One Scandal After Another, brings attention to the unethical if not criminal behavior of pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and anyone promoting the psychotropic medication of very young children without adequate mental health services.

U of M bioethics professor Carl Elliott discusses drug company payments to doctors and the enormous amounts of money drug reps make by pushing profitable drugs and running outright scams on doctors to sell their product.

My own experience is based on many years as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem and first hand knowledge working with medicated five and ten year old children with real mental health needs but only receiving Prozac, Ritalin, or any of a multitude of psychotropic drugs.

There are few things more painful than watching abused and neglected children not receiving the personal attention of professionals that could help them deal with their mental health needs.

Almost all of the troubled children I worked with suffered extensive and long lasting damage because drugs were used to mask behavior and not useful, proven therapy.

A child protection judge shared with me the psychotropic medications taken by the children that passed through her child protection courtroom over a year’s time (unbelievable).

I personally have experienced suicidal ideation delivered to me by Topamax, a psychotropic medication given (no warnings were given) to me years ago to treat migraine headaches. I am a mature adult and was able to quit taking the drug. Children have no voice in what drugs they take. Children in child protection have no say at all in their own treatment.

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Carl Elliott: ‘One scandal after another’

In a new book, a University of Minnesota bioethicist looks into the ways he says drug companies buy loyalty.

By JANET MOORE, Star Tribune

Last update: February 19, 2011 – 10:13 PM

Carl Elliott

David Brewster, Star Tribune

About Carl Elliott

With an unassuming, thoughtful manner, Carl Elliott hardly looks like a rabble-rouser.

But the University of Minnesota bioethics professor is an outspoken critic of the pervasive relationships between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, academics and students. It’s a deeply entrenched alliance he documents in his new book, “White Coat, Black Hat, Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine” (Beacon Press).

Each chapter is devoted to a different constituency in what Elliott sees as a broad-based and highly effective con job perpetuated by Big Pharma to influence drug-prescribing patterns. These include professional “guinea pigs” — wily patients who enroll in clinical studies for cash — ghostwriters who anonymously pen positive articles about drugs using someone else’s name and other ethically challenged players. Big money is involved at every turn.

A native South Carolinian who retains a slight drawl from his home state, Elliott is a non-practicing physician with a doctorate in philosophy. Beyond penning four books, he’s contributed articles to national publications including the New Yorker, the Atlantic and Mother Jones.

Elliott is not afraid to criticize his own employer and colleagues. Recently, he and seven others in the U’s Bioethics Department sent a letter to the Board of Regents calling for an investigation into the death of Dan Markingson, a schizophrenic who committed suicide while enrolled in a drug study at the university.

The letter questions whether Markingson was fit to consent to research, and whether financial incentives from drugmaker AstraZeneca, which funded the study, presented a conflict of interest for the researchers.

QHow did you get interested in the relationship between business and medicine?

AI have a medical degree, my brother’s a doctor, my father’s a doctor, I grew up around drug reps and pharmaceutical stuff. I never liked it, but I wasn’t terribly concerned. What got me interested was finding out that bioethicists were working as consultants for pharmaceutical companies. How can ethicists justify this? On the one hand they’re saying it’s a conflict of interest for doctors to take money from the pharmaceutical industry, but it’s fine for me.

QWhat should I do if I discover my doctor is paid by a drug company?

AIf it were me, I’d get another doctor. But obviously, there are limitations on insurance plans, it’s a pain to change [doctors] and often you’re limited in whom you can pick.

QYou’re pretty unsparing about some colleagues at the U, what’s the response been?

AIt depends on which side of Washington Avenue you’re from. On the side where the humanities and social sciences and basic sciences are based, a lot of support. In the medical school? Not so enthusiastic.

QDid anything surprise you while researching the book?

AA lot of things — extraordinarily ingenious scams that I had no clue about. There’s a story about a drug rep, Gene Carbona, who managed to make an enormous amount of money by increasing prescriptions for [gastric drug] Prilosec. He brought in a financial consultant for a large [physicians'] group practice free of charge. They all thought he was such a great guy for doing that and wrote prescriptions for Prilosec like crazy. That was so successful, they took the scheme on the road.

QIs the medical device industry different?

AI don’t know enough to say.

QWhat do you think about U’s new conflict-of-interest policy overseeing relationships between business and academia?

AIt’s an improvement, but still not very good. Look at the Dan Markingson scandal — the kinds of relationships in place there, all of those would still be allowed — [payments for doctors] on [drug company] speakers’ bureaus, the consulting fees and the financial incentives for enrolling and keeping patients in clinical trials.

QHas anything changed at the U after these revelations?

AWe’ve had one scandal after another [involving payments to U doctors by drug and device companies]. It’s depressing; nothing really has happened. At other institutions, a panel is usually appointed to look into something. Here, the PR response is, “We don’t think we’ve done anything wrong.” I have some hope things will change with the new president coming in [at the U]. But, who knows?

Janet Moore • 612-673-7752

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As budgets shrink, more states and counties have fewer resources to save abused and neglected children from the immediate dangers they face in their homes and the future problems that come along with the abuse (preteen pregnancy, adolescent felons, dropouts, chronic illness & mental illness).

It hurts me greatly to acknowledge that a big part of our nation does not see the need to support at risk children.

The authors suggestion that child abuse should be treated as a crime only adds to the violence and ignores the pain and dysfunction these families have been living through. To send the police into private homes to solve child abuse problems has to be the harshest and most ungrounded suggestion that I’ve heard on the subject. The trauma these children suffer even with trained and caring social workers is beyond description; uniformed police officers taking children out of homes would be extremely hurtful to children.

Our nation already has more people incarcerated per capita than any other nation. Thirteen million prison and jail releases in the U.S. last year. 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population.

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, almost always the abuser had been the abused growing up. Jails have not solved this nations problems so far and perhaps are a large contributor to what is hurting us.

Many would argue that America’s huge investment in prisons and jails (and privatization) have created a stigmatized and almost hopeless population of folks who know they are not going to achieve a quality of life like they see all around them no matter what they do.

Decent paying work with a criminal record is almost impossible to find, felons can’t vote in many states, and they are hard pressed to climb out of poverty, let alone raise a family and lead a productive life.

There is no doubt that America’s challenge of saving abused and neglected children far exceeds the training, resources, or public support this nation has been willing to give to the people doing the work. We are now blaming teachers for failing schools. How long will it be before we blame the police for the criminals?

The system needs help at many levels and there usually are not simple answers to complex social problems.

