by Deborah Circelli in Daytona Beach News is devoted to increasing number of child abuse reports. The author informs that the high abuse rate in Volusia and Flagler has increasingly grown within August, September and July, compared to last-year numbers. The experts are worried by the fact that these two counties have a high abuse rate compared with other districts of the state, and the growing number makes their alert increase.
Child-welfare officials are not sure what caused the increase during the end of the summer and the beginning of the autumn, but they suppose this may be connected to the natural disasters. Continuing stress from the last summer hurricanes may be a factor that influenced the growth of child abuse reports rate. Making false reports may also be one of the possible reasons.
The local administrator for the state Department of Children and Families reported the members of the Community Alliance about the measures that were delivered to examine the situation and prevent the future growth of the child abuse reports number. He mentioned the growing population and the stress factor as the possible reasons for the high rates of child abuse reports and gave some numbers – 2034 reports in July, August and September compared to 1594 of the same period last year.
However, the investigators of Department of Children and Families remove fewer children from their homes compared to previous years’ experience. The Administrator added that the major efforts were directed towards prevention of the family violence, rather than towards correction of the aftermath. The main policy, he said, is to make the families stay together.
The other part of the meeting was devoted to the discussion of the local agencies activity. They reported that their main mission was to provide homeless children with new families. The agency, that provides foster-care services in Volusia and Flagler, reported about the improvements during last three months.
The other reports included numbers concerning kids that were taken for state’s care or united with their families. The number of kids under state’s care has dropped. However, the number of children in the state’s care remains the highest compared to the data of other counties of the state.
At the end of the meeting, the president of Community Based Care made a conclusion. He stressed that the improvements were to be made, and there were much to be done and the work was to be continued.
The meeting described in the article, was devoted to one of the most important problems of nowadays society. In the time of growing progress and life temper, with the increasing number of alcohol and drug users, violence and wars shown on the TV and described in mass-media, people experience stresses in everyday life that lead to the emotional instability. So emotionally damaged human beings continue to abuse themselves and others in a variety of ways. This situation appears to be the worst for the most unprotected layer of the society – the kids, and the community pays special attention to the question of child protection. According to the statistics, more than 2.5 million cases of child abuse are reported each year throughout the USA. This number shows the extreme necessity in special state programs and new committees that are to watch the violence of children rights and care about kids that became victims of abuse. Of course, special organizations should include specialists in various spheres – teachers, nurses, counselors etc that will pay attention not only to physical conditions of a kid under state care, but will also stimulate his or her mental development. They should prevent the situation when a kid abused will take a behavior he suffered from as a model for his own behavior.
Of course, government policy should also treat the abusers, trying to prevent possible child abuse in future. The future success of all state programs depends on the money that the Government gives for social programs as well as on mass media and general public. All of us should pay attention to the children that have become victims of abuse and try to prevent possible violence when we face it in our everyday life.
Source
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/EastVolusia/03NewsEAST01101305.htm
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