MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Staff at WVU Medicine and WVU Medicine Children’s joined together to observe the start of Child Abuse Prevention Month with a “Pinwheels for Prevention” ceremony outside of WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital.
Staff pose for a photo during the Pinwheels for Prevention ceremony outside WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital.
“It is important to raise awareness about child maltreatment because many victims, due to age and developmental abilities, can’t speak for themselves. So, it is up to the adults around them to speak up for them,” Amy Gavril, M.D., division chief of Child Safety and Advocacy, said. “There are many myths surrounding child maltreatment. For instance, most people think it occurs rarely, but state and national statistics, as well as my daily personal experiences with these children, say otherwise.”
West Virginia has the highest rate of child maltreatment, which includes all forms of child abuse and neglect. About 2% of all the state’s children are identified by child welfare agencies as having been maltreated. Of those cases, child abuse is the most common.
According to Dr. Gavril, young children between birth and 3 years old are the most likely to be maltreated.
“There is a plethora of research looking at long-term impacts of child maltreatment,” Gavril said. “Mental health issues, which follow these children into adulthood, are common. Maltreated children have higher rates of poor health, such as heart disease, cancer, and substance misuse, in adulthood, as well as higher suicide rates, higher victimization rates as adults, and shorter life spans.”
WVU Medicine Children’s has many initiatives to address child maltreatment, including a multi-disciplinary Child Abuse and Neglect Committee that meets regularly to drive best-practice initiatives and assess how to improve the identification of child maltreatment.
Children’s Hospital has also initiated an evidence-based Best Practice Alert System to assist in the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of possible child abuse.
The Child Safety and Advocacy Division of the Department of Pediatrics ensures all maltreated children treated by WVU Medicine Children’s get the highest standard of care.
“If people have concerns that a child may be abused or neglected, they need to speak up for that child, even if they are not completely sure their suspicions are correct,” Gavril said. “We, as a society, are so good about the ‘see something, say something’ mentality when it comes to other aspects of community safety, but we fall behind when it comes to a child’s safety. Historically, we’ve had a ‘look the other way’ attitude when it came to children because child maltreatment was considered a family issue, but the truth is that child maltreatment is a community issue.”
If you suspect a child is being abused, call the local police, or contact West Virginia Child Welfare Services by calling the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-352-6513.
You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login.
In the book Childhood Disrupted the author writes that even “well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
Thus, failing at parenthood can occur as soon as the decision is made to conceive and carry a baby to term.
By this I don’t mean they necessarily are or will be ‘bad’ parents. Rather, it’s that too many people will procreate regardless of not being sufficiently knowledgeable of child development science to parent in a psychologically functional/healthy manner.
They seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they (potential parents) will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
As liberal democracies we cannot or will not prevent anyone from bearing children, even those who recklessly procreate. We can, however, educate young people for this most important job ever, even those who plan to remain childless, through mandatory high-school child-development science curriculum.
While it wouldn’t be overly complicated, it would be notably more informational than diaper changing and baby feeding, which often are already covered by home economics [etcetera] curriculum.
If nothing else, such child-development science curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood. Given what is at stake, should they not at least be equipped with such valuable science-based knowledge?
After all, a mentally as well as physically sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter; a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month [every April] clearly needs to run 365 days of the year.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Post a comment as Anonymous Commenter
Report
Watch this discussion.
(1) comment
In the book Childhood Disrupted the author writes that even “well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
Thus, failing at parenthood can occur as soon as the decision is made to conceive and carry a baby to term.
By this I don’t mean they necessarily are or will be ‘bad’ parents. Rather, it’s that too many people will procreate regardless of not being sufficiently knowledgeable of child development science to parent in a psychologically functional/healthy manner.
They seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they (potential parents) will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
As liberal democracies we cannot or will not prevent anyone from bearing children, even those who recklessly procreate. We can, however, educate young people for this most important job ever, even those who plan to remain childless, through mandatory high-school child-development science curriculum.
While it wouldn’t be overly complicated, it would be notably more informational than diaper changing and baby feeding, which often are already covered by home economics [etcetera] curriculum.
If nothing else, such child-development science curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood. Given what is at stake, should they not at least be equipped with such valuable science-based knowledge?
After all, a mentally as well as physically sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter; a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month [every April] clearly needs to run 365 days of the year.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.