Neglected Children

Child neglect is the most common type of child maltreatment. Substantial evidence indicates that the morbidity and mortality associated with neglect are significant, with enormous costs to the children involved and to society. Yet there is no major text focused exclusively on child neglect. Neglected Children presents a comprehensive and critical portrait of the phenomenon of neglect, based on theory, research and clinical practice experience. The editor and the contributing authors present a rich, interdisciplinary conceptualization with a broad view of neglect, moving far beyond the current child welfare focus on parental omissions in care. This broader view is essential to seriously addressing the complex and pervasive underpinnings of neglect.

“Anyone who had a troubled childhood ought to read this book.”—Anne H. Cohn, D.P.H., Executive Director, National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse Do you have trouble finding friends, lovers, acquaintances? Once you find them, do they dump on you, take advantage of you, or leave? Are you in a relationship you know isn't good for you? Are you still trying to figure out what you want to do when you grow up? Are you drinking too much, eating too much or trying to numb your pain with drugs of any kind? These are just a few of the problems abused children experience when they become adults. You may not realize you were abused. You may think your parents didn't mean it, didn't know better, or that others had it much worse. You may not even have made the connection between the past and your current problems. Outgrowing the Pain is an important book for any adult who was abused or neglected in childhood. It's an important book for professionals who help others. It's a book of questions that can pinpoint and illuminate destructive patterns. The answers you discover can lead to a life filled with new insight, hope, and love. “The best book available to help survivors cope and understand.”—Dan Sexton, Director, Childhelp's National Abuse Hotline “An invaluable aid for adult survivors of child abuse.”—Suzanne M. Sgroi, M.D., Executive Director, New England Clinical Associates

This book addresses an urgent need to ensure that social care interventions provide better long term outcomes for neglected children across services.

Practical solutions for difficult clinical situations! With many chapters written by some of the field's best known contributors, this handbook was developed for the practitioner who wants practical and effective guidance for helping abused children. Each major area of clinical practice is discussed by experienced professionals, providing you with new insights and ideas regarding: medical findings; clinical assessment; individual, group, and family therapy; testifying in court; the role of medication in treatment, and much more. To make the application from the written page to your practice even more compelling, every clinical chapter is followed by a patient vignette that demonstrates how the principles just described can be successfully applied in the working world of therapists. Whether abused children number only a few or many on your caseload, this is a handbook to which you will often refer over the years. The Handbook for the Treatment of Abused and Neglected Children pulls together a wide range of practical information for therapists on how to effectively work with abused and neglected children. Unlike other volumes on the subject, this book puts the information in context, with a ’big picture’ overview of how the therapist fits into the larger system into which the child has been swept upChild Protective Services, legal proceedings, medical issues, disputes regarding custody, etc. Inside, you’ll find effective strategies for: conducting individual therapy with abused childrenhow to begin therapy, identify distortions, effectively challenge ingrained patterns of behavior, and constructively bring therapy to a close navigating the maze of Child Protective Servicesknowing what resources are available, what obstacles are likely to arise, and how to work with social workers understanding the medical findings of maltreated childrenhow information from a child’s physician can provide critical insights into the child’s experience, and often into children’s expectations of future relationships testifying in court as a therapisthow the court works and how to prepare to give effective testimony facilitating parent interventionshow to help mothers and fathers develop relationships with their children to the fullest and nurture each child’s potential as his or her personality develops The Handbook for the Treatment of Abused and Neglected Children will prove valuable for students and educators as well as novice and experienced therapists. Whether you see children only occasionally or focus your practice on maltreated children, this one-of-a-kind resource deserves a place in your professional collection.

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves-they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains-including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems-and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

This book contains a comprehensive review of the current state of child neglect. Included are statistics regarding incidence and lethality, definitional issues, etiological theory, history of and current policy, and current interventions. As child neglect is often linked with structural issues, the book also examines the relationship of child neglect to poverty, substance abuse and culture.

The Neglected Child provides everything educators and caregivers need to know to identify and intervene in neglectful situations, while also creating a safe, nurturing, and protective environment for young children. From defining the different types and levels of severity of neglect to establishing suspicion and reporting neglectful situations, this book is filled with helpful information from expert psychologists and educators in the field today. Each chapter includes a brief quiz to assess chapter learning and Notes from the Field that represent real-life stories the authors have encountered in their work. The appendices at the end of the text include reproducible handouts, sample statements for parent handbooks, self-assessments for teachers, and important contact information to use when reporting neglect.

Child Abuse and Neglect: Diagnosis, Treatment and Evidence focuses attention on the clinical evidence of child abuse to help you correctly diagnose and treat such cases in your own practice. This unique, well-illustrated clinical reference provides new insights into the presentation and differential diagnosis of physical abuse, a look at shaken baby syndrome, sex offenders and abuse in religious organizations, information on the biomechanics of injury, and more. Great for general review, as well as clinical reference, it’s also ideal for those taking the American Board of Pediatrics’ new subspecialty board exam in Child Abuse Pediatrics. Identify an abusive injury and treat it effectively by reviewing evidence and critical analyses from leading authorities in the field. Recognize the signs of shaken baby syndrome, sex offenders and abuse in religious organizations. Understand the biomechanics of injury to determine whether abuse was truly the cause of a child’s injury. View illustrations that show first-hand examples of child abuse or neglect.

A large segment of the population struggles with feelings of being detached from themselves and their loved ones. They feel flawed, and blame themselves. Running on Empty will help them realize that they're suffering not because of something that happened to them in childhood, but because of something that didn't happen. It's the white space in their family picture, the background rather than the foreground. This will be the first self-help book to bring this invisible force to light, educate people about it, and teach them how to overcome it.

The implications of early experience for children's brain development, behavior, and psychological functioning have long absorbed caregivers, researchers, and clinicians. The 1989 fall of Romania's Ceausescu regime left approximately 170,000 children in 700 overcrowded, impoverished institutions across Romania, and prompted the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of institutionalization on children's well-being. Romania's Abandoned Children, the authoritative account of this landmark study, documents the devastating toll paid by children who are deprived of responsive care, social interaction, stimulation, and psychological comfort. Launched in 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) was a rigorously controlled investigation of foster care as an alternative to institutionalization. Researchers included 136 abandoned infants and toddlers in the study and randomly assigned half of them to foster care created specifically for the project. The other half stayed in Romanian institutions, where conditions remained substandard. Over a twelve-year span, both groups were assessed for physical growth, cognitive functioning, brain development, and social behavior. Data from a third group of children raised by their birth families were collected for comparison. The study found that the institutionalized children were severely impaired in IQ and manifested a variety of social and emotional disorders, as well as changes in brain development. However, the earlier an institutionalized child was placed into foster care, the better the recovery. Combining scientific, historical, and personal narratives in a gripping, often heartbreaking, account, Romania's Abandoned Children highlights the urgency of efforts to help the millions of parentless children living in institutions throughout the world.