One thing is certain; these children need and deserve our help and it will pay us big dividends as a community to provide it. “What we do to our children, they will do to society” Pliny, 2500 years ago

Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate

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Child Protective Services Found Ineffective

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
Published: October 04, 2010
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and
Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner
Earn CME/CE credit
for reading medical news

Investigations by Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies following suspected episodes of child abuse were seldom followed by improvements in household risk factors for future abuse — casting doubt on the agencies’ effectiveness, researchers said.

Among 595 households followed in a longitudinal study of risk factors for child abuse, those subjected to CPS investigations showed few major differences afterward in abuse risks that existed before the inspection, compared with households that had not been assessed, according to Kristine A. Campbell, MD, MSc, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues.

Even in those households where child abuse was substantiated, interviews afterward indicated that “modifiable risk factors” — such as social support, family functioning, and child behavioral problems — remained largely unchanged, the researchers reported in the October issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.Action Points
Note that this study failed to show benefits of CPS investigations.

Note also that while the editorialist suggests that it is time the responsibilities of these programs be reallocated, he also feels that it is highly unlikely that any changes will be accomplished.
“Our finding that CPS investigation is not associated with improvements in common, modifiable risk factors suggests that we may be missing an opportunity for secondary prevention,” Campbell and colleagues concluded. They noted that CPS investigations provide “unique access into high-risk households” and an opportunity for interventions that “reduce repeat maltreatment and improve outcomes.”

In an accompanying editorial, a pediatrician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle went further, arguing that the current CPS model “has outlived its usefulness.”

Abraham Bergman, MD, contended that the findings of little influence on future risk should surprise no one. “Who expects CPS to affect such basic factors as poverty, family functioning, and social support?” he asked rhetorically.

Bergman recommended that child abuse be treated as the crime that it is — with investigations handled by the police instead of social workers. The latter should focus on providing counseling and access to services that may actually modify the long-term risk child abuse factors.

In between, he added, public health nurses should be “first-line responders” for cases of suspected child neglect, as they are better equipped than social workers to be accepted in high-risk homes and can evaluate child health and family functioning.

“The changed picture of child maltreatment in the U.S. demands, at the very least, that we begin a wide-ranging discussion and testing of alternative responses,” Bergman wrote.

Study Design May Have Skewed Picture

Janet Warren, DSW, of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, offered a more upbeat perspective on CPS.

Contacted by MedPage Today and ABC News for comment, she noted that the study examined only children who stayed in their homes. “Many children are taken out of very dangerous living situations permanently based upon investigations conducted by CPS,” Warren said in an e-mail

“CPS serves an essential front line of protection for the most vulnerable children in our society,” she added.

For their research, Campbell and colleagues used data from the prospective LONGSCAN study. This project recruited four-year-old children in five locations nationwide from 1991 to 2000 who were in foster care or in households reported for or with known risk factors for child maltreatment. One of the locations also recruited children without known risk factors for abuse who served as controls. A total of 1,249 children were included in the study.

Children were interviewed at enrollment and again at age 8, and demographic data on their households were collected. For purposes of this study, the analysis was limited to 595 children who had the same maternal caregiver and adequate data were provided at the two interviews.

Of these 595 participants, 164 were the focus of CPS investigations during the follow-up period.

Baseline data indicated some differences in risk factors that reached statistical significance but did not differ markedly in absolute terms. These included poorer household family functioning, poverty, low maternal education, maternal depressive symptoms, and aggressive or destructive child behaviors, all of which were more pronounced in the investigated households.

Of those, the largest absolute difference was in maternal depression, with a mean score of 14.4 (SD 10.7) in investigated households versus 12.9 (SD 10.6) in other homes.

Over time, however, multivariate analysis showed no improvements in the investigated homes with respect to households that were not investigated.

Adjusted measures of social support, poverty, and children’s anxious, depressive, aggressive or destructive behaviors grew worse, though not significantly, in household subjected to any CPS investigation, compared with uninvestigated homes. As well, maternal depression also worsened — to a statistically significant (P<0.05) degree.

The same held true when Campbell and colleagues looked only at the 74 homes where investigations found evidence of child abuse, relative to households that had not been investigated.

The researchers indicated that the latter finding was especially remarkable, since such households were most likely to have interventions intended to reduce the risk of future abuse.

But Campbell and colleagues added that it wasn’t a surprise since, as Bergman also noted, CPS interventions do not address the risk factors analyzed in the study, poverty or social support. They focus on “more immediate threats to safety such as substance abuse or domestic violence,” the researcher wrote.

One Rx: Address Broader Issues

“Changing long-term outcomes for families and children may require a shift in our attention to the broader household, caregiver, and child risk factors identified in the course of CPS involvement in the home,” they added.

However, Bergman, in his editorial, was pessimistic about the prospects for such changes.

“Addressing child neglect is not a popular action item for politicians or the public,” he wrote — at least until child deaths make headlines, at which point new policies are established and rigidly followed “until the next child homicide.”

Similarly, Warren pointed out that society as a whole is “ambivalent” about how to address problems such as poverty, limited education, and unemployment that contribute to child abuse.

Empowering CPS agencies to help at-risk households overcome these problems would require, at a minimum, “smaller case loads, more money to fund services for indigent persons, and a long-term commitment to work with children even when the risk is not acute,” Warren said.

Campbell and colleagues noted that the LONGSCAN study had limitations that extend to the current analysis, including lack of data on intimate partner violence in participating households, substance abuse, and other factors also known to affect risks of child abuse.

The researchers also were unable to directly examine risk factors in individual households as they may have changed over time. The age of the data may also limit the study’s applicability to present-day CPS interventions.

The study was supported by a Public Health Services grant from the National Center for Research Resources.

Study authors and the editorialist all declared they had no financial conflicts of interest.

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About three million children a year are reported to child protection services each year in the U.S.

Between 40 to 85 percent of kids in foster care have mental health problems.

As a guardian ad-litem, many of the children in my case load had multiple foster placements because they were so mixed up and badly needed help that just was not available. Many of those children still live troubled lives (the last study I saw, showed 80% of youth aging out of foster care leading dysfunctional lives).

Prisons, Jails, underfunded schools, and failing support for children’s programs and health support have stressed the last few generations of America’s youth to where we now hold world records for prison populations, poor health, and poverty stricken children.

As a long time volunteer county guardian ad-litem, I believe that America’s institutions should be defined by what it is they actually create instead of what they were designed to create; they must be seen as producing obese children, preteen moms, and adolescent felons, as we now lead the industrialized world measurably in these areas.

Our children deserve better. Our society deserves better.

Support programs that help children learn, heal, and keeps them out of the justice system (we now prosecute about 25% of juveniles at adults).

Let’s stick together on this friends.

Support educators, social workers, foster and adoptive parents and the people working with troubled youth.

