Child Physical Abuse: Current Evidence, Clinical Practice, and Policy Directions

by Tanya S. Hinds, Angelo P. Giardino

Overview

This eye-opening monograph challenges professionals across disciplines to take a more thorough and focused approach to addressing child physical abuse at the practice and policy levels. Positing child physical abuse as a public health crisis (as opposed to a more vague “social” one), the authors use empirical findings and clinical insights to advocate for wide-scale reforms in screening, assessment, responses, treatment, and prevention. The book’s social/ecological perspective delves into root causes of physical maltreatment, analyzes the role of family and community risk and support factors, and notes forms of discomfort keeping many professionals from meeting the issue head-on. From there, chapters describe coordinated multidisciplinary efforts for intervention and prevention with the potential to avert all forms of child abuse.

 

Included in the coverage:

 

·         Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

·         The non-verbal child: obtaining a history for caregiver(s)

·         Clinical perspectives on multidisciplinary collaboration

•           Corporal punishment and risk for child physical abuse
  
•          Intimate partner violence (IPV) and risk for child physical abuse
  
•         Evolution of child maltreatment prevention
  
•         Complementary dynamic prevention approach
  

Child Physical Abuse sets out the scope of this ongoing crisis for a wide audience including healthcare providers, child advocates, clinical social workers, public health officials, mental health providers, legislative staff professionals, and members of the lay public, with clear guidelines for effective long-term solutions.

  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319611037
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	10/16/2017
Series:	SpringerBriefs in Public Health
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	153
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Tanya S. Hinds, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician at the Freddie Mac Foundation Child and Adolescent Protection Center at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. Dr. Hinds also is assistant professor of Pediatrics at The George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD, is senior vice president/chief quality officer at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. He also is a professor of Pediatrics and section chief of Academic General Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Giardino is a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Medical Quality, and sub-boarded in Child Abuse Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics. He is a recipient of the Fulbright&Jaworski L.L.P. Faculty Excellence Award, and is a board member for several national and regional boards. Dr. Giardino's academic accomplishments include publishing several textbooks on child abuse and neglect and medical education, presenting on a variety of pediatric topics at national and regional conferences, and publishing numerous chapters on education, mentoring, child maltreatment, and quality improvement. He also is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Models and Frameworksa. Scope of the problem
i. Epidemiologic data 1. Child Maltreatment 2014 2. National Incidence Study (NIS-4) datab. Etiology and models  i. Ecological model ii. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)c. Cost of care i. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ii. Prevent Child Abuse Americad. Mandated reportinge. Multidisciplinary team approachf. Consequences i. Widom's longitudinal datag. Growing field of prevention: Calls for prevention i. Victor I. Vieth ii. Blair L. Sadler

Part 2: Health Care
Chapter 2: Clinical Practicea. History/Interviewb. Physical examinationc. Lab/Imaging evaluationd. Differential diagnosis and "mimics"e. Multidisciplinary team processf. Outcomes
Chapter 3: Related Professions a. Child protectionb. Law enforcement/courtsc. Mental healthd. Educatione. Advocacy

Part 3: Policy
Chapter 4: Legislation/Regulation Landscapea. Federal model legislation and regulationb. State legislation and regulation
Chapter 5: Policy Directiona. Focus on family and communitiesb. Connection to corporal punishmentc. Initiatives i. Child fatalities: Protect Our Kids (POK) Commission ii. Foster care: Reformd. Prevention i. Public health approach ii. Emerging evidence-based approach
Chapter 6: Looking Towards the Futurea. Where do we go from here? i. Response to cases that have occurred ii. Prevention of cases before they occurb. On the horizon i. Connection to domestic violence ii. Connection to ACEsc. Focus on health promotion i. Strong families ii. Healthy communities

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Jill Glick, MD (University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine)
Description: The value of this book is that it uses a public health model and provides an evidence-based review of the identification and evaluation of suspected child physical abuse. Additionally, it spends a sizable amount of time on evidence-based system changes that can be the basis for policy efforts for the prevention of abuse.
Purpose: The authors clearly articulate that the hope of this book is to decrease "gaze aversion," that is, the failure of society to confront child abuse in an effective manner. This book seeks to present evidence-based information similar to any other medical disease entity — epidemiological, clinical, and treatment — with a focus on strategies to both intervene and prevent child abuse, which then must go onto inform our policy efforts to decrease this major source of morbidity and mortality in childhood.
Audience: The authors are recognized leaders in child maltreatment, and Dr. Giardino has been a leader in bringing a public health perspective to the area of child maltreatment. The book is written for a medically informed community, but those working in the child welfare arena and others can read this book and comprehend its content.
Features: This is an excellent summary of child physical abuse core knowledge; in particular, the first chapter on fundamentals is an excellent summary of the scope of the problem and impact. Two highlights of the chapter dedicated to clinical aspects are the guidelines for obtaining histories specifically related to child physical abuse and the evidence-based summary of physical findings concerning child physical abuse. A chapter on related topics associated with physical abuse discusses interpersonal violence, corporal punishment, and special needs children. A major part of this book covers prevention, which is refreshing and thought provoking. Many practitioners have gaze aversion because of a lack of a construct to approach child physical abuse prevention. This book addresses this problem head on and shows promise regarding tangible policy initiatives to decrease child abuse. The major weakness of this book is the lack of a discussion of how child abuse is diagnosed and who diagnoses it. Discerning the manner of injury is in the realm of the child abuse pediatrician who works in the context of a multidisciplinary team. This process should have been addressed, because errors in the final determination lead to major adverse events. The need for standardized interagency evaluation and even nomenclature, coupled with the lack of dedicated child abuse pediatric resources integrated into the response to child physical abuse is a major hurdle. This topic should have been a major part of this book.
Assessment: This book adds to the current resources addressing the need to appreciate that child abuse must be viewed in paradigm similar to all other medical entities — through a medical and public health model — and how important these components are to encourage the medical community's embrace of its role in diagnosis, intervention, and prevention.

Doody's Review Service

The book is written for a medically informed community, but those working in the child welfare arena and others can read this book and comprehend its content. … This book adds to the current resources addressing the need to appreciate that child abuse must be viewed in paradigm similar to all other medical entities … and how important these components are to encourage the medical community's embrace of its role in diagnosis, intervention, and prevention.” (Jill Glick, Doody's Book Reviews, January, 2018)

From the Publisher