Introduction
Justice, dignity, equality - these are words
which are often used loosely, with little appreciation
of their meaning. I think that their meaning can be distilled
into one goal: that every child in this country live as
we would want our own children to live.
Robert
F. Kennedy New York, 1965[1]
Despite
nearly three decades of legislatively mandated child protection
services in Massachusetts and across the country, the
number of children reported and confirmed as victims of
abuse and neglect each year remains alarmingly high. From
1986 to 1997, the number of abused and neglected children
jumped nationwide from 1.4 million to 3 million. This
increase reflected a rise more than eight times faster
than the increase in the children's population (114.3
percent compared to 13.9 percent).[2]
The
U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect now estimates
the number of child deaths at 2,000 each year - more than
five deaths a day.[3] Child abuse is the leading cause
of death in children under age 1, while children younger
than 4 years of age account for over 75 percent of child
abuse and neglect deaths.[4]
In
Massachusetts over 60,000 reports of child abuse and neglect
were filed in 1998, representing nearly 100,000 children.
That year, 13 children who were known to the state child
protection agency died - 8 from neglect, 2 from abuse,
and 3 from both abuse and neglect.[5] This number does
not include other children that died as a result of abuse
or neglect but were not previously referred to child protective
services. Particularly sobering is the fact that while
child maltreatment has been steadily growing in the Commonwealth
over the past decade, other crimes of violence have shown
a steady and dramatic decrease.
The
links between maltreatment and poor outcomes indicate
that public health rather than criminal justice responses
offer the most effective ways to reduce physical and psychological
morbidity in our youngest citizens and in the U.S. population
at large. Neighborhood-based family supports are among
the most effective ways to reduce child abuse and neglect.
The success of these family supports, however, is fundamentally
linked to improvements in state child protection systems
and to comprehensive efforts to prevent and treat child
abuse.
A
recent response to the persistently high incidence of
child abuse and neglect nationally has been the National
Call To Action to End Child Maltreatment, initiated by
Children's Hospital and Health Center-San Diego at its
January 1999 "Conference on Responding to Child Maltreatment."
This effort to end child abuse and neglect has now brought
together over 30 of the country's leading organizations
in a coalition to address this national crisis.
With
the release of our report, Massachusetts Citizens for
Children (MCC) launches the first, parallel State Call
To Action aimed at ending child maltreatment. Through
our recommendations and the mobilization of citizens to
support them, we will work to achieve three fundamental
long-term objectives articulated by the National Call:
1. PROTECTION: Our systems of protecting children
will be revised and strengthened to deliver the highest
quality response.
2.
PREVENTION: Families of our youngest children
will receive the support and education necessary,
so that their children will not be subjected to child
maltreatment.
3.
HEALING: Any child who is abused or neglected
will receive the full complement of therapeutic and
other services and support needed, as will their families,
to recover as fully as possible from the effects of
that maltreatment.
Summit
Initiative on Child Protection and Family Support
The
essential groundwork for these changes has been laid through
the efforts of over 200 child and family policy leaders
across Massachusetts who have participated with MCC in
the "Summit Initiative on Child Protection and Family
Support." (See Appendices A and B.) The initiative was
launched by MCC in May 1999 with an intensive two-day
meeting involving fifty policy leaders from Massachusetts
and a dozen child protection and family support experts
from across the country. It was followed by five active
Working Groups that met regularly over six months beginning
in January 2000 to focus on specific aspects of the current
system.
In
the spring of 2000 three daylong Symposia were held to
discuss and develop recommendations to address the implications
of child trauma on brain development, behavior, and school
performance. Finally, meetings and consultations with
leading national and state experts helped shape other
critical recommendations. Throughout this period, Massachusetts
leaders explored successful practices, debated strategies,
and worked together to achieve a consensus agenda for
change and improvements.
The
Public's View
Recommendations
of the State Call To Action are part of a comprehensive
and evidence-based proposal for systemic reform - reform
that is strongly supported by the public.
In
a 1998 poll commissioned by MCC and its program, Prevent
Child Abuse Massachusetts, 46% of the 400 citizens
surveyed identified "safety from abuse, neglect, and violence"
as the most important element necessary to child well-being.
Health care was second with 17%, followed by freedom from
poverty (9%), education (9%), and childcare (4%).[6]
A
subsequent survey conducted for MCC by the University
of Massachusetts Poll in the spring of 2000 supported
previous findings:[7]
- 88% consider child abuse/neglect a very serious
(55%) or somewhat serious (33%) problem in Massachusetts;
- 84% believe child abuse/neglect has a very significant
(51%) or somewhat significant (33%) effect on a child's
MCAS scores;
- 57% think that more than half of abused/neglected
children go on to develop behavior and learning problems.
In
responding to their view of how our state is currently
addressing these issues:
- 60% believe the child protection system needs
major reform;
- Health care professionals (50%) and non-profit
advocacy organizations (25%) were most frequently identified
as the groups whose ideas the public would most trust
on reform issues. Others included: law enforcement
officials (11%), business leaders (4%), and political
leaders/state officials (2%).
Results
of a survey of voters conducted in 2000 by the Stride
Rite Foundation to measure the public's support for early
childhood education also reinforced the UMass results.
In addition to documenting support for this critical educational
goal, 54 percent of voters identified the need to reduce
violence against women and children.[8]
Conclusion
The
Summit Initiative on Child Protection and Family Support
has crafted a consensus agenda among key professionals
in child welfare, health, mental health, and law enforcement.
As our discussions confirmed, the systems involved in
preventing child abuse and in protecting and healing victimized
children are complex. Multiple strategies, both short
and long term, will be required to implement proposed
solutions. Working together, however, we believe a strong,
bi-partisan political will can be forged - one that will
ensure today's children and generations to come a safe
childhood and a future filled with hope.
In
the months ahead, Massachusetts Citizens for Children
will continue to bring together leaders and advocates
to further refine the State Call To Action. We
will work to educate, build, and mobilize the constituency
for children by involving citizens, legislators, front-line
workers, state officials, local faith leaders, the business
community, and, importantly, those personally affected
by child abuse and neglect. MCC will remain committed
to providing leadership for the broad-based effort to
end child maltreatment in Massachusetts until that vision
is realized.
Jetta Bernier, Executive Director
Nora Sjoblom Sanchez, Esq.
April
2001
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