Child Abuse and Neglect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Child Abuse and Neglect

Name

Institution

Child abuse and neglect.

PART ONE

Overview of the case study

Child abuse refers to the physical maltreatment, sexually harassing or emotionally torturing of a child( Zeanah, & Humphreys, 2018).   parents, caregivers, guardians, acquaintances and strangers do this act. Child neglect is a form of child abuse where the parent or caregiver fails to meet a child’s, physical, emotional, educational and essential needs. Other state laws recognize a child witnessing domestic violence as a form of child abuse. These acts lead to emotional or physical harm to the child.

In most cases, a local agency of the locality involved identifies these cases. In the case study, Maisie a seven-year-old child, a is a victim of child abuse. Jenny, a grade ½ teacher, realizes that Maisie is withdrawn of late. In addition to this, she often has no lunch to eat. When the nurse asks about Maisies well , she bursts into tears. She cries because she constantly witnesses fights from her parents. This makes her a victim of child abuse which has led to emotional harm. She is a victim of child neglect too. This is evident since she often has no lunch to eat. Her parents have failed to provide an important basic need like food.

An actual problem and potential problem and how you can provide interventions as a school nurse

In the case study, the actual problem is that Maisie is emotionally damaged. She cries because of the domestic fights between her parents. Being emotionally damaged has potentially led to her isolating herself from her friends. The act of domestic violence has installed fear in her. She tells the school nurse that she thinks her parents will break up. Besides, she feels comfortable being at home. This means that there’s a possibility of continuously being exposed to the violence. As a school nurse you can come up with the following interventions to support Maisie and her parents: Providing basic support to Maisie e.g. food, offering psychological counselling to Maisie and her parents, and encouraging Maisie to have social connections with her peers.

Rationales supporting the interventions above

As a school nurse, one has the ability to interact with the children daily( Jordan & Woods, 2017). In the case study, Maisie lacks food. This is evident since she often misses lunch. The school nurse has the opportunity to set up a lunch time disco. Through this opportunity, she can provide Maisie with food thus preventing malnutrition. The school nurse also has the ability to connect with children and parents. The school nurse in the case study has the ability to contact Maisie’s parents. It is through this ability that she can talk to Maisie’s parents on the impact of their domestic violence to their child’s wellbeing. School nurses have a skill to identify a child that is emotionally withdrawn. Maisie, is found by her teacher sleeping under a tree instead of playing with her peers. She informs the school nurse about this. Through using Maisie and other grade one pupils to help in setting up lunch time disco, the nurse is encouraging Maisie to have social connections with her peers.

Method for evaluating the success of each interventions.

Clinical practice changes contribute to the goal off overcoming child abuse ((Jordan et al., 2016). The school nurse should be given continuous education exercises their knowledge in relating to children who are victims of child abuse. It is through this continuous education that they can master the skills to talk to these children and give them psychological support. Through boosting the mental wellness of a child, the child will be more encouraged to have social connections with her peers. This reduces the risk of a child being emotionally withdrawn. School nurses are ethically accountable to know the local laws and procedures to report child abuse. The school nurse can thus liaise with family counselors who can talk to Maisie parents on how to handle their domestic issues. The counselor can also offer advice on the impact of their domestic violence to their child’s wellbeing. The school nurse can also recommend nutrition practices to Maisie’s parents. This will ensure Maisie has a proper guide for nutrition which will boost her weight thus preventing malnutrition.

PART TWO

Essay on child abuse and neglect and potential harm to the children

Child abuse refers to not only neglecting the physical needs of a child, but it also involves emotionally torturing a child making them feel worthless. This act can be done by a parent, caregiver, guardian or an acquittance to the child. Child abuse takes a number of forms such as sexual harassment, severely beating a child, constantly belittling or comparing your child to others and exposing an underage to drug trafficking.

Child neglect is a form of child abuse. It involves failing to provide a child basic needs such as clothing, shelter, food, education, hygiene and supervision. Care givers may either willingly or unwillingly neglect their children. A good example of a caregiver who unwillingly neglects her child, is where the caregiver becomes mentally unstable due to an illness. However, a parent who is a victim of drug abuse, willingly neglects their children. This is because drug abuse leads to impair judgement thus hindering the ability to keep a child safe.

As stated above, child abuse can thus be narrowed down into three categories. This includes; emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse.

Emotional Child Abuse.

This is a form of abuse that most parents expose their children to. What they don’t understand is words have a very great impact to the well being of a child. Most parents use destructive words thus damaging a child’s mental health and their social behaviours.Some of this emotional abuses include: Calling names and comparing your child to other children,belliltling a child, telling a child they are worthless, limiting physical contact such as hugs with your child, and exposing a child to violence such as  domestic violence.

Physical Child abuse

This is where a child is exposed to physical harm or injury. In this form of abuse, most parents deliberately or undeliberate hurt their children while imposing discipline measures. What these parents don’t understand is that there is a huge different between hurting a child and disciplining a child. Physical abuse has the following elements:

Unpredictability: This is where a child constantly has fears because there are no clear boundaries as to what may cause a physical assault to a child.

Lashing out in rage: Most parents use anger to castigate a child instead of correcting in a loving way. They mostly assume that this shows control and power. Therefore, the angrier the parent, the more severe the physical abuse will be.

Instilling fear for behavioral control: Abusive parents believes that the more their children fear them, the more they will respect them and behave. However, this is just a controversy. This is because these children will only learn how to fear and avoid their parents instead of growing and behaving as they adult.

