March 2006
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Protecting our children
Child Protection team members, from left, Deborah Stang, NP, Pamela Kelly, MS, RNC, PNP, Andrea VanDeven, MD, and Deborah Lenza, APRN-BC. Picture this: a parent goes to a holiday party with her two sons. After having a few drinks, she puts the kids in car and drives home. She ends up getting into an accident resulting in injuries to the children.
Was this just an accident or was it neglect related to substance abuse?
It's a question the staff of Children's Hospital Boston's Child Protection Program (CPP) asks themselves every day. A question they hope all staff and employees will take a moment to consider during Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Child abuse can take on many forms. It can be neglect, which is a failure to provide for a child's basic physical or emotional needs; it can be physical or sexual abuse; or it can be other types of abuse, such as emotional or verbal abuse.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month
A lecture by Lynn Sanford, LICSW Simmons College School of Social WorkApril 18, noon to 2 p.m.
Enders seminar 1 All staff and employees are invited.
It's the role of the CPP to evaluate and treat patients who may have been abused or neglected. The multidisciplinary team includes staff from Medicine, Social Work, Nursing, Psychology, the Office of General Counsel and the Advocacy for Women and Kids in Emergencies (AWAKE) domestic violence project. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the team works to increase the awareness, knowledge and prevention of child abuse within the hospital and the community.
But the CPP's work isn't limited to patient families. The team also trains staff and employees to recognize the signs and symptoms of abuse by presenting on topics like interpersonal violence, substance abuse, child maltreatment and more.
"Creating an environment that is safe for all patients, families and visitors is a responsibility shared by all Children's employees," says Allison Scobie-Lloyd, LICSW, MBA, CPP director. "That being said, no employee is expected to respond to family violence or child maltreatment alone. The Child Protection Program is just one important resource available to assist hospital employees in their response to such incidents."
The CPP has also expanded their efforts outside the hospital, working closely with several community partners to address various abuse issues. One such effort surrounds shaken baby syndrome (SBS). Scobie-Lloyd and Children's pediatrician Alice Newton, MD, are currently partnering with the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund—an organization that leads statewide efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect—to create an SBS training curriculum for hospitals and the community. In addition, they recently testified before the Massachusetts State Legislature on behalf of a bill that would require hospital-based education for all parents of newborns on the dangers of shaking their babies. They expect the bill to be passed soon.
This is just a brief snapshot of what the hospital's CPP does each and every day to protect children. For more information, visit: www.child-protection.org.
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