You’re probably reading this post because you care deeply about the safety and wellbeing of your child, your students, or the children and adolescents in your community. We know that there are risks and dangers that will always face children and families to varying degrees throughout daily life, but the power of positive action and attention towards preventing child maltreatment can have a larger impact on mitigating this risk than you might imagine.
As discussed in the previous blog post, Protecting Childhood: Identifying Risk and Protective Factors for Child Abuse and Neglect, some risk and protective factors on the community and resource level might feel far outside of an individual’s control. Even so, there are still actions that community members can take to strengthen preventative factors for children, and the action of one person can have an immense impact on a child’s well-being and safety. Identifying these positive actions for caregivers of all kinds can ensure that we are all aware of the paths that we can take for preventing child abuse and neglect.
The Role of Mental Health Care Professionals
Mental health care professionals take on an important role in the prevention of, and disruption of, childhood abuse and neglect through their responsibilities in supporting families and children.
Mandated Reporting
All mental health care professionals are mandated reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect, which means that they are legally obligated to report to the state system (the Department of Children and Families in Massachusetts) if they become aware of child abuse or neglect in the home of any family they interact with.
Confidentiality is a large part of mental health care, but it does have limits. When content is shared with a mental health professional that indicates a child may be in danger, the bounds of confidentiality no longer apply. This is because the child’s well-being is the first and foremost priority of the mental health care professional, and reporting suspected abuse or neglect is the way to open and investigate the claims and ensure a child’s safety.
The idea of a report being filed with the Department of Children and Families is often intimidating or scary for families that are seeking support for their children, but the filing of a report can actually help families to identify resources or ways to move forward that can best support their children. Filing a report is not meant to punish or ostracize caregivers but to connect them to further resources their child will need to succeed in their circumstances.
Your mental health care provider will likely walk you through the process of filing a report, and what you can expect, before they make the call. The goal of a provider is to make sure that everyone in the family unit feels supported through the process.
The Baker Center has partnered with the Department of Children & Families to manage the Massachusetts Child Abuse Emergency Line. The Emergency Line is a statewide, after-hours emergency response system that ensures the safety of children who might be victims of abuse or neglect. You can contact the Emergency Line at (800) 792-5200.
Care Coordination
Often, when a child has experienced neglect or abuse, families might need support that goes beyond typical outpatient care for the child individually to set their kid up for success.
Care coordination is when your child’s provider may be able to connect with other supporters, like teachers or pediatrician’s, to share skills, approaches, and insights so they can apply them with your child too. For example, with the knowledge that your child may have experienced a traumatic event, your mental health care provider will be able to understand your child’s behaviors and symptoms through that lens. The approaches they may take towards disruptive behaviors might be different than the approach taken with a kid whose disruptive behaviors are more related to challenges with impulsivity and defiance. Sharing the approach and skills that will work best for your child with teachers and other caregivers will help to prevent any further harm for your child in these other settings.
Mental health care professionals can also serve as a referral resource for families if they need different kinds of care. For example, if a child comes from a high-conflict home that puts them at risk for abuse or neglect, their mental health care professional may be able to help caregivers identify approaches and resources that will help ease the environmental risk for their child. This could include connecting them with couples counseling, individual therapy for caregivers, community resources, or in-home care.
Preventative Care and Trauma Informed Care
The primary role of a mental health care professional will be to provide services to your family that can reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect, and to help your child heal in the aftermath.
This can be done preventatively, by helping families create positive relationships and a safe environment within the family unit. Or it can be done following incidents of neglect and/or abuse to reduce the risk of further harm moving forward. Not only can these approaches be effective for reducing risk within the home, but putting in intentional work and creating this strong sense of trust within the family can reduce the risk of your child experiencing abuse or neglect in the hands of others.
Additionally, if your child has experienced a traumatic event, getting them connected to services to help them process and understand their trauma while learning coping skills can reduce the risk for vulnerability in the future. Getting your child access to services can help halt the cycle of abuse moving forward.
Treatments can take many forms, including parent involved approaches, individual care, and group therapy.
The Role of Caregivers
What Can I Do as a Caregiver?
If you are a caregiver and you are aiming to support your child and prevent their experience of abuse or neglect, here are some steps you can take.
- Engage with protective parenting and community strategies to provide a safe and consistent environment for your child.
- Learn how to manage your own emotions and reactions to navigate stressful situations in a calm way. Modeling this behavior and showing your child or kids in your care that you can be trusted to keep a level head can help them feel secure in your care.
- Take care of your own mental health. Pursue individual therapy if you have experienced maltreatment or abuse in your own life.
- Strengthen your own connections to community and lean on natural supports to help you and your family through challenging times.
- Strengthen your bond with the child by creating space and time to individually engage them with positive attention. Spending even 5-15 minutes a day with your child engaging in play and giving them praise can do wonders for the relationship and feelings of stability.
- Use predictable and consistent disciplining strategies at home or in your classroom.
- Encourage school participation and attendance. Having a consistent routine, positive peer relationships, and additional adults a child can trust can help them to feel safe.
- Facilitate open communication and trust with your child’s teacher to help encourage communication about your child and their experiences at school.
- Encourage open lines of communication with your child so that they can approach you if they ever experience abuse outside of the home or become aware of another child’s adverse experiences.
- Keep an eye out for symptoms of traumatic stress that may indicate that a child in your care has experienced a traumatic event and may be struggling. These symptoms include:
- Learning challenges, like difficulty concentrating in class, refusing to go to school, and having problems with academics.
- Engaging with risky behaviors like substance used, getting into fights, and talking back to parents, teachers, and authority figures
- Behavioral challenges, like defiance, physical aggression, or big emotional reactions, especially for younger children who can have a hard time verbalizing their experiences.
- Behaviors consistent with avoidance or hypervigilance, that indicate a nervousness about their surroundings, caregivers, or environment.
- Increased health problems with no medical cause, like frequent stomachaches or headaches
- Sleeping difficulties, like sleeping too much or not being able to sleep enough
- Increased irritation with others and a decreased motivation to socialize
- Difficulty separating from caregivers
There are many effective treatments for children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events and who are struggling with the resulting stress. Read more about different kinds of traumatic events, the impact of traumatic stress on children and adolescents, and effective treatments proven to support children and teens by using the links below!
Want to learn more?
- Watch our FREE child abuse prevention webinar
- Read Protecting Childhood: Identifying Risk and Protective Factors for Child Abuse and Neglect
- Contact us