Most of all, support children and programs for children in your community. It will be a better community because of it.

Rosalynn CarterFormer First Lady
Posted: May 6, 2010 09:16 AM
Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children

When I was a child in Plains, everyone knew everyone else in town. Church and school were the center of our community and were strong and positive influences on my life and those of my siblings and friends. So much has changed since then. The social fabric I took for granted no longer exists. On May 6–National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day–we need to acknowledge the fact that too many children in our nation are left to struggle with a whole host of stressful circumstances–violence, divorce, poverty, substance abuse and war, to mention just a few, without effective supports.

Children in foster care are especially vulnerable; they have already been exposed to trauma by virtue of being brought into the protective services system in the first place. Approximately 800,000 children are reported in the foster care system nationwide at any one time. Anywhere from 40 to 85 percent of kids in foster care have mental health problems–a staggering number. At a recent symposium at The Carter Center, a poised young woman in medical school described her early life as a foster child. “When I left my mom to live in a foster home,” Angela told us, “I was very, very upset because nobody told me why I left. They could not tell me anything. I was 6, so if they had said anything, I would not have understood it. I have been in different foster homes and group homes. I have been in mental institutions …

“It was really hard growing up, having to fight in different group homes and foster homes. One of the things that used to bother me the most was one of the girls always got to go home on holidays, and I wished I had a family that I could go home to. That used to eat me up inside so much.”

Children growing up in these circumstances are at great risk, but like Angela, they are also remarkably resilient. Indeed, today we know much about how to cultivate resilience in all children. Carl Bell, MD, President and CEO, Community Mental Health Council, Director of Public and Community Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago who introduced Angela at our symposium, has also been one of the field’s foremost advocates for promoting resiliency.. He speaks passionately about the need to shift our focus from a deficit-based model of child development, where the goal is to overcome problems, to a strength-based model that emphasizes support.

Carl puts it this way: “Most of life is about attitude and perception.” Children are best served when we help them develop the skills they need to frame whatever challenges and obstacles they may meet in a positive paradigm.

Carl has identified a number of characteristics present in resilient children–the same characteristics that enabled Angela to overcome her troubled childhood. These include having a sense of purpose in life, confidence in one’s ability to control any given situation, compassion for others, a belief in the fundamental goodness of people, and the energy and resourcefulness to make things happen. John Gates, PhD, former director of the Mental Health Program at The Carter Center, describes them as “characteristics that enable children to work well, play well, love well, and expect well.”

In Minnesota, an innovative program called Check and Connect, developed by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration in Minneapolis, uses strategies such as social skills training and relationship building to increase student engagement with school and reduce dropout rates.

The program was initially designed to meet the needs of students with behavioral and learning challenges by pairing students with a patient, caring adult mentor. Studies have demonstrated over and over the positive effects achieved by this program, yet because of funding constraints it remains only a demonstration project.

Why is it that we are so slow to take what we know works and make it available to communities all across the country? We can and must do more. We are all familiar with the adage “A stitch in time saves nine.” When it comes to children, this proverb couldn’t be more apt. If budding issues are not adequately addressed early on, they become bigger and more often devastating problems later in life.

Mental health problems during childhood are often precursors to delinquency, substance use, smoking, risky sexual behavior, and school failure. Our inattention is causing unnecessary pain, trauma, and even death. The wasted potential is immeasurable.

Our children are our most precious resources. And we cannot delay, for as my good friend and our nation’s surgeon general while we were in the White House, the late Dr. Julius Richmond observed, “Every day that we do not intervene with effective programs, we are losing remarkable human potential. And every child whose potential is wasted is an incredible loss to the nation.”
Invisible Children (The American Cycle Of Abuse & Its Cost) Free ebook & audiobook

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/our-book/

An informative & compelling look at the shameful treatment of vulnerable children, how it impacts our communities, and what we can do about it.

Listen, Read. Pass it on (a great gift).

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Five time Nobel Peace Prize nominees Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson founded ChildHelp to raise awareness and funds to end child abuse. From their website;

National Child Abuse Statistics;

Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. Over 3 million reports of child abuse are made every year in the United States; however, those reports can include multiple children. In 2007, approximately 5.8 million children were involved in an estimated 3.2 million child abuse reports and allegations.

http://www.childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics
Programs Prevention/Intervention

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-4-A-CHILD

Staffed 24 hours daily by professional crisis counselors, the Hotline is accessible throughout the U.S., its territories, and Canada.

Through interpreters, communication is possible in 140 languages. The confidential and anonymous Hotline offers crisis intervention, information, literature, and referrals to thousands of emergency, social service, and support resources.

Child abuse prevention and education program within elementary schools which reaches over 450,000 children annually.

Children’s Advocacy Centers
A coalition of law enforcement, prosecution, social service agencies, medical professionals, and crisis counselors working together to utilize a highly effective, one-stop approach to the investigation of child abuse. The concept of the Children’s Advocacy Center is also available within a mobile unit to provide services for abused children in remote areas.

What can I do?
By supporting Childhelp, you are playing a direct role in the treatment and prevention of child abuse. Your donations and purchases from the Childhelp store and the Gift of Hope gift catalog help a dedicated and passionate staff carry out Childhelp’s mission of meeting the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused and neglected children.

Residential treatment facilities (Villages)
Provide specialized, comprehensive care for severely abused children. In addition to psychotherapy, counseling, medical care, and on-site schools, the programs also include art, animal-assisted, music and recreational therapy to help heal the heart, soul, and body of each child in our care. Learn more

Therapeutic Group Homes
Provide a nurturing refuge for abused and neglected children until they can be placed in foster care, with adoptive parents or returned to their families, as determined by the courts. Learn more

Therapeutic Foster Care
Recruitment, training and certification for foster families with access to 24 hour professional counseling and support. Learn more

National Child Abuse Statistics;

Statistics
-Almost five children die everyday as a result of child abuse. More than three out of four are under the age of 4.

-It is estimated that between 60-85% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates.

-A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds.

-Ninety percent of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way; 68% are abused by family members.

-Child abuse occurs at every socio-economic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.

-Thirty-one percent of women in prison in the United States were abused as children.

-Over 60% of people in drug rehabilitation centers report being abused or neglected as a child.

-About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.

-About 80% of 21 year old that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder.

-The estimated annual cost resulting from child abuse and neglect in the United States for 2007 is $104 billion.
What can be done?

Treatment, Prevention and Research are key. Childhelp, one of the largest and oldest national, non-profit organizations dedicated to treatment and prevention of child abuse, provides a broad continuum of programs that directly serve abused children and their families. Childhelp also leads public awareness campaigns to educate the public and rally communities behind the child abuse.

