By Paula Mattison, Prevent Child Abuse, October 21, 2021
Many people are familiar with the concept of preventive medicine, which seeks to reduce a person’s risk of injury or disease before it happens rather than just treating the symptoms after they occur (which is the traditional, intervention-based approach). In addition to its theoretical appeal, the preventive approach has some tangible perks: people who take a prevention-based approach have increased lifespans and lower medical billsthan people who don’t.
As it turns out, a prevention-based philosophy is ideal for personal health and public health and systemic, societal issues, such as child abuse. For example, an individual might take preventative steps to stave off a heart attack by exercising and trading salads for cheeseburgers. The same is true with child abuse. A preventive approach to child abuse that addresses the factors shown to cause child abuse, rather than focusing exclusively on dealing with it when it does happen.
So—what exactly does this look like? A prevention-based approach involves tackling some of the larger social issues linked to child abuse, such as low socioeconomic status, caregiver burnout, substance abuse, and mental illness. Mitigating the effects of these factors, in turn, has the potential of making child abuse less likely to occur in the first place, promising children the stable, safe childhood they deserve.
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