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Child Abuse and Neglect
TREATMENT OF PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE FAMILIES
Cognitive behavioral therapy is typically the recommended course of therapy for physically abusive families. Children who reside in such families often experience PTSD as a result of their experiences, and CBT focuses on "re-exposure interventions, education about violence and cognitive restructuring, processing of emotional cues, social problem-solving skills, and parenting interventions" (Vickerman & Margolin 2007). In groups or individually, children are encouraged to re-visit traumatic experiences, talk about them, and to find alternative coping mechanisms to deal with negative emotions. Depending on the nature of the family relationship, family members may also be involved and subjected to individual or family counseling, to enable them to find alternative ways to deal with anger, other than lashing out at other family members.
CBT involves the restructuring of responses, and encouraging those who are aided to think: "I am not responsible for my parents' frightening behaviors" versus lashing out with anger (Vickerman & Margolin 2007). Parents are taught about alternative discipline strategies and to change their method of thinking about how they cope with their children (which was likely learned when they were children). "As part of ongoing safety assessments, the therapist must be alert for changes in the family situation that could elevate chronic states of tension and stress to...
The equilibrium that they have reached as an adult does not acknowledge the needs of others, often because their own needs have never been met. "Most neglectful parents want to be good parents, but lack the personal, financial, and/or supportive resources. Professional helpers must assume that parents want to improve the quality of care for their children. Interventions must be developed with that assumption.... Neglectful parents are typically psychologically immature, usually as a result of their own lack of nurturing as children" (Gaudin 1993). Interventions must often begin by 'parenting the parent' and require the social worker to treat the parent with sensitivity while still demanding that the parent assume adult responsibilities in relation to his or her children. This goes beyond teaching the parent new coping mechanisms and requires the social worker to strive to change the adult's as well as the child's 'way of being in the world,' rather than merely change the adult's violent methods of reaction to negative events.
TREATMENT OF SIBLINGS
Even if the child is not physically or emotionally abused, witnessing the abuse of a…
Reference
Gaudin, J.M. (1993). Child Neglect: A guide to intervention. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved:
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/neglect/neglectf.cfm
Relapse prevention model. (2012). Therapy corner. Retrieved:
http://www.therapy-corner.com/relapse.htm
Vickerman, Katrina A. & Gayla Margolin. (2007). Post-traumatic stress in children and adolescents exposed to family violence: II. Treatment. Prof Psychol Res Pr, 2007; 38(6): 620. Retrieved: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2810871/
The second includes verbal and emotional assaults including persistent patterns of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating, and other nonphysical, but clearly hostile or rejecting behaviors, such as repeated threats of beatings, sexual assault, and abandonment. The third, residual, category includes other forms of emotional abuse such as attempted sexual or physical assaults; throwing something at a child but missing; withholding shelter, sleep, or other necessities as punishment, and economic exploitation (p.11). According
The victim is often put into situations where they are physically deprived of the things they need to make appropriate decisions. For instance they may be deprived of sleep or food so that they can be more easily manipulated. Mental abuse may also involve teasing or name calling. In many cases the perpetrator is very aware of the victim's weaknesses and uses them to humiliate or subjugate the victim. Sexual
Child Abuse in Literature Child Maltreatment Child maltreatment entails all types of neglect and abuse of a child below eighteen years by caregivers, parents or any other person (Crosson-Tower, 2006). Child abuse encompasses all forms of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or child exploitation that causes potential or actual harm to a child's well-being, dignity and development (Smith & Fong, 2004). According to Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick (2005), child maltreatment is
Child Abuse "Although it is extremely important when interviewing children about alleged abuse to determine whether the abuse was single or repeated… we have little information about how children judge the frequency of events… [and] overall children were very accurate at judging the frequency of a single event, but much less so for repeated events." (Sharman, et al., 2011). Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) reports that in the year 2010
Child abuse can be referred to as a physical, sexual or an emotional state of harm that is inflicted upon the child. There are various types and forms that can be undertaken by the abuser which may involve hitting, shaking, beating, burning or even biting the child in the physical form, Sexual forms of child abuse may involve incest, molestation, touching and exposing the child to sexual acts that may
Child and Elder Abuse Child Abuse The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) publishes a website called healthychildren.org. -- and the section called "What do I need to know about child abuse?" provides excellent information on the particulars of child abuse. The Healthy Children site points out that child abuse "…is common," and hence, with all the reports on television and in the newspapers about children being mistreated, it should cause parents, guardians,