What can I do?
By supporting Childhelp, you are playing a direct role in the treatment and prevention of child abuse. Your donations, purchases from the Childhelp store and the Gift of Hope gift catalogue, and time spent volunteering help a dedicated and passionate staff carry out Childhelp’s mission of meeting the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused and neglected children.

Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect in USA

-Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy

-Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.

-Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely develop alcohol abuse

-Children who have been sexually abused are 3.8 times more likely develop drug addiction

-Nearly 2/3’s of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused as children

Consequences of Child Abuse in the USA

-Eighty percent of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least 1 psychiatric disorder at the age of 21 (including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, & post-traumatic stress disorder)

-Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy

-Abused teens are 3 times less likely to practice safe sex, putting them at greater risk for STDs

The Link Between Abuse As a Child & Future Criminal Behavior

-Fourteen percent of all men in prison in the USA were abused as children

-Thirty-six percent of all women in prison were abused as children

-Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.

The Link Between Child Abuse & Substance Abuse

-Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely develop alcohol abuse

-Children who have been sexually abused are 3.8 times more likely develop drug addictions

-Nearly 2/3’s of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused as children

Sources:
-Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and The Federal Administration for Children and Families. The CDC oublication: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

-Prevent Child Abuse America: Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting & Fatalities: The 2000 Fifty State Survery

-National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research: Prevent Child Abuse America; Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities: The Results of the 1997 Annual Fifty State Survey

-Lung, C. & Daro D. (1996) Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities: The Results of the 1995 Annual Fifty State Survey. Chicago: National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse. http://www.childabuse.com/fs9.htm

-US Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families. Child Maltreatment 2003: Summary of Key Findings

-National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse & Neglect Information. Long-term Consequences of Child Abuse & Neglect 2005

-US Department of Justice

-Child Abuse & Neglect Study by Arthur Becker-Weidman PhD

-National Institute on Drug Abuse 2000 Report

-DePanfilis, D. (2006). Child neglect: A guide for prevention, assessment and intervention. Dept.HHS, et al
-Long-Term Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect. Child Welfare Information Gateway.Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006. Retrieved August 22, 2007 from http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/
long_term_consequences.cfm

-Wang, Chung-Tung Ph.D. & Holton, John Ph.D. (2007). Total Estimated Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect In the United States. Prevent Child Abuse America funded byThe Pew Charitable Trusts

-U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration on Children Youth & Families. Child Maltreatment 2007 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009). Retrieved April 3 2009 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb

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African American and American Indian children are disproportionately represented in the system as well as in their probability of leading dysfunctional lives as they age out of foster care.

These recent news posts will bring you up to date on the difficulties being faced by the people of California (and other states) in dealing with the policies and politics of abused and neglected children

A few more observations from California’s Blue Ribbon Commission;

Fewer than 150 full & part time judicial officers preside over the entire dependency court system (many thousands of children are being reported each year).

Full-time juvenile dependency court judges carry an average caseload of 1,000 cases.

Children and parents sometimes do not meet their attorneys until moments before their hearings (reports are often incomplete, it’s hard to get all the facts straight in a few moments).

The median time for a hearing is 10 to 15 minutes (this often determines the fate of a family for many years to come).

Judges are often assigned to juvenile court for short rotations, instead of the recommended three years. (my comment; judges do not always have a good understanding of what they are getting into in juvenile court and it can take some time to adjust to this kind of law practice.

Short term assignments to the juvenile court pretty much insures that about the time the judge begins to understand the complexities of the issues faced by these families and community trying to serve them, the judge moves on – no one is served by this)

Families are often involved with more than one system, yet courts and other agencies do not easily share data or information that may be critical to the families’ circumstances.

In my own case as a guardian ad-Litem, I have seen the results of a seven year old terribly abused boy given back to the custody of his terribly abusive father even though the father had a court order (from an adjoining state) keeping him away from young boys. Yes, it has completely destroyed the boy. He is mentally unhealthy and has HIV AIDS today.

My note; every state is facing problems like this. Few states appreciate the value of investing in systems that will save the children they are serving.

California has about 48 initial child abuse reports per 1,000 children according to the kidsdata.org

Article on LA County childcare approach to children in foster care;
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-foster-care5-2010feb05,0,201241.stor

The Department of Children and Family Services will suspend its effort to reduce the number of children in foster care in the wake of the deaths of several children formerly in its care.

By Garrett Therolf
February 5, 2010

Los Angeles County has suspended a long-standing effort to reduce the number of children in foster homes because keeping more of the children with their birth families could be unsafe, the county’s top child-welfare official said.

FOR THE RECORD:

Foster care: The headline for an article in Friday’s Section A about foster care in Los Angeles County incorrectly said county child welfare officials planned to “end” an emphasis on family over foster care. As the story reported, Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn told a reporter last week that such reunifications would not happen as frequently as in the past until new reforms were in place to ensure safety. The county still plans to reunite or preserve families whenever possible. —

The decision marks a turnaround for the Department of Children and Family Services, which for many years has sought to cut the foster care rolls, in part by trying to mend troubled families. The department’s leaders have cited the decline in foster children — from a high of 52,000 in 1997 to a low of 19,900 last year — as one of their proudest achievements.

“I do want these numbers to start going down again but only when I can assure everyone that the work we are doing results in safety for that child who is going home,” said Trish Ploehn, the department’s director.

“I don’t know how much more we can go down in the numbers, though,” she said. “We are a very large county, and it’s possible that we are already at the level where we are supposed to be.”

The decision is the most significant of several reforms made by the department after a series of high-profile child deaths last year, some of which involved the department putting too much faith in its ability to rehabilitate families. In 2009, The Times reported that reunifications led to some children’s further injuries and even deaths. Isabel Garcia, for instance, starved to death two months after child-welfare officials deemed that she, her five siblings and their parents were all doing well.

Toddler Angel Montiel and his siblings were reunited with their parents after the couple enrolled in parenting classes, drug testing and other “family preservation” services.

He subsequently was beaten to death. An autopsy found dozens of injuries, some fresh and some healed, including broken bones and burns. Originally charged with murder, his mother pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“These cases had a very deep effect on the department,” Ploehn said.

Under the department’s policies, social workers had been encouraged to keep children in their original homes by helping parents deal with problems believed to underlie abuse, including addiction, anger, unemployment and mental illness.

At the same time, the county increased the number of child-parent reunions, reduced the time such reunifications take and — for children who couldn’t go home — doubled the number of adoptions.

In 2007, the department wagered that it could drive the numbers down further. It entered an experimental federal program that pays the county a limited sum for foster care services. If it exceeded that amount, the county had to pay the difference. If it spent less, the county could use the savings to reduce child abuse and neglect as it saw fit.

