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Tuesday, 26 September 2006 14:44 |
| | Janese Johnson |
Child Protective services receive about 50,000 reports a week on suspected child abuse.
Out of those 50,000 calls a week, approximately two out of three reports warrant an investigation.
If neglect or abuse is found then children are put into foster homes until their domestic situation improves or until they are adopted. Sometimes a relative will take them in.
Due to the serious cuts in areas of mental health services by Bush administration, many of these children are not getting the services that they need to become healthier in their life. Not only have they suffered physical, emotional and spiritual damage that will take a lot for them to recover, but according to a study by McLean Hospital researchers, they have also suffered in areas of brain development.
McLean
Hospital researcher has identified four types of brain abnormalities
linked to child abuse and neglect. Their findings report that "Although
a baby is born with almost all the brain cells (neurons) he will ever
have, the brain continues to develop actively throughout childhood and
adolescence. A childës interactions with the outside environment cause
connections to form between brain cells. Then these brain cells are
pruned during puberty and adulthood. So, whatever a child experiences,
for good or bad, helps determine how their brain is wired."
The impacted
area of the brain affects emotions, impulse control, attention, and
consequential thinking. In essence, they found that the person who has
been abused might see situations as hostile even when they are not
because their brain has become conditioned that way. They might feel
more easily discouraged because they are not able to see the bigger
picture.
Child abuse and
neglect have been on the rise over the past couple decades as services
and funding are decreasing. That affects each and every one of us one
way or another whether we know anyone directly who has been abused.
Wthout sufficient funding for mental health treatment, delinquent
children are sent to detention centers and jails that do not provide
therapy. Now that funding has decreased, more often than not children
are getting sent to detentions and jails because there is nowhere else
to send them, according to officials.
With adequate
funding for mental health services, many children that would have
received services earlier in their childhoods, mitigating potentially
hostile and criminal behavior. When we criminalize children any hope or
option for change, society commits child neglect on a massive scale.
Prevention through funding for these social services is better than
waiting until it is too late and then putting deliquent children in
institutions that continue to neglect them.
Since becoming a
foster parent in the 1980s, I have seen a dramatic decline in public
interest for foster care. Unfortunately, the state is not as supportive
as it used to be for foster and adoptive parents.
One of the
biggest ways that we can help abused and neglected children is address
the issue by writing our congresspeople and helping in different ways
than perhaps the kids can get what they need to help them have the
tools to function at a healthier rate.
Perhaps you were
blessed to not have a life of fear and suffering. Remember that it
takes a village to raise a child. Big Brothers and Big Sisters is an
organization that connects mentors with children in the community. Get
involved. Let our kids know they are safe and they are loved.
It is one of my
beliefs that as social awareness increases, so shall funding for social
institutions that help deal with and prevent child abuse and neglect.
Hopefully, someday abuse and neglect will become a historical term.
Letës work together for our children.
ï
Janese Johnson
has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years.
She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.
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