More kids abused; economy to blame?

More kids abused; economy to blame?

Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 15, 2011.

The children arrive limp and still or in the midst of a seizure, or maybe — if they’re lucky — still able to cry out in pain.

For three years now, doctors and child-welfare workers tending a growing number of seriously or fatally abused children have wondered whether they also are witnessing the worst possible result of an economic crisis.

“There’s a lot of supposing,” said Lara LaRoche, director of intake at Franklin County Children Services. “The common theme that gets proposed by all of us is that there seems to be a link.”

The connection between recession and child maltreatment isn’t well studied, experts say. But the current economic decline has been accompanied by a spike in abuse that many find convincing, said Dr. Jonathan Thackeray, interim medical director at the Coalition on Family Violence at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

“The economy gets bad, and abuse gets worse,” he said. “And I think the numbers bear that out.”

Children Services is on track this year to log more than 12,000 reports that lead to a review or investigation. “This likely will be the highest in the history of the agency,” LaRoche said.

The number of reports that specifically allege physical abuse has increased sharply in the past few years, from about 3,900 in 2008 to about 5,700 last year, according to agency data.

Thackeray said doctors and social workers at Children’s have been closely watching cases of abusive head injury, which account for the majority of child-abuse fatalities.

The hospital treated 24 children for abusive head injuries in 2007, before the recession hit, then saw the total surge to 43 the next year. Such injuries, which include instances of so-called shaken-baby syndrome, dipped some in 2009 to 33, but then went back up to 44 last year.

The suffering behind the numbers is immense.

“These kids have bleeding in the back of their eyes, they’re seizing, not breathing — they’re devastated,” Thackeray said. “Many will not survive. All it takes is for a caregiver to snap, and their lives will never be the same.”

From the beginning of 2007 through the first six months of this year, 35 of the children had died from their abuse. Thackeray said the norm for the hospital used to be three or four child-abuse fatalities per year. There were 12 in 2008, eight in 2009 and eight last year.

“We’re seeing numbers like we haven’t seen in years,” he said.

Two patients had died through June of this year, and head injuries were down, too. But Thackeray said the number of hospital consultations for suspected abuse keeps soaring. Officials counted 140 during the first six months of this year, more than in all of 2007.

Later this year, researchers are expected to publish data collected from Nationwide Children’s and hospitals in Pennsylvania and Washington in a study on abusive head-injury rates during the recession. Although the link might be established, specific causes and triggers are more complicated, Thackeray and others say.

“Poverty itself is not a cause of abuse or neglect,” LaRoche said. “The correlation is the stresses that come with it.”

Unemployment, eviction, a lack of child care or food, even the tension caused by living in crowded conditions with extended family or friends can create the spark for abuse.

Susan Seifert, a longtime foster parent who also runs a day-care center in Grove City, has spent years trying to love away the hurt. But even children who heal physically can be forever changed, struggling with emotions, behavior and schoolwork.

Two who came to her a few years ago had been repeatedly and viciously punched.

“They had these wide, wide eyes,” Seifert said. “The way they looked at you — it was terror.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>

LaRoche said child-protection workers in Franklin County, where the child-poverty rate now tops

25 percent, face a rising caseload. Two caseworkers contacted for this story said in an email that they had recently assessed cases of serious injury that included shaken babies, skull fractures, broken bones, burns, serious facial bruising and death.

Thackeray said advocates nationwide despair at the scant resources for preventing such violence and reaching out to parents. That makes it more important for friends, neighbors, teachers and others not to look away.

“And I think it’s OK for pediatricians to have a very frank discussion with parents” to ask how they handle such common issues as excessive crying, sleep problems and discipline, he said.

LaRoche said people who are worried about a child shouldn’t try to evaluate the situation themselves.

“Call,” she said. “Families also need support to keep their children safe. And our communities are really struggling right now.”

To report child abuse or neglect in Franklin County, call the 24-hour hot line at 614-229-7000.