The policy pivot by Ploehn is likely to be controversial. Foster care has many critics who say children often are dispatched to one place after another without any sense of permanence or normal family life, and end up homeless and unemployed in adulthood.

A group called DCFS Give Us Back Our Children often demonstrates outside Edelman Children’s Court in Monterey Park, saying that too many children are removed from families unnecessarily.

One member, Sabreen Shabazz, 56, of Los Angeles, cares for her 11-month-old granddaughter, who was removed from her daughter’s custody.

Shabazz worries that her granddaughter might be unnecessarily sent to foster care because the family lives on only $845 a month and sometimes struggles to pay for apartment repairs ordered by the department.

“DCFS has a family preservation unit and they need to focus on that work more, not less,” said Janet Mitchell, a friend who attends the group’s monthly meetings. “Look at Sabreen: She’s a loving grandmother who just needs help. They live in poverty, but the child is happy because she is loved.”

In 2009, at least 17 children died of abuse or neglect even though child-welfare officials were well aware of their troubled family histories. Fourteen youngsters suffered such deaths in 2008.

Among the other reforms under way:

* Three hundred workers are being redeployed to the child abuse investigations unit at a cost of $37.5 million, reducing the average investigator’s caseload from 25 to 18.

* An improved computer system is being developed to provide child-abuse investigators with more information from other county agencies — mental health, for example, or law enforcement — about troubled families.

* An additional layer of review is being added to child-abuse investigations before they can be declared “unfounded.”

* Dozens of workers are being disciplined for their poor handling of cases that ended in death.

By some key measures, however, the county is falling behind schedule on reform efforts, especially the computer system.

That project is overseen by County Chief Executive William T Fujioka because it requires coordination with many county departments.

The need for such a system has been repeated in more than a dozen reports over almost two decades. Each concluded that county agencies were not exchanging vital information that could prevent death and injury to abused children. None inspired significant change.

Once again, the deadline for many of the improvements — such as adding data from county hospitals and local police departments — has passed without action. Work on longer-term goals has barely begun.

Overall, the department’s reform efforts also have been stymied by a 9% reduction in its $1.7-billion budget this year. That’s not likely to improve any time soon: Ploehn has been ordered to plan an additional 9% cut for next year.

garrett.therolf@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Department of Family Services For The Record on DCF’s article;
http://mayorsampressrelease.blogspot.com/2010/02/update-la-times-issues-for-record-on.html

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Fifty percent of Americans do nothing when they witness abuse

New Study by Prevent Child Abuse America Reveals Alarming Trends in How Americans Respond to Child Abuse

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Three in ten Americans have witnessed an adult physically abuse a child and two in three Americans have seen an adult emotionally abuse a child (see table 1). Yet nearly half of these Americans failed to respond to the incident, according to a study released today by Prevent Child Abuse America, formerly the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse.Of the 1,250 Americans surveyed, 44 percent failed to respond upon observing child abuse, with one-half of these individuals reporting that they had no idea how to respond effectively (see table 2). Of those who claimed to have done something in response to the situation, 55 percent reported that they had given the offending adult a disapproving look and 63 percent claimed to have verbally reprimanded the adult. According to Prevent Child Abuse America, these responses can be counterproductive and may further endanger the child.

“The research shows that most Americans fail to respond effectively when they encounter child abuse or neglect in a public place because they don’t know what to do,” explained A. Sidney Johnson III, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse America. “Clearly, there is a need to give all citizens the information they need to respond to these situations in a helpful, effective and safe manner.”

- more -

To educate the general public on appropriate and effective responses to child abuse in a public place, Prevent Child Abuse America has launched a new public service campaign. The campaign includes brochures and posters offering advice on positive parenting and on how to respond effectively when observing child abuse or neglect in a public place.

With funding from Target Stores, a longtime supporter of the organization’s child abuse prevention programs, the materials are being distributed through Prevent Child Abuse America’s nationwide network of chapters, offering the following tips for responding to child abuse or neglect in a public place:

Start a conversation with the adult to direct attention away from the child. For example: “My child gets upset like that, too.”
Divert the child’s attention (if misbehaving) by talking to the child.
Look for an opportunity to praise the child or parent.
If the child is in danger, offer assistance.
Avoid negative remarks or looks, which are likely to increase the parent’s anger and could make matters worse.

New Identity for Nation’s Leading

Child Abuse Prevention Organization

The public service campaign is part of a major effort to communicate the new name for Prevent Child Abuse America, which has previously been known as the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse. With 27 years of experience and a network of 42 state chapters, Prevent Child Abuse America is the leading organization working at the national, state and local levels to prevent child abuse in all its forms.

In addition to educating the public about effective responses to child abuse, the campaign is intended to better communicate the nationwide breadth of Prevent Child Abuse America’s capabilities and the depth of its commitment to end child abuse. The announcement of the organization’s new name and public service campaign came on the eve of April’s observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Previously, the national organization and its chapters had not followed any standardized model in the use of name or logo, confounding efforts to demonstrate nationwide unity of the organization, its capabilities and its mission. Prevent Child Abuse America had determined that improved clarity of its national identity and heightened awareness of its capabilities could further strengthen its efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect.

“Prevent Child Abuse America – as a national organization and as a network of state chapters – brings an incredible breadth of knowledge and capabilities to the prevention of child abuse and neglect,” said Maura Somers Dughi, president of the Board of Directors for Prevent Child Abuse America. “Under our new national identity, it will be easier to demonstrate the strength and value of this knowledge and these capabilities on the local, state and national levels.”

Twenty-six state chapters have already changed their names to reflect the national organization’s model, as in the case of Prevent Child Abuse California, Prevent Child Abuse Illinois and Prevent Child Abuse New York. Ten other chapters are expected to change their names in the next six months.

New TV and Radio Awareness Campaign Launched

In conjunction with the organization’s new name, Prevent Child Abuse America is launching a nationwide campaign of television and radio public service announcements. The energetic and uplifting television spots feature children speaking directly into the camera to offer their thoughts on “What Kids Are Made Of.” Complementary radio spots have also been produced. Both television and radio spots are being distributed nationally by the Advertising Council.

The media campaign has been adapted from one originally developed by the Partnership to Prevent Child Abuse, a Connecticut alliance of public and private concerns dedicated to empowering and educating communities and individuals to recognize the vital role they play in child abuse prevention. The partnership includes the Connecticut Center for Prevention of Child Abuse, a chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America.

The spots were produced by Cronin and Company, Inc., of Glastonbury, Conn., which donated its time as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. Response to the campaign was so strong throughout the state, that the Connecticut chapter and its advertising agency, in collaboration with the Partnership to Prevent Child Abuse, approached Prevent Child Abuse America about national distribution.

