NEW YORK
Buffalo News
By Melanie Blow
Like most children’s advocates, I’m happy about the passage of Sen. Tim Kennedy’s bill to equip Child Protective Services workers with more information when they respond to new reports. This will keep endangered children safer.
But it breaks my heart that we accept the inevitability of child abuse. We can prevent so much of it. CPS helps abused children. That’s important. But preventing the abuse from starting is also important. The Adverse Childhood Experience study shows that when children are beaten, raped or neglected or witness the same happening to their mother, they live shorter, sicker lives. A 19-year-old who commits suicide or overdoses on heroin isn’t classed as a child abuse fatality, but statistically, those outcomes are much more likely to befall abused children than those who weren’t abused.
It’s easy to predict if a new mother is likely to abuse her child. By working with her, it’s easy to help her bond properly with her baby, raise the baby without abuse and give her the skills she needs to tackle her own life issues. Healthy Families NY does this in Erie County. Giving every new mother access to this program would slash the new cases of child abuse in the county.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.