The Issue of Child Neglect in Mississippi - Essay Example

Year

Table of Contents/ Outline

Child Abuse/ Neglect

Introduction

In as much as the number of kids subjected to child neglect has reduced over the past few decades, child abuse still remains one of the most critical concerns for kids in the United States. Child abuse is when the parents, guardian, custodian, whether legally or illegally, has caused by himself or allowed cause upon the mentioned child sexual abuse and exploitation, emotional and mental abuse and non-accidental physical injury. This essay will elaborate the issue of child neglect in Mississippi.

• Historical Overview

For many centuries in the past, children have in many circumstances been exposed to child abuse and abandonment by both their parents and several other adults around them. The law has often failed to make enough effort to protect the young ones. Evidently, take a case study of United States, child abuse has become a common act since each and every year more than three million cases of child abuse is reported which involve more than six million children (McCoy and Keen, 2009). Notably, young kids are the persons who are particularly victims of child neglect. Therefore, considering the history of the children who have suffered the latter, those whose parents abuse alcohol are more likely to be abused and neglected as compared to the other kids who also face the act of child abuse.

• Persons Impacted by Child Neglect

It is imperative to note that kids from various background are victims of child neglect. McCoy and Keen (2009), have revealed a number social factors that increase chances of child abuse and neglect and children in certain environments and families where such factors exist are at a higher probability of being victimised.

Kids are exposed to a lot of physical violence that the back in their homes is in the name of giving punishment. Under most circumstances, such methods of punishment result deterioration of a child’s health and development. Gwinne and Adamec (2008) explain that children living in families where parents abuse drugs such as alcohol, bhang, cocaine among other commonly abused drugs, or live in environments where most adults abuse certain drugs are highly exposed to the act of child abuse (Heidi, 2009). Further, according to Oates (2005) in his journal, a good proportion of the abused children population are proved to be victims of poor parental guidance.

From the above discussion it is clear that some population are at a higher risk of becoming victims of child neglect because the law does not give enough protection. Therefore, some individuals take advantage of the incompetent legal system to commit and get away with cases of child abuse and neglect. This has also made the society to lose faith in the legal system and have taken authority into their own hands leading to increased crime.

• Impact of Child Neglect on the Society

There are several effects that are associated with child neglect and abuse. Notably, these costs are rather hard to calculate. Some of these impacts are direct while others are not as straightforward. An example of a direct impact of child abuse is the bills incurred to clear healthcare bills for the medical treatment due to the injuries sustained from physical abuse. Another direct impact is the costs of foster care as a result of kids being separated from families which are abusive or neglect them, and, therefore, unsafe for the kids. Other impacts are not directly linked to child abuse yet they critically affect kids from a background of neglect or abuse. In fact, according to Cosby (2005), some of these effects of child abuse to the society in Mississippi include increased crime rates since the children end up growing up with poor moral values and some of their needs were never met at childhood. Other effects include; mental health issues that may last a lifetime and incidences of decreasing excellence in academics. The state also experiences street families as some of the abused children run to the streets in search of a better living environment. Increased school dropouts because of harsh corporal punishment in the schools may also be as a result of abuse to children as argued by McCoy and Keen (2009).

• Social Policies to Resolve Child Neglect

The state of Mississippi has managed to put in place certain policies that are aimed at preventing and reducing the number of cases linked to child abuse and neglect. Such policies are not only applicable within the state of Mississippi but across the globe among different countries.

• Eligibility criteria

Before social services aimed at preventing child neglect are are approved, they are evaluatedto determine their eligibility. Importantly, these policies are analysed by a panel of persons from the social services department who have a checklist to identify if these proposed policies are suitable(Grapes, Bryan J., 2001).

• Specific Services

Various services are available to resolve child abuse. The most significant policy is the legislative effort to pass a law, Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), that was passed so as to help the state hasten the development of children protection strategy and systems among the communities within the state(Taylor and Daniel, 2005),. Its main aim was to ascertain comprehensiveness in the systems set aside for child protection to prevent future occurrence of child abuse and neglect and to ensure recovery from physical and psychological abuse. Other preventive measures include public awareness and creating supportive communities as well as developing and sustaining prevention programmes.

• How the Services are Administered

The above mentioned policies are administered by the department of social services in the state of Missisipii. This entails assembling information and physical resources on message sharing, undertaking education of the public and creating a partnership with the community to prevent or reduce child abuse in the community and neglect This is creating funds for example Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund (CTF) to manage a prevention programme, community needs assessment, collaborating with community partners, cultural competence and funding.

• Policy Effectiveness

Guterman (2015) and Olds et al. (2007) both prove that the effectiveness of the prevention strategies is high when concentration is on a well-defined population target. The population should have identifiable and common risk factors therefore increasing focus. The various factors that commonly identify population with higher risks are early marriages, virtue of being partial or total orphan, low income, drug and substance abuse. In Mississippi, Child neglect policies are relatively effective.

• Delivery Extent

The state evaluates the prevention programmes to ensure their efficiency to reduce cases of child abuse. Just to mention, the state is currently using a phone hotline which operates on a twenty-four-hour basis and an open website in order to allow reporting cases of abuse and neglect online.

f. Interest Groups

The key groups that are helpful in the development of child neglect prevention policies include the state, particularly the social welfare department. Schools are also main participants in programmes pertaining the issue of child neglect.