“We were impressed and thrilled by our Connecticut chapter’s television and radio spots from the very start and couldn’t have been happier to adapt them for use nationally,” said Johnson. “Our chapters are producing incredibly powerful and creative public awareness materials, and we’re pleased to be able to work with our chapters whenever possible to share these great materials with the rest of the country.”

Headquartered in Chicago, Prevent Child Abuse America was founded in 1972 with an endowment from the Donna J. Stone Foundation and is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse in all its forms. Supported by private and corporate donors, the organization is widely known for its public awareness, education, prevention programs, advocacy and research. More information about child abuse prevention is available by calling 1-800-CHILDREN or by accessing the organization’s website, www.childabuse.org.

# # #

Table 1: Personal Observations of Child Abuse and Neglect

Observations of Child Abuse or Neglect

Percentage Responding in the Affirmative

Have you seen an adult physically abuse a child?

32%

Have you seen an adult emotionally abuse a child (e.g., insult, taunt or harass)?

66%

Have you seen an adult neglect a child (e.g., ignore a child’s needs, fail to feed or clothe properly or withhold affection)?

47%

Source: Kirkpatrick, Kevin (1999, March). 1999 Public Awareness Survey. Chicago: Prevent Child Abuse America.

Table 2: Reasons for Failing to Respond to Observations of Child Abuse and Neglect

Reasons for Failing to Respond

Percentage Responding in the Affirmative

Didn’t think it was any of my business

57%

Didn’t know what the proper response might be

50%

Afraid other people might interpret response as overreacting

23%

Concerned for own personal safety

19%

Thought the parent’s actions might be justified

17%

Source: Kirkpatrick, Kevin (1999, March). 1999 Public Awareness Survey. Chicago: Prevent Child Abuse America.

Copyright ©2000 Prevent Child Abuse America. All rights reserved.
200 S. Michigan Avenue, 17th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604-2404
phone 312-663-3520; fax 312-939-8962

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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>

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A Pennsylvania judge was sent to prison for receiving commissions for each youth he sent to a privately run juvenile detention center run by his friends.

Thousands of innocent youth paid for this crime. Illinois has recently stun gunned, choked, and brutalized young girls in its juvenile justice system.

A MN judge has sent me the Ritalin, Prozac, and other psychotropic medications proscribed to five, six, and seven year olds that passed through her courtroom (seldom receiving adequate mental health therapy to accompany these not yet recommended for children medications).

Missouri had suffered a 90% recidivism rate in its juvenile justice system, New York & California are close (and topping the expense charts at almost $250,000/per child per year) & all states seem to be moving toward trying more and more children as adults

Today’s NYTimes Report: Sex Abuse High at 13 Juvenile Centers

establishes that almost a third of juvenile justice detainees are victimized. About 12% are sexually abused & six of the sites had abuse rates of over 30%. WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly one out of every three youths at 13 juvenile detention facilities have reported some type of sexual victimization, according to a government study issued Thursday that found widespread reports of youth sex abuse at correctional centers.

Nationwide about 12 percent of youths held in state-run, privately run, or local facilities reported some type of sexual victimization, the Justice Department found in the first report of its kind. The rates varied widely between facilities.

Victimization included forced sexual activity with another youth and all sexual activity with staff.

”They were convicted of a crime. They have to serve time but they shouldn’t serve time in a manner in which they’re going to be abused or assaulted,” said Troy Erik Isaac, 36, who said he was sexually assaulted in a California juvenile facility.

At 12, Isaac was sent to a juvenile center for vandalism, and within days his 16-year-old cell mate raped him during the night, he said. Isaac reported it and eventually was moved. But Isaac said the rapes continued as guards looked the other way and he became too afraid to fight back.

”It’s a traumatizing experience for someone that is young. You take that with you wherever you go,” said Isaac, who spent most of his life in and out of prison until he started a community service organization, Hands On Advocacy Group, two years ago.

About 26,550 juveniles are held in such facilities around the country, and the survey — conducted for the government by Westat, a company based on Rockville, Md. — collected information from about 9,000 of them via anonymous computerized questionnaire. The survey was conducted from June 2008 through April 2009 and asked whether the young inmates had been abused in the previous year of detention.

About 10 percent of youths surveyed reported abuse involving facility staff people, and nearly all of those complaints were against female staffers, who made up less than half of the workers. About 2 percent of the reported abuse involving other young inmates.

Although advocates said the level of abuse wasn’t surprising, the prevalence of sexual abuse by staff, particularly female workers, was shocking, said Linda McFarlane, deputy executive director of Just Detention International, which fights to end sexual abuse of those who are detained.

”Many of these are already the most vulnerable and traumatized youth from all of our communities and they’re placed for custody because they’re considered to be a danger,” she said. ”If sexually abused in those very institutions that are supposed to help them prepare for life in the community, then it’s just an incredible travesty.”

The study identified six facilities where the survey found at least three out of every 10 inmates said they were sexually victimized while in custody: Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana; Corsicana Residential Treatment Center in Texas; Backbone Mountain Youth Center in Swanton, Md.; Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs, N.C.; Cresson Secure Treatment Unit in Pennsylvania; and the Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center, Long Term, in Mitchells, Va.

Another seven sites reported nearly as high levels of sexual abuse or victimization: Victory Field Correctional Academy in Vernon, Texas; Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility; Shawono Center in Grayling, Michigan; Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville, Tenn.; L.E. Rader Center in Sand Springs, Okla.; Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Virginia; New Jersey Training School in Monroe Township, N.J.

The numbers were far different than the records kept by many states. Officials in several states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, New Jersey and Maryland, said they had very few or no substantiated complaints of sexual abuse in recent years at the facilities named in the report.

In New Jersey, the Juvenile Justice Commission has concerns with the Justice report, including ”methodological problems often associated with self-reporting.”he Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice was shocked that it had two facilities on the list, spokesman Bruce Twyman said. In the last year, the department had increased training for staff and upgraded video surveillance to combat sexual abuse, he said.

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”It’s not something that we’re proud of,” Twyman said. ”We look at it from this standpoint: Any sexual victimization is one too many so we want to be very aggressive about rooting it out, there’s no question about that.”

Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said the agency saw the report as an opportunity to reinforce to staff and inmates that it has a ”zero tolerance” policy toward sex.

”There’s no such thing as consensual sex in a correctional facility, certainly not in a juvenile facility either,” he said.

In Texas, the news comes amid major reforms following a widely publicized abuse scandal.

”We have a zero tolerance policy on sexual misconduct,” said Jim Hurley, spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission. ”This is a very important subject for us, and something we are on top of at the Texas Youth Commission.”

