Child Abuse Within Alabama and Georgia

1. Child Abuse Within Alabama and Georgia An in-depth study of child abuse statistics, preventive/protective organizations, and internal state child abuse conflicts.

2. Defining Child Abuse • United States Code Collection Title 42, Chapter 67 states: • “Child abuse/neglect is any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation” or; • “An act or failure to act that presents imminent risk or serious harm to a minor.”

3. National Child Abuse Statistics

4. Specific Areas of Concern • State run organizations; What system does each state implement in dealing with child abuse • Protection/prevention agencies and their role in state programs • Specific problems that each state has to deal with in the area of child abuse

5. Alabama and Child Abuse

6. Child Abuse/Neglect Administration Manages and conducts administrative records and reviews of persons involved in an abusive incident Keeps records of every accusation, conviction and punishment given when abuse is reported and taken to court Child Protective/Central Registry on Child Abuse Provides therapy for children and case follow up Administers the placement of children in state homes Applies for and monitors grants given to child protect services Aids in child protection/prevention and state policy developments. Alabama Department of Human Resources

7. Problems within the Child Protective and Central Registry on Child Abuse • #1. State allotted funds allow for “extensive” therapy and counseling – Fact: Alabama allows case follow up and counseling services for 1-3 years after abusive incident occurs. Studies prove that emotional and mental effects of abuse can take decades to surface. Most of the common effects (withdrawal, denial) do not even occur until 4-6 years after the abuse occurs. • #2. Licensed therapists and qualified employees are allowed to determine when children can be released from weekly/monthly therapy session. Fact: In 1997, 58% of patients seen by the therapists in this organization were given clearance from all counseling sessions after only 8 months. • #3. Case involvement and follow ups – Cases will be investigated and kept on file for at least 10 years prior to incident. Fact: During the past 3 years, 46% of child fatalities that occurred due to some form of abuse, had current or prior contact with state child protective services.

8. The Alabama Child Death Review Systemwas established in 1997 to investigate suspicious/wrongful child deaths. This agency is responsible for reporting exact causes (who and/or what) of wrongful child deaths and implore the aid of other state agencies to combat this problem. Child Death Review Teamsare a relatively new sub-division of the Alabama Child Death Review System. The review teams are responsible for taking the information supplied by the ACDRS and continuously search for preventive measures. (physical/behavioral signs to look for, parental behavior, etc…) Child Fatality Agencies in Alabama

9. The Deadly Facts of Alabama Child Abuse • In Alabama, on average, 3 children die per day due to some form of abuse or neglect. • 85% of the cases involve children under the age of 5 • 45% of the cases involved children under the age of 1 • Nationally, Alabama is ranked #8 of states that have children die due to abuse/ neglect.

10. So What Is Alabama Doing To Combat These Pressing Child Abuse Issues???

11. Preventive and Protective Services • As mentioned before, problems in this category fall mainly under The Alabama Child Protective and Central Registry on Child Abuse. What is currently being done is the instillation of progressive new programs that allow private, child advocacy centers to aid state funded institutions. By doing so, this allows more volunteers, time and money to be spent on accomplishing the goals of state institutions. These goals include more licensed therapists to provide counseling services for extended amounts of time, as well as intensive and longer case follow ups to aid in prevention and protection.

12. Dealing with Abusive Deaths • The Alabama Child Death Review Teams are now branching out into counties throughout the state. As of March 24, 2000, 28 counties have review teams, with 10 more counties in the process of establishing teams. • These teams are working to open the lines of communication with local health officials and the communities in an effort to investigate child abuse deaths. In return, these teams will educate the public on the severity of this problem.

13. In Review…… • Alabama is like many other states in the nation in that it is attempting to deal with child abuse problems effectively. Unfortunately there is no progressive legislation or agency that has stopped abuse and neglect all together. However, Alabama does have ever-evolving ideas and a system that is growing and changing in an effort to protect its children.

14. Georgia and Child Abuse

15. Organizations in Place • The Georgia Department of Human Resources has one agency in place that deals with abuse and neglect. • The Department of Family and Children Services serves as an all-encompassing organization that records and investigates abusive situations, provides counseling for victims, and catalogs child deaths due to abuse.

16. Protective/Preventive Services • The Georgia Department of Family and Children Services had more than 70,000 reports of abuse filed in 1999. • This department is constantly facing case overloads, insufficient staffing, not enough counselors and therapists, and lack of funding. • All of these problems ultimately contribute to the three major areas of child abuse concern within Georgia; neglect, sexual abuse, and government funding.

17. Neglect in Georgia • Neglect by definition means; children that are inadequately supervised, poorly clothed, poorly housed, do not receive health care and/ or are not properly fed. • Often one of the hardest forms of abuse to identify, neglect has risen 31% from 1999 –2000. • In 2000 alone there were 23,703 cases of neglect investigated, filed and taken to court.

18. Sexual Abuse In Georgia • As defined by the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, sexual abuse includes, “use, persuasion, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct…..; or rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-family relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children. “ • In 1999, 45 children in Georgia died from sexual abuse. The majority of these children were under the age of 12. • A common assumption is that girls are the only ones that are sexually abused. In 1999, 47% of sexually abused children were boys under the age of 11.

