What Is Child Abuse - Assignment Example

Name Course Instructor Date Scenario Related Questions: Q1) Do you believe this child is at risk? If so what areas of harm I do believe that the child is subjected to great risk in the scenario. We find that the child is only 18 months old and has been subjected to a person who is not paying attention by his mother. The fact is that a child young like he is need a lot of attention from the care takers. Rose is aware that Dylan is not pleased and shows a lot of anger to her and she continues to leave the child with Dylan. This will cause harm to the child since there is not mutual relationship between the caretaker and the child. The child is at the risk of developing low esteem from the dislike of the Dylan. I have also learnt that Dylan is a smoker from the stating of the Dylan’s cigarette and this will cause harm to the child’s health from inhaling the smoke of the cigarettes. The mother has neglected her duty to be with the child all the time. The areas of harm are the heart, physical injury, emotional injury, mental injury and the psychological injuries. (Flaherty) Q2) List the indicators of risk described in the scenario. 1. Dylan is not always with the mother and the child 2. Dylan pays little attention to Oliver 3. Oliver is still so young to take care of itself 4. Dylan demands angrily and unpleasantly to the child’s mother in the presence of Oliver 5. Rose giving little tine to the child as she leaves the child with Dylan the whole night. 6. Presence of cigarettes under the care of Dylan 7. Burns on the Oliver’s legs and bruises on his arms and legs 8. Being subjected to a new partner who is not appreciating him Q3) According to the Child Protection Legislation in your state (Victoria) outline the steps you would take in response to the situation and in preparation to make a report As a matter of fact I must be informed of the physical harm caused to the child; the child is young and just an infant and cannot be able to express itself in the right manner apart from the cry and dislike of some things and persons. As a professional am supposed to remain calm and be in control of my emotions on the harms caused to the child. This is to the effect that I will listen to the mother carefully and showing them you believe in her claims. I will pamper the child as a sign to show him that an action must be taken to protect him from being abused. I will also assure the parent that appropriate measure will be upheld and a report on it will be necessary to keep the evidence that there was abuse by the new partner. Since the child cannot be able to tell anyone I must be aware that the child is undergoing through some emotional distress hence I must handle him with a lot of care. To make the process successful I must ensure that the parent I have believed in her disclosures. I will henceforth gather the necessary information deeply from the parent and the child. I must include the child’s age, functioning and his development. I need to assess the Rose’s and the Dylan’s attitude to the harm caused to Olivier. The kind of relationship that they exhibit between themselves and the child is questionable. The Dylan’s general functioning by asking question from Rose for the time they have been together. The kind of exposure the child has been subjected to. I will also have to know the accurate source of the harm caused on the child. (Jankowski Peter) I will take pictures of the physical harm caused on the child. The behavioral signs of neglect by the new partner will also be taken into account. I will be making short notes of the case recording the stating of the parent who will act as the witness in the case. Thorough consultations from my professional colleagues and the agencies that handle the legal protection rights of the children need to be effected. From all the claims that I have observed I will be able to compose a good reporting to the right authorities as accorded by the Child Protection Authority. Q4) what organization would you contact in your state to make a report and what would you report? Since the legal requirement is to report to the organizations that deal with the rights of the children and the young people, I will report the matter to the Child Protection Service. In my report I would highly include the age of the child since children are very much vulnerable. It has been found out that young infants below the age of four years are dying because of abuse and being neglected. The report will also include the Dylan’s abuse of the child. We understand that children at this age group are at high risk of being mistreated since they cannot be able to express themselves. The report will also include the neglect by the mother who we must inform when making the report. The act of abuse and neglect causes distress to the child and hence need to protect the child through reporting. (Diaz) There are negative emotions induced to the young infant Olivier by Dylan as he does not pay attention to the child and he being left by her mother to Dylan will lead to indictment of wariness of strangers. The physical scars that are on the body of Dylan should also be included in the report. The parent was supposed to leave the child with a person that she knew would take good care of the child but she ignored and left the child with an aggressive person who was careless. The parent also delayed to report the matter immediately after she found out that Olivier had bruises on her legs and therefore need to include it in the report that the parent did not take her responsibility. Q5) Describe the actions/work practices you would take as a follow up from the report. As soon as I have reported the matter to the right channels i.e. the Child Protection services, I will do a thorough follow up to ensure that the rights of the child are protected in the right way. Since the Olivier is having issue with the new partner, I will uphold professional protection to avoid Dylan causing more harm to the child and Rose. There is a need to persuade the parent to visit some of the websites that offer child protection rights where she will be able to gain knowledge of the need to act and report if Dylan continues with the behavior of causing harm to the child. I will also carry out some advisory program to the parent and convince her to bring along her new partner who need to go through some guidance to let him know that he has responsibility in raising the child and his negative attitude will be of great impact to the child. The information discussed between the partners need to be held with a lot of confidentiality. After presentation of the report to the Child Protection Services, I must ensure that interviews are put in place and Olivier and Rose will need to attend the interviews and I must present myself when she is being interviewed. This will be to ensure that no other allegations are made to Rose. An appropriate judgment must be made on this case. Q6) Identify some of the ethical issues that may arise when responding to the scenarios. The ethical issues that arise from the scenario are the child abuse and the neglect issues. From the scenario it is evident that there must be recognition, evaluation, taking of immediate action and at the same time planning for the future. There is need for the professionals involved to continue with the work of ensuring that proper education is carried out. This will involve the employing the interaction of the Childs family, the society and the culture which will be effective to explain the way they define child abuse. This will help to compare the argument that will put forward by other professionals in the field of moral and children education. Since the presence of the new partner Dylan is not known, Rose has to explain whether they are legally together (Kennedy). Despite that the child has been abused, it is very difficult for the practitioners to handle the ethical matter of the immediate actionable significance in the issue of Rose and Dylan rights. Without the permission of the parent or the guardian, I am supposed urgently attend to the child for treatment since the child is at risk. The neglect issue will be determined by a matter of proof since the mother was working and maybe she was just looking for a source of income to maintain the child. And she did not leave the child alone but with a partner that she trusts and at this point neglect will be suspected by the behaviors of the child from the deep scrutiny from the professionals or the matter might be unproven for a matter of fact (Newman& Pollnitz). Bibliography Diaz, Simantov , Rickert. "Effect of Abuse on Health." Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (2002): 811-817. Flaherty, Jones , Sege. "Telling Their Stories: Primary Care Practitioners' Experience Evaluating and Reporting Injuries Caused By Child Abuse. ." Child Abuse & Neglect (2004): 939-945. Jankowski Peter, Martin Michael. "Reporting Cases of Child Maltreatment: Decision-Making Processes of Family Therapists in Illinois. ." Contemporary Family Therapy (2003): 311-332. Kennedy. "The Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics: The ethics of connections." Every Child (2005): 6-7. Newman& Pollnitz. "The Prevalence Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse And Emotional Neglect In Europe. ." Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy (2002): 370-380. Read More