

He had been prescribed several psychiatric drugs during his nine months in foster care.

Workgroup members spent much of the day talking about issues such as how to improve communication between various professionals who care for foster kids. The leaders discussed various forms and documents collected for each child, and the potential roadblocks in gathering the data — sometimes as simple as a fax not going through.

Anne Wells, pharmacy director for the state Agency for Health Care Administration, questioned how some of these efforts will help children in foster care. .

”I don’t mean to criticize, but I have listened to improvements, and checked boxes, forms and paperwork. I’m sorry. I just don’t get it,” she said. “Where does all of this stuff head off the outcome that Gabriel had?”

Wells also questioned whether administrators were too quick to blame medication for Gabriel’s death, rather than talking about what led to his being medicated in the first place.

OVER-MEDICATED

But both Pierre and Foster told the group that they were over-medicated as foster children.

”To hear a story about a foster youth who lost his life, I take that very, very personally,” said Pierre, who choked back tears during his presentation. “I went through a lot of things that Gabriel went through and to see one loss is very painful.”

Gabriel ‘wasn’t being cared for. He was just told `you have problems,’ ” Pierre said.

Pierre added that he was first prescribed medications when he entered the foster-care system at age 5. He was given multiple pills and various diagnoses, including attention deficit/hyperactivity and bipolar disorders.

”When I was on medications, I always felt like a zombie,” he said. “I felt drowsy. I didn’t feel human. I felt like I was an animal on a farm being tested.”

Today, Pierre is doing what many told him he couldn’t do: living a successful life without medications. Pierre, who lives in Deerfield Beach, said he has a job, attends Broward College and hopes to become a lawyer.

”Consider the lives . . . even though it’s a difficult job,” he told the group. “That doesn’t mean to neglect your responsibility and to not work together.”

Foster said she took herself off the medications when she was 18 and pregnant. She now lives in Pompano Beach with her husband and son.

NEVER SUICIDAL

”I have never displayed any suicidal ideations, no mutilations, no disorientations,” Foster said. ‘We are lost if we send a message to youth, `if you cry you are depressed.’ We are so quick to put diagnoses on a child for a lot of times being a normal adolescent.”

Both Pierre and Foster are active in a group called Florida Youth Shine which, among other things, testifies in Tallahassee about foster-care issues.

A Miami Herald article that showed Gabriel had been on several drugs, including anti-depressants associated with a higher risk of suicide, prompted DCF to investigate the prescribing of mental health drugs to children.

DCF Secretary George Sheldon formed the work group as part of the wide-ranging investigation.

The group Thursday discussed a recent state review of more than 100 foster children age 5 or younger receiving psychiatric drugs. The study revealed that child welfare administrators are ignoring rules designed to protect the children.

In the majority of cases, for example, there was no documentation to show that case managers coordinated with the prescribing practitioner to obtain a psychiatric evaluation.

Broward County’s top child-welfare judge, Circuit Judge John A. Frusciante, read a statement that he recently wrote to ChildNet, Broward’s private foster care agency, in response to child advocates in recent hearings who had no knowledge about the existence of ”black box warnings” on medications. He called for more education of case workers.

”It is deeply disturbing that child advocates have no knowledge of the FDA’s highest warnings for possibly life-threatening adverse effects of medications,” he wrote.

Comments can be made here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1104243.html
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You can see a CBS News video of the foster kids here:
http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/dcf-panel-reviews-mental-health-policies/

Bookmark this page http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/ for up to date media coverage on this issue.

Postscript… I too have had 4 year old and 7 year old suicides as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem and a judge that has shared with me the pages of documented Prozac, Ritalin, and other Psychotropics given to very young children. This conversation needs to take place at a higher level (where something can be done about it).

Thank you Psych_News@psychsearch.net for this information.

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