19. Sexual Abuse“The ever-increasing statistic”

20. 1999 Total Tax Money Spent on Child Abuse • Child Child Child Mental Child • Total Child Abuse & NeglectSexual Physical Abuse / Neglect FatalMedical Spending$ 4,400 $ 12,600 $ 200 $200 Mental Health $ 50,800 $ 42,800 $ 98,800 $ 100 • Victim Work/School Loss $ 18,500 $ 54,900 $ 10,900 $ 11,000 • Public Programs$ 9,600 $ 31,000 $ 81,300 $ 10 • Property Damage $ - $ 400 $ - $ 10 • Total Monetary$ 83,300 $ 141,700 $ 191,200 $ 11,320 Quality of Life $ 794,200 $ 920,300 $ 840,600 $ 27,900 • Total Comprehensive $ 877,500 $ 1,062,000 $ 1,031,800 $ 39,220 • The Grand Total : $ 3,010,520 • While this may seem like a large amount spent, with increasing child abuse statistics, more money is needed to provide efficient protective and preventive services.

21. Georgia’s Solutions • First, Georgia has addressed conflicts within protective and preventive services. • The state now allows outside institutions to aid in abuse services. Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, a non-profit organization, has taken over a large amount of prevention work that used to be a responsibility of the Dept. Of Human Resources. This agency provides parent programs, children’s programs, community involvement, strategic partnership, professional education and advocacy. • The Medical College of Georgia also offers services to relieve the understaffed DHR. The college offers a large staff of licensed therapists, medical attention, and psychologists that are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. • These organizations, along with several others, have worked in conjunction with the DHR to cut down work overloads, inadequate staffing, and lack of medical needs. These agencies also work at minimal-to-no costs in an effort to work with the limited DHR funding.

22. In October 1999, changes were made within the Georgia Child Protective Services Systems By-laws. These changes dealt with defining the severity of child abuse neglect. The changes made were include: #1.Child safety over preservation #2.Structured decision making #3.Attention to high risk cases Combating Abuse and Neglect

23. The Amendments • Child safety over preservation- This amendment states that the judicial system and the DHR would no longer emphasize keeping a blood-related family together at all costs. This allows Georgia officials to take more aggressive strides when taking away parental rights for abuse and neglect. • Structured Decision Making – Historically, only the specific case worker and their supervisor were allowed to make decisions regarding an abuse/neglect case. The new amendment states that all case workers are permitted to investigate and/or re-open a case. • Attention to High Risk Cases- Cases are now rated as high, medium and low according to the amount of risk that is involved for the child. This allows case workers to determine what they are dealing with and what avenues need to be explored. Also, with this new system comes increased contact with Child Protect Services. The higher the rate a family or case is given, the more contact it has with child services. Since October when these amendments were made, high risk family visits have tripled.

24. Stopping Sexual Abuse • The first progressive step Georgia has taken is the Sex Offender Registry. This is a program developed by child protect services and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and has been implemented state wide. • What this program entails: -When a person is convicted of a sexual crime, the GBI collects information including name, fingerprints, photos, physical description, places of employment and case status. This conviction and information is kept on-file permanently. -The GBI and child protect services then are allowed, by law, to provide this information to the community. Neighborhoods, community centers, churches, and area businesses are all notified of the above information concerning the offender. (All information is available to the public except for any information concerning the victim) • This labels a sex offender for life. Every time this person moves to a new location or applies for a job, the information of being a convicted “sexual offender” will arise. This is Georgia’s way of protecting it’s citizens, especially children.

25. Educating • Georgia state officials, child protect services, and school boards across the state have joined together to present effective programs regarding physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as neglect. • These programs include video tapes, work books and group discussions. This is all an effort to educate young people on the warning signs of abuse, who to turn to for help, and ways to recover.

26. Showing Child Abuse Services the Money! • As previously mentioned, Georgia allotted $3,010,520 in 1999 for child abuse incidents and victims. However, since statistically the amount of abused children has risen, the monetary compensation must also rise. • State run institutions are now imploring the monetary aid of private child advocacy institutions. Over 1,000 of these organizations exist within Georgia and all have contributed monetary support as well as program support. • Coastal Children’s Advocacy Center of Savannah raised more than $25,000 dollars in child protect revenue.

27. In Review…….. • It is a geographical fact that Alabama and Georgia are closely related. It would seem to be a fair assumption that these states would have similar programs and problems when it comes to child abuse. This presentation has proven that to be true and false. • Both states share a common organization called the Department of Human Resources. Each of these departments have subdivisions within them that deal with child abuse. Both Alabama and Georgia have internal conflicts within their protective/preventive services. However, there are differences when looking at each state in depth.

28. In Review • Alabama must concentrate on lack of case follow up and counseling services in preventive and protective agencies. This state must also deal with an ever-increasing child abuse death rate. • Georgia is more concerned with case overloads, insufficient staffing, and lack of funding. This state must also handle rising neglect and sexual abuse statistics and program funding.

29. THE BIG CONCLUSION! • The end result of this study was that each state is working towards establishing effective child protective services. It is not clear which state is in better shape or has more figured out when it comes to preventing child abuse, seeing as though they deal with different problems. What is obvious is that each state puts child abuse and neglect as a top concern and are continuously working to alleviate this growing problem.