• Limitations, Strengths and Recommendations

Although the policies developed to prevent the neglect of children are helpful in reducing these cases as well as improving the welfare of kids and the entire community, the prevention and control programmes are also faced with various challenges such as poor relations between the service provider and participant and access to services by the affected populations. Additionally, there is the problem of diverse ethnic and cultural groups and also too much reliance on informal type of relationships and assistance from the community. Therefore, it is recommended to establish prevention programmes that find out ways of utilizing technology to expand contact between participant and the provider and boost access to services. These programmes should involve the society, to encompass social amenities that help to improve the conditions of living of the poorer in the society. The service providers should also come up with measures in order to come between the varied ethnic and cultures by for example delivering services in the participant’s vernacular (Guterman, 2015; Olds et al., 2007). It is also recommended that families develop strong units of support and care. Schools, specifically teachers are encouraged to look out for signs of abuse or neglect in kids since this vigilance will help reduce cases of abuse to children. Finally, the programme planners should concentrate on achieving a balance between enhancing formal services such as health care, education and strengthening informal supports.

6. Implementation Strategy

The best strategy to assist in the proper implementation of the recommendations will include proper training of the parties of interest regarding policies that relate to child neglect. As such, the state of Mississippi social services department, schools as well as parents should be properly trained concerning these policies. The implementation strategy must involve the support of the government as well as the society. This strategy should also involve the employees of child protection services who must be well equipped and constantly visit homes that are suspected to be susceptible to the neglect of children. Further, these resources to care and engage needy families must be made available to these workers. These strategies will help to reduce cases of child neglect in Mississippi.

Conclusion

To sum up, child neglect remains an issue that society, particularly the state of Mississippi aims at destroying.From the discussion, it has been shown that kids from backgrounds of drug abuse by parents, unconcerned guardians, and those who are constantly punished are at more risk of child neglect. Policies like a hotline to report such cases and the CAPTA act enacted have been established. Training schools, social services department and parents is the best strategy to solve this issue.However, since child neglect remains a critical social problem the state of Mississippi and others should put more efforts to prevent or reduce cases of child abuse and neglect.

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In fact, according to Cosby (2005), some of these effects of child abuse to the society in Mississippi include increased crime rates since the children end up growing up with poor moral values and some of their needs were never met at childhood. Other effects include; mental health issues that may last a lifetime and incidences of decreasing excellence in academics. The state also experiences street families as some of the abused children run to the streets in search of a better living environment. Increased school dropouts because of harsh corporal punishment in the schools may also be as a result of abuse to children as argued by McCoy and Keen (2009).

• Social Policies to Resolve Child Neglect

The state of Mississippi has managed to put in place certain policies that are aimed at preventing and reducing the number of cases linked to child abuse and neglect. Such policies are not only applicable within the state of Mississippi but across the globe among different countries.

• Eligibility criteria

Before social services aimed at preventing child neglect are are approved, they are evaluatedto determine their eligibility. Importantly, these policies are analysed by a panel of persons from the social services department who have a checklist to identify if these proposed policies are suitable(Grapes, Bryan J., 2001).

• Specific Services

Various services are available to resolve child abuse. The most significant policy is the legislative effort to pass a law, Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), that was passed so as to help the state hasten the development of children protection strategy and systems among the communities within the state(Taylor and Daniel, 2005),. Its main aim was to ascertain comprehensiveness in the systems set aside for child protection to prevent future occurrence of child abuse and neglect and to ensure recovery from physical and psychological abuse. Other preventive measures include public awareness and creating supportive communities as well as developing and sustaining prevention programmes.

• How the Services are Administered

The above mentioned policies are administered by the department of social services in the state of Missisipii. This entails assembling information and physical resources on message sharing, undertaking education of the public and creating a partnership with the community to prevent or reduce child abuse in the community and neglect This is creating funds for example Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund (CTF) to manage a prevention programme, community needs assessment, collaborating with community partners, cultural competence and funding.

• Policy Effectiveness

Guterman (2015) and Olds et al. (2007) both prove that the effectiveness of the prevention strategies is high when concentration is on a well-defined population target. The population should have identifiable and common risk factors therefore increasing focus. The various factors that commonly identify population with higher risks are early marriages, virtue of being partial or total orphan, low income, drug and substance abuse. In Mississippi, Child neglect policies are relatively effective.

• Delivery Extent

The state evaluates the prevention programmes to ensure their efficiency to reduce cases of child abuse. Just to mention, the state is currently using a phone hotline which operates on a twenty-four-hour basis and an open website in order to allow reporting cases of abuse and neglect online.

f. Interest Groups

The key groups that are helpful in the development of child neglect prevention policies include the state, particularly the social welfare department. Schools are also main participants in programmes pertaining the issue of child neglect.

• Limitations, Strengths and Recommendations

Although the policies developed to prevent the neglect of children are helpful in reducing these cases as well as improving the welfare of kids and the entire community, the prevention and control programmes are also faced with various challenges such as poor relations between the service provider and participant and access to services by the affected populations. Read More