During the time the survey was conducted the agency had 23 allegations of sexual misconduct. One was adjudicated and two remain open.

Genger Galloway, of Crockett, Texas, fought for many of the reforms that are in place now. Her son, Joseph, who was jailed for molesting his siblings at 15, said he was sexually assaulted by a female staff member and beaten and sodomized by a male inmate as a guard stood by in 2003.

Galloway lobbied the Texas legislature for change, but she said it was too late for her son.

”My son will never be the same,” she said. ”My son is full of hatred.”

Staff sexual misconduct was higher in state-run facilities than in privately or locally operated sites, the study found, and smaller facilities tended to have fewer reports of sexual victimization.

——

Potter contributed from Richmond, Va. Associated Press writers Kelley Shannon contributed from Austin, Texas; Emery Dalesio from Raleigh, N.C.; Charles Wilson from Indianapolis; Dave Dishneau from Hagerstown, Md.; Travis Loller from Nashville, Tenn.; Beth DeFalco from Trenton, N.J.; and Ramit Plushnick-Masti from Pittsburgh.

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Thank you Lelde.

With almost half the population of the U.S. (138M v 307M) Japan reported 33,308 cases of child abuse in 2005 compared to about 3 million cases in the U.S. In 2007, 37 Japanese children were killed by their parents compared to 1400 in the U.S.

The very first Japanese child abuse survey was conducted in 1999, along with specialized training for social workers. In 2006, the government introduced a national 10-year plan to improve child-rearing nationwide that included new 1700 community daytime childcare centers by March of 2010.

Japan is only now beginning to identify and respond to child abuse and neglect, after hundreds of years of three generations living in the same home, and the supreme authority of the oldest male, family intervention by the community is a difficult issue.

Child Protection and Abuse in Japan

According to a UN report, in 2006 Japan ranked seventh in the list of countries of the highest living standards. While highly developed both economically and socially the country experiences problems similar to those in less-developed countries. Child abuse is one such example. During 1990, when the data was first collected by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there were 1,101 reported incidents of child abuse.

The report stated that physical cruelty was the most common kind of abuse accounting for 44.5% of all cases, followed by neglect (36.7%) and mental abuse (15.6%). There were 1,048 reported instances of sexual abuse, comprising 3.1% of the total. Those most at risk were children under six years old, with 15,255 pre-schoolers being the target of abuse.

According to Al-Badri, in 2005 child abuse was still soaring in Japan, with 33,308 reports to child welfare consultation centers or the police in the year ending March 2005. This provided more than a 20% increase since the previous year.

Another report by the local government in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, released in 2006 revealed that more than 60% of the public consider the root cause of child abuse to be parents’ inexperience and selfishness.

Among other reasons cited of the increasing child abuse were the increasing shift away from households in which three generations would cohabit, meaning that grandparents were no longer able to assist with childcare chores; the lack of community in the country, with people feeling less connected to their local neighborhoods; the rising cost of bringing up children; and the increase in single-parent families.

According to Japanese Police, child abuse has been one of the biggest social problems in recent years. The number of abuse cases cleared by the police in 2007 reached 300 and the number of offenders was 323, increase of 3 (or 1.0%) and a decrease of 6 (or 1.8%) over the preceding year respectively. The number of victimized children was 315 (a decrease of 1, at 0.3% over the previous year). Out of these, 37 children were killed.

Child pornography is also a serious issue. To deal with this issue, the Act on Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and for Protecting Children was enacted in May of 1999. In 2007, the total number of persons arrested in violation of this act was 1,361 for 1,914 offenses. For child prostitution, 984 persons were arrested in 1,347 cases, including 596 persons (60.6%) in 679 cases (50.4%) involving the use of on-line dating services, 61 persons (6.2%) in 61 cases (4.5%) involving the use of telephone clubs. For child pornography, 377 were arrested in 567 cases, including 172 persons in 192 cases involving the use of the Internet.

In 2007, the number of victimized children under the age at 18 in child prostitution decreased 13.7% to 1,144 from the previous year.

In 2007, the number of victimized children under the age at 18 in child pornography increased 8.7% to 275 from the previous year. Furthermore, it has recently been reported that the Yakuza (members of organized crime syndicates in Japan) have been heavily involved in burgeoning new business: child pornography.

While it is illegal to make or sell such material in Japan, possession often goes unpunished. This legal loophole has been exploited by the Yakuza, adding to their traditional money spinners like prostitution and drugs.
Such statistics and stories reveal the extent of child abuse, which many Japanese believe does not exist in their society.

Japan’s unusually strong families are being strained, weakened by the long recession and record unemployment, which have undermined stability in the home and in addition to economic pressures, divorce rates and remarriages are rising, which experts say has led to abusive behavior by some stepparents.

Dr. Seiji Sakai, a child psychiatrist and director of the Center for Child Abuse Prevention admits: “In pediatric circles we thought there wasn’t much child abuse and that we were different from the United States because our culture was different.

The single biggest problem was society failing to realize that there is child abuse.” At the same time, while statistics suggest a rise in child abuse, experts are uncertain whether more is actually occurring or whether more instances is now being reported. As Machiko Ayukyo, a lawyer handling child abuse cases admits: “Child abuse is on the rise in Japan. Superficially, it seems the trend is rising, because more is coming to light. I feel that this has been happening for a very long time and it is finally just coming to the surface.”

The Government statistics show that in 1997, there were 5,352 reported cases of child abuse, a 30 percent rise from the previous year. In 1990, when the government began to record statistics there were just one thousand reports of child abuse a year. In 2004, the number was 24,000 and in 2006, the number was estimated to be around 35,000 cases of abuse. The population of children under the age of 14 years was 18.58 million in 2000.

The prevalence rate of child abuse and neglect is calculated to 9.1 per 10 000 children. However, this rate is only the tip of the iceberg, because there are still many unreported cases. As for forms of child abuse and neglect in 2000, physical abuse was 50.1%, neglect was 35.6%, psychological abuse was 10.0% and sexual abuse was 4.3%.

It should be acknowledged that the total number is still quite small compared to many other countries.

However, for Japan, which places so much emphasis on safety and family, the number is shocking. As Japan has became more urbanized and the number of nuclear families increased, parents have become more isolated, there is more and more pressure put on parents while support and assistance is decreasing.

As it is argued, such pressure has increased the prevalence of violence and abuse of children in such families, although the relationship is not clearly proven.

However, the statistics may not present a full picture because the Government has not traditionally kept track of cases and few are reported to authorities. Furthermore, traditionally, the police rarely investigated accusations of child abuse or wife beating, believing these were issues best left to the head of the household: the father or grandfather.