Sexual child abuse.

This is a very serious form of child abuse. It involves body contacts such as touching a child’s form of sexual abuse too. A child who has been sexually abused has a number of signs such as; Trouble in walking and sitting, early pregnancy, strong efforts to avoid a certain person, and constant display of knowledge of sexual acts beyond their age. In most cases, these children fear telling one about being sexually abused because of threats. They may also assume that no one is going to believe them.

Effects of child abuse and neglect

Each form of child abuse posses great harm to a child. These scars may be long lasting leaving great impact to the child even in their adulting stage. The emotional harm may impact their future relationships with others, and improper functioning at home or work. A child that is emotionally withdrawn is likely to experience lack of trust and difficulties in building a firm relationship in adulthood. This is because the child was not exposed to the real meaning of an important and healthy relationship is at a young age. This often leads to codependence in relationships.

A child exposed to abuse suffers from self esteem issues. One of the most important aspects in building self-worth in a child, is speaking positive words to them as they grow up. However, most individuals are damaged because the people who called them worthless in the first place are their parents. Most of these individuals end up in jobs paying less or unhappy relationships because they believe they do not deserve more. Physically abused children are often stigmatized and struggle with the feelings of being damaged (Otsuka et al.,2017).

Children who have been abused struggle with regulating their emotions. This is because the incidents are traumatizing. Most of them suffer from anxiety, depression or anger. In order to address this pain in them, some become victims of drug and substance abuse. Other individuals repeat the same pattern in bringing up their children since they have no idea of having good relationship with your parent is. This leads to an increased cycle of damaged individuals, giving rise to a damaged society.

Child neglect where a child basic needs such as food are neglected leads to malnutrition. A child who cannot access good and adequate food suffers from conditions such as marasmus and Kwashiorkor. They also suffer from a great loss in weight making them vulnerable to other medical conditions. This may eventually lead to the death of a child. Other children living in area where hygiene is poor, are also exposed to severe conditions which affect their health in the long term.

Role of a school nurse in mandatory reporting.

Mandatory reporting laws aims at identifying and assisting children who have been exposed to child abuse and neglect (Royal commission,2017). These laws were built with an aim of bringing into attention child abuse to child welfare agencies. The laws also dictate the specific group of individuals with the responsibility of reporting these laws. In our case study the individual in charge of reporting these laws is the school nurse. Different jurisdictions have different laws that mandatory reporting of child abuse abide to. In some jurisdictions is essential to report every form of child abuse such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and exposure to family violence. In these jurisdictions the identity of the reporter of the violence is mostly protected to keep them from harm.

According to mandatory reporting laws, a child is anyone under the age of 16 years or 18 years depending on the country of operation (Mathews,2019). In our case study Maisie is 7 years old. The school nurse should report this case because the child is an underage. While giving a mandatory report, it is important to outline the possibilities of the event happening in the present and in the future. From our case study, Maisie is a victim of child abuse because she is exposed to domestic violence from her parents. As a school nurse it is easy to identify that this case may be repeated. This is because Maisie accepts that she is comfortable with being at home. Being comfortably at home, means she will constantly be exposed to this case of domestic violence which will torture her emotionally. Mandatory laws categorize certain behaviors as child abuse and neglect. The school nurse while reporting this case, should state that Maisie constantly comes to school without lunch and this has led to her losing weight. Her parents have also refused all nutritional resources offered to them. Through giving mandatory report the overall welfare of Maisie and her parents can be improved (Mathews et al.,2016).

Conclusion

Child abuse and neglect can have severe impacts on the well being of a child. It is the role of parents and care givers to protect their children from any form of abuse. In a school setting, school nurses have the necessary skills to identify children exposed to child abuse and neglect. Taking care of these children through giving emotional support and mandatory reporting, will protect them from potential effects of child abuse in the future.

 

 

 

References

Zeanah, C. H., & Humphreys, K. L. (2018). Child abuse and neglect. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57(9), 637-644.

Fortson, B. L., Klevens, J., Merrick, M. T., Gilbert, L. K., & Alexander, S. P. (2016). Preventing child abuse and neglect: A technical package for policy, norm, and programmatic activities.

Jordan, K. S., MacKay, P., & Woods, S. J. (2017). Child maltreatment: Optimizing recognition and reporting by school nurses. NASN school nurse, 32(3), 192-199.

Mathews, B., & Heyes, N. (2020). Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect: CFCA resource sheet-June 2020.

Cashin, A., Heartfield, M., Bryce, J., Devey, L., Buckley, T., Cox, D., … & Fisher, M. (2017). Standards for practice for registered nurses in Australia. Collegian, 24(3), 255-266.

Harding, L., Davison-Fischer, J., Bekaert, S., & Appleton, J. V. (2019). The role of the school nurse in protecting children and young people from maltreatment: An integrative review of the literature. International journal of nursing studies, 92, 60-72.

Otsuka, A., Takaesu, Y., Sato, M., Masuya, J., Ichiki, M., Kusumi, I., & Inoue, T. (2017). Interpersonal sensitivity mediates the effects of child abuse and affective temperaments on depressive symptoms in the general adult population. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 13, 2559.

Farnia, V., Salemi, S., Mordinazar, M., Khanegi, M., Tatari, F., Golshani, S., … & Alikhani, M. (2020). The effect of child-abuse on the behavioral problems in the children of the parents with substance use disorder: Presenting a model of structural equations. Journal of ethnicity in substance abuse, 1-17.