For centuries, Japanese believed that children were like possessions and that parental authority was virtually supreme. In Japan, the right of the family head was very strong and until the 1860′s, when if the father unintentionally killed a child, by being too strict or too violent, he was not questioned.
Parents have traditionally had enormous authority when it comes to raising children, with the government reluctant to intervene, but that is now changing.

Authorities are now struggling to figure out when and how to intervene. The Government wants to crack down on so-called “parental rights” and is planning to increase the number of situations in which the state can take children from their parents.

Doctors, lawyers and welfare workers, as well as some media, have recently begun to increase public awareness of these issues. More rigid laws are being discussed and legislated, which would give some power to intervene in this rigid and inaccessible family sphere. The Ministry of Health and Welfare commissioned its first child abuse survey in 1999, along with specialized training for social workers in child abuse, to provide increased psychological support for abused children.

In 2006, the government introduced a national 10-year plan to improve child-rearing conditions nationwide. This has seen an increase in the number of community centers being turned into daytime childcare centers where toddlers can play together and parents can lend each other mutual support.

More than 1,700 such centers are expected to be operational by the end of March 2010. However, more official help is necessary to prevent parents allowing their emotions to boil over into violence. The key is stopping the abuse before it starts by helping parents who have not harmed their children, but feel that they are struggling to keep a grip on things.

As Masaaki Noda, a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University pointed out, Japan will have to brace itself for more horror stories of child abuse that have already come up in the press recently until it terminates its traditional reluctance to interfere in other’s ‘private’ lives.

In regards to criminal law, Japanese society has long regarded the disciplinary issue as a part of individual (parental) discretion. Authority (e.g., schoolteachers, police, and local government) is reluctant to enter into this issue unless it is prosecuted as a court case. If the penal code is applied strictly to child abuse, however, it is no longer abuse but should be considered assault and battery.

There appears to be no provision in the Japanese penal code noting that assault and battery should be accepted from prosecution and punishment if committed by the victims’ parents or caregivers.

Child abuse then often is a crime committed by someone who is in a position to take care of the victim leading to a situation where the child emotionally and financially depends on his/her abuser.

The Child Welfare Law was enacted in 1947 to protect child abuse and poverty-related maltreatment. In 1965, Maternal and Child Health Law strengthened child health care delivery system throughout Japan. Health check-ups for infants and young children, home visit to newborns and psychological support to mothers and children are conducted and its coverage is approximately 90%. While the system for child survival and development had been successful, the welfare system for child protection was not enough. The Child Abuse Prevention Law was also enacted in 2000 and its objective was to promote measures towards the prohibition and prevention of child abuse by prescribing the responsibility of central and local government to prevent child abuse and neglect, and to establish measures to give appropriate protection to children who are abused.

The Law encourages prevention, early detection and early response of child abuse and neglect. Teachers, workers in child welfare centers, medical doctors, public health nurses, and lawyers should report to child guidance centers when they find a child abused or neglected.

The child guidance centers make an assessment from viewpoints of medicine, psychology, education and mental health, and take care of abused children under the collaboration with family courts, residential care facilities and foster families.

In Japan, each prefecture has one or more child guidance centers. In total, there are some 170 centers in Japan. The Child Welfare Act empowers the head of a child guidance centre to give abused children temporary shelter in the centre or to transfer them to the family court.

However, it is only the family court that can authoritatively investigate the home and, if necessary, deprive parents of their power. Child guidance centers usually are very reluctant to ask the prefecture to order the deprivation of parental power by the family court and the family court also is very hesitant to do this. As a result, the annual number of cases of parental power deprivation is extremely low.

The child guidance centers also have no formal means to gather evidence of child abuse. Anyone who notices child abuse may report it to a child guidance centre under the regulations of the Child Welfare Act, but there are no people in certain occupations (e.g., pediatricians, schoolteachers, social workers, etc.) who have legislated duties to do so.

As a consequence, people who become aware of a child being abused often are reluctant to report it out of fear of being sued by the victim’s parents for defamation.

The duty of certain professionals to report should be legislated. It should be noted, however, that a report may discourage an abuser from seeking help. Because Japan ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child, it should endeavor to embody its principles.

Much should be done to that end in Japan, but what is clear is that many children are still being abused. While in recent years, the activities for prevention of child abuse and neglect have been strengthened in Japan, public awareness of child abuse and neglect is still quite low.

First, the human resources in child guidance centers to protect children are lacking. While the number of reported cases increased drastically, the number of staff has not yet increased.

Second, Japan needs to establish practical measures to support all the family members from the viewpoint of family structure. Asian ‘solutions’, applicable to Japanese family structure, ought to be employed. Third, the collaboration between local governments and NGO is lacking which is a problem in many fields in Japan, including the issue of child abuse and neglect.

The participation of civil society is one of the most critical issues of Japanese society.

To prevent child abuse and neglect in Japan, it will require the full participation of civil society and community.

Just like here.

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Works Cited

Al-Badri, D. Japan Hit By Huge Rise in Child Abuse. The Guardian, Tuesday, June 27, 2006. Accessible online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/27/japan

Japan Rocked By Soaring Child Abuse. Guardian News and Media, 2008. Published 08.08.2004. Accessible online at: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-8-2004-57591.asp

Kitamura, T.; Kijama, N.; Iwata, N.; Senda, Y.; Takahashi, K.; Hayashi, I. Frequences of Child Abuse in Japan: Hidden But Prevalent Crime. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 43, Issue 21, 1999). (Accessible online at: http://ijo.sagepub.com.ezproxy.macalester.edu/cgi/reprint/43/1/21)

Nakamura, Y. Child abuse and neglect in Japan. Pediatrics International, Vol. 44, 2002, pp. 580-582. Accessible online at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.macalester.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=106&sid=c72c6313-7a37-4c3e-af71-c48495c43f8b%40sessionmgr112

Simkin, M. Horrific child abuse case highlights wider problem in Japan. Correspondents Report, February 8, 2004.

The Situation of Child Protection in Japan. Police of Japan. Accessible online at: http://www.npa.go.jp/english/syonen2/The_situation_of_child_protection_in_Japan.pdf

Willacy, M. Without Honor and Humanity. ABC News, October 10, 2009. Accessible online at: http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/s2715335.htm

WuDunn, S. Child Abuse Has Japan Rethinking Family Autonomy. The New York Times, August 15, 1999

Yanagawa, T. Current Status of Child Abuse and Neglect in Japan. 6th ISPCAN Regional Conference, Singapore, 17 November, 2005. Accessible online at: http://canal.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/yanagawa.pdf

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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